Totora reeds
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Totora reed inflorescence ( Schoenoplectus californicus ) |
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| ( CAMey. ) Soják |
The Totora ( Schoenoplectus californicus ) is a species in the genus of the pond rushes ( Schoenoplectus ) from the family of Cyperaceae (Cyperaceae). The species thrives in wetlands on the North and South American continents and on Easter Island . It was used economically in various ways by different cultures.
description
Totora reeds form rhizomes with a diameter of 10 to 15 millimeters . The culm is obtuse triangular with almost flat sides to almost cylindrical. It is smooth, as thick as a thumb and up to 3 meters long.
Three to four leaves are formed at the base and reach about one sixth of the length of the stem. The leaf sheaths are roughly pinnate to frayed on the front. The leaf blades are completely absent or do not reach more than half the length of the leaf sheaths. They become about 20 millimeters long and about 2 millimeters wide.
The inflorescences are threefold or more often branched and reach heights of up to 21 centimeters. The bracts are erect and triangular to cylindrical. They measure between 1 and 8 centimeters. The leaf margins of the bracts are often rough and dry-skinned.
Between 25 and over 150 spikelets are formed , which are individually or in groups. The spikelets measure 5 to 11 millimeters in length and about 3 millimeters in diameter. The husks are orange-brown and lightly elongated. They are broad-oval and measure 2.5 by 2 millimeters. The husk edges are ciliate and the tips are flattened. They are notched between 0.1 and 0.2 millimeters deep. The awns are not twisted and usually stretched outwards. They are about 0.3 millimeters long.
The two to four bracts of the hermaphrodite flowers are dark reddish-brown and thick, tab-shaped or triangular. They are covered with soft, blunt hair. The anthers measure about 1.5 millimeters, the stylus has 2 columns.
The achene fruits are dark gray-brown, flattened on one side and ovate, as well as apical pointed. They measure 1.8–2.2 by 1.3 millimeters.
The chromosome number is 2n = 68.
Distribution and location
Totora reeds colonize the bank zones of rivers, ponds and lakes in extensive colonies and can also tolerate brackish water . It grows both at sea level and on Lake Titicaca, which is 3,812 meters high .
The distribution ranges from California in the north to Argentina and Chile in the south and includes the Caribbean islands. According to archaeobotanical studies, the spread of the plant on the isolated Easter Island took place long before it was colonized by humans, presumably through bird droppings, starting from the American mainland. Today there are still extensive stocks in the crater lakes of the Rano Kao and Rano Raraku .
Neophytic occurrences are found in Hawaii , the Cook Islands and in New Zealand .
Meaning and use
The inside of the stem is interspersed with cavities. The cut, dried and bundled stems are buoyant in the water. That was the basis for a diverse economic use that continues to this day. Various North American Indian tribes, the Chimu , Mochica, and Easter Island cultures used bundled totora stems to build canoes , flotation devices , and rafts . The Urus people still live on floating islands made of Totora reeds in Lake Titicaca . Houses and boats of the Urus are also made of reeds. In the north of Peru , boats made of totora reeds, known there as Caballito de Totora , play an important role in coastal fishing.
Totora reeds were also used in many ways in Easter Island culture. According to a report by William Thomson, who visited Easter Island in 1886, the round paenga houses , reminiscent of upturned boats, were covered with totora stalks. They are also woven into mats, baskets, water-repellent capes and small, triangular hats for women. Totora was also used for the production of sacred figures, the huge Paina figures up to four meters high .
According to Thor Heyerdahl , the people of Easter Island made canoes from bundles of reeds that were supposedly so big that they could carry three sails. There are petroglyphs that could support such an assumption. Crescent -shaped boats with one to three masts are depicted on the slabs of some stone houses in Orongo . At the Rano Raraku , one of the moai standing there has a boat with masts and sails scratched on it. However, it should be remembered that these representations date from the late period when the islanders already had contact with Europeans. The drawings are therefore likely to be rather naive depictions of European sailing ships, which is also indicated by the arrangement of the masts and sails ( square sails ). Large reed boats are not mentioned in reports from European explorers. Whether there were ocean-going boats made of Totora reeds on Easter Island must therefore remain speculation, there is no clear archaeological evidence for this.
Remarks
- ↑ Square sails were unknown to the Polynesian cultures, the canoes were equipped with crab claw sails .
swell
Unless otherwise stated, the information in this article is taken from the source indicated under literature:
literature
- S. Galen Smith: Schoenoplectus californicus . In: Flora of North America . tape 23 . Oxford University Press, USA, Oxford 2003, ISBN 978-0-19-515207-4 , pp. 50 ( online ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ John Flenley: Late Quaternary pollen records from Easter Iceland. In: Nature - International weekly journal of science. Volume 307 (1984), pp. 47-50, doi: 10.1038 / 307047a0 .
- ^ A b William Thomson: Te Pito Te Henua, or Easter Island. Report of the National Museum, Washington 1891, archive.org .
- ^ Felipe González de Haedo in Bolton Glanville Corney: The voyage of Captain Don Felipe González in the ship of the line San Lorenzo, with the frigate Santa Rosalia. Cambridge 1903, archive.org .
- ^ Jean-François de La Pérouse : La Perousen's journey of discovery in the years 1785, 1786, 1787 and 1788. Edited by MCA Milet Mureau, translated from French by JR Forster and EL Sprengel, Berlin 1799, p. 218, digitized .
- ↑ Thor Heyerdahl: The Art of Easter Island. Bertelsmann, Munich-Gütersloh-Vienna, 1975, ISBN 3-570-00038-9 , p. 92, figs. 21–23 and panels XII and XV.
