Bird vetch

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Bird vetch
Bird vetch (Vicia cracca)

Bird vetch (Vicia cracca)

Systematics
Order : Fabales (Fabales)
Family : Legumes (Fabaceae)
Subfamily : Butterflies (Faboideae)
Tribe : Fabeae
Genre : Sweet peas ( Vicia )
Type : Bird vetch
Scientific name
Vicia cracca
L.

The bird vetch ( Vicia cracca ) is a species of the genus vetch ( Vicia ) in the legume family (Fabaceae). It is widespread in Eurasia .

description

illustration
blossom
Anterior, sloping end of the stamen tube and style
Legumes and seeds
Pollination with wood bumblebee

Vegetative characteristics

The bird vetch is a perennial herbaceous plant that reaches a height of 30 to 120 centimeters. The pinnate leaves have eight to twelve pairs of pinnate leaves and a branched tendril at the top. The leaflets are narrow and elongated with a length of about 1 centimeter and a width of 2 to 6 millimeters.

Generative characteristics

The flowering period extends from June to August. In the often one-sided, racemose inflorescences , 10 to 40 flowers are close together. The inflorescence shafts have approximately the length of the bracts . The hermaphrodite flowers are zygomorphic at a height of 8 to 12 millimeters and five-fold with a double flower envelope . The five petals are blue-violet to purple in color.

The legumes are up to 25 millimeters long. The seeds are rich in protein, spherical, up to 3 mm thick and 9 to 16 mg in weight.

The species has chromosome number 2n = 14 or 24, 28.

ecology

The bird vetch is a hemicryptophyte , a climbing plant and a semi-rosette plant. Vegetative reproduction occurs through underground runners .

The pinnate leaves have terminal wrapping tendrils, which have arisen from two transformed leaflets. Like all tendrils, these carry out circling search movements and react to stimuli. there is therefore a thigmonastia . The bird vetch is deep-rooted and, like all Vicia species, forms root nodules with symbiotic , nitrogen- binding nodule bacteria .

From an ecological point of view, the Vogel-Wicke is a male "butterfly flower with brush arrangement". The dust bag empty the pollen often already in the bud above the hairy pen . When visiting by insects , the boat folds down and the stylus brush is pressed against the belly of the insect. After repeating this process several times, the stylus brush is free of pollen and the delicate surface of the scar is worn away. As a result, it is now sticky and capable of conceiving other visitors such as bees and butterflies . Bumblebees often steal nectar by biting the flower from the side. Honeybees can then take the nectar from these holes . The flowering period extends from June to August.

Since the legumes are black, they can store heat. These are drying spreaders with a spreading width of 1 to 2 meters. As "roll seeds", they usually roll a little further. In addition, processing spread by various birds , random spreading as well as human spreading with, for example, seeds of Esparsette ( Onobrychis viciifolia ). The fruit ripens from August to October. The storage germ layers ( cotyledons ) stay in the soil during germination , so there is hypogean germination.

Occurrence

The bird vetch is in the temperate regions in Eurasia widespread. She is a neophyte in North America .

She prefers meadows , pastures, fringes , fields and ruderal areas as locations . It thrives best on fresh to moderately dry, mild to moderately acidic, humus-rich loam and clay soils . It rises from the plain to the mountains. In the Alps , locations at altitudes of up to 1180 meters are occupied. In the Allgäu Alps, however, it rises between Lechleiten and the Hundskopf in Tyrol up to 1600 m above sea level. In Central Europe it is a species of the Molinio-Arrhenatheretea class.

Subspecies

One can distinguish the following subspecies:

  • Vicia cracca subsp. cracca
  • Vicia cracca subsp. incana (Gouan) Rouy (Syn .: Vicia incana Gouan ): It occurs in southern Europe, eastern Europe and southern central Europe.

The subspecies Vicia cracca subsp. tenuifolia (Roth) Bonnier & Layens is better viewed as a separate species of Vicia tenuifolia Roth .

swell

  • Werner Rothmaler (greeting), Rudolf Schubert, Klaus Werner, Hermann Meusel (ed.): Excursion flora for the areas of the GDR and the FRG. Volume 2: Vascular Plants. 14th edition. People and knowledge, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-06-012539-2 .
  • Otto Schmeil , Jost Fitschen (greeting), Werner Rauh, Karlheinz Senghas: Flora of Germany and its neighboring areas. 84th edition. Quelle & Meyer, Heidelberg 1968.
  • Ruprecht Düll , Herfried Kutzelnigg : Pocket dictionary of plants in Germany and neighboring countries. The most common Central European species in portrait . 7th, corrected and enlarged edition. Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2011, ISBN 978-3-494-01424-1 .
  • Henning Haeupler, Thomas Muer: picture atlas of the fern and flowering plants of Germany . Ed .: Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (=  The fern and flowering plants of Germany . Volume 2 ). Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2000, ISBN 3-8001-3364-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora for Germany and neighboring areas . 8th edition. Stuttgart, Verlag Eugen Ulmer, 2001. Page 611. ISBN 3-8001-3131-5
  2. ↑ Ruprecht Düll , Herfried Kutzelnigg : Pocket dictionary of the plants of Germany and neighboring countries. The most common Central European species in portrait . 7th, corrected and enlarged edition. Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2011, ISBN 978-3-494-01424-1 , p.  507 f .
  3. ↑ Erhard Dörr, Wolfgang Lippert : Flora of the Allgäu and its surroundings. Volume 2, IHW, Eching 2004, ISBN 3-930167-61-1 , p. 154.
  4. ↑ ILDIS World Database of Legumes 2010. Vicia cracca . In: Euro + Med Plantbase - the information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity. Berlin 2011.

Web links

Commons : Vogelwicke ( Vicia cracca )  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files