Trifolium batmanicum
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Trifolium batmanicum is a plant from the genus clover ( Trifolium ). It is in the genus in the section Trichocephalum asked. The species was named after its range in the Turkish province of Batman . What is special is the mechanism of propagation called geocarpy , in which the inflorescence bores into the ground after the fruit has ripened.
description
Trifolium batmanicum is an annual , herbaceous plant that reaches heights of between 20 and 50 centimeters. The horizontal or ascending stem axis is not very branched.
The few, large leaves have long stalks. The leaves are dreifedrig, the individual leaflets between 1 and 1.5 centimeters long and also 1 to 1.5 centimeters wide. The blades are inversely egg-shaped and taper towards the base. The leaf margin is finely indented, especially at the tip. They are hairy when pressed down. The tip is blunt or slightly notched. The stipules are green and ovate to triangular, with a whitish, paper-like edge.
The inflorescences are on inflorescence axes that extend to fruit ripeness. They have two types of flowers : sterile without a crown and fertile with a crown.
The fertile flowers are 10 to 14 in two whorls. They bend down when the fruit is ripe. The calyx is tubular to ovoid in the lower part and about twice as long as the slender, slightly protruding calyx teeth. The crown is creamy yellow and turns creamy pink over time. It is 5 to 8 millimeters long and protrudes slightly over the calyx teeth.
There are many sterile flowers, they ripen before the fertile ones. They are 2 to 3 millimeters long and develop into a calyx with an outer hollow and an inner filled calyx tube. The sterile flowers lay over the fertile and form a yellowish-greenish, disc-like hemisphere with a diameter of 20 to 30 millimeters.
The single-seeded legumes are paper-like and completely enclosed in the calyx. The seeds are about 2.5 millimeters long and brownish-whitish in color.
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 16.
distribution
Trifolium batmanicum grows mainly on soils containing basalt. The range is very small and is in the Batman province in Turkey, where the species is endemic .
ecology
The species is self-pollinating . After the fruit has ripened, the inflorescence axis grows downwards and drills the fruit cluster into the ground. The sterile flowers protect the fruit and serve as a kind of drilling apparatus. This propagation strategy is called geocarpy .
literature
- Michael Zohary, David Heller: The Genus Trifolium . The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities , Jerusalem 1984, ISBN 978-965-208-056-1 , pp. 520 f .
- John M. Gillett, Norman L. Taylor, M. Gillett: The World of Clovers . Iowa State University Press , Ames 2001, ISBN 978-0-8138-2986-9 , pp. 48 f .