Knotweed

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Knotweed
Bird Knotweed (Polygonum aviculare)

Bird Knotweed ( Polygonum aviculare )

Systematics
Eudicotyledons
Nuclear eudicotyledons
Order : Clove-like (Caryophyllales)
Family : Knotweed family (Polygonaceae)
Genre : Bird knotweed ( Polygonum )
Type : Knotweed
Scientific name
Polygonum aviculare agg.
( L. )

The bird knotweed ( Polygonum aviculare ) is a species of the knotweed family (Polygonaceae). He is a collective type with several small types .

description

illustration
Stem with deciduous leaves, split stipple sheaths and flowers of Polygonum aviculare subsp. depressum .
Flowers / fruits of Polygonum aviculare subsp. depressum .
Fruit of Polygonum aviculare subsp. depressum .

The knotweed is a one-year , herbaceous plant . The roots reach a depth of 25 to 80 centimeters. The mostly prostrate, rarely upright stems are 5 to 60 centimeters long. The leaves are elliptical-lanceolate and grass- to blue-green. The slashed ochrea is shorter than the internodes , silvery-translucent, often brownish towards the base and has at most six unbranched leaf veins .

The flowering period usually extends from May to October (April to November). The flower branches are leafed to the tip. The flowers sit individually or in groups of two to six in small, axillary groups. The inflorescence , usually made up of five bracts, is greenish with a white, pink or reddish edge. The three styluses are very short. The flowers are odorless, do not form nectar and are therefore rarely visited by insects. The knotweed is mainly autogamous .

The dull or shiny, grooved or smooth nuts are usually 2 to 3 millimeters long and usually barely longer than the flower envelope.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 40 or 60.

distribution

Werner Rothmaler indicates the distribution as circumpolar in the meridional and boreal zones as well as in the Australian zone. Erich Oberdorfer gives it as Mediterranean-Eurasian-Nordic, in the temperate zones today worldwide. The knotweed is very common in Central Europe. It thrives from the plains to the mountains, in the Alps up to an altitude of 1200 meters, in the Black Forest up to 1360 meters.

The knotweed, formerly also known as grass and proserpinata , is a pioneer plant and grows mainly on paths, rubble, ditches, gravel areas, steps and fields. It thrives on dry to moderately dry, nutrient-rich, humus-rich or raw stone, sand and clay soils . It's a nitrogen pointer . In terms of plant sociology, the knotweed is typical of the association Polygonion avicularis and the classes Polygono-Poetea (Annuelle Trittrasen), Secalietea (cereal weed societies) and Chenopodietea (hack weed and ruderal societies).

The knotweed has been a cultural companion since the Neolithic Age.

ecology

The knotweed is a summer annual plant. Vegetative propagation occurs through rooted runners . The knotweed is very kick-resistant. Its young leaves perform sleep movements at night by standing upright and lying next to each other.

The flowers are inconspicuous and have no nectar . From an ecological point of view, they form a transition between “bell flowers” ​​and “disc flowers”. The self-pollination is predominant. The beginning of flowering is already in the 5th week after germination .

The spread takes place by means of epizoochory . The fruits spread as rainworms and when the tread spreads as watery ones. Furthermore, processing spread by birds, for example, by sparrows, and random spread by ungulates . The fruit ripening begins in July. The long-lived seeds are heat germs . The seeds remain viable for up to 250 years.

use

The knotweed is an old bird food plant.

Young stems and leaves have long been used as vegetables .

pharmacology

The aboveground plant parts (Polygoni avicularis herba) collected at the time of flowering serve as a drug (pharmacy ).

Active ingredients are: silica (partly also water-soluble), tannins ( gallotannins and catechin tannins ), flavonoids , especially avicularin , phenol carboxylic acids and mucilage .

Today the medicinal plant is still occasionally used as a tea for catarrh of the upper respiratory tract because of its (albeit only minor) expectorant-promoting effect and is contained in tea mixtures or as an extract in corresponding ready-made preparations. The astringent properties due to the tannin content are used for rinsing and gargling in the case of mild inflammations in the mouth and throat, also as external applications against skin impurities and for wound treatment.

The Committee for Herbal Medicines (HMPC) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) confirms in its monograph Polygonum aviculare the traditional use for the indications cold (tea infusion), slight inflammation in the mouth and throat (tea to gargle) and for irrigation treatment of light urinary bladders - Discomfort ( decoction ).

Systematics

Erich Oberdorfer differentiates within the species group Polygonum aviculare agg. for Germany the following small types:

  • Polygonum calcatum Lindman : It is a character species of the Polygonetum calcati. The number of chromosomes is 2n = 40.
  • Polygonum microspermum Jordan ex Boreau : It is a character species of the association Polygonion avicularis.
  • Polygonum aequale Lindman : It is a character species of the Lolio-Polygonetum arenastri. The number of chromosomes is 2n = 40.
  • Polygonum monspeliense Thiéb.-Bern. ex pers. : It occurs mainly in societies of the Chenopodietea class, less often of the Bidention association. The number of chromosomes is 2n = 60, less often 40.
  • Polygonum heterophyllum Lindman : The number of chromosomes is 2n = 60.
    • Polygonum heterophyllum subsp. virgatum (Asch. & Graebn.) Scholz : It occurs mainly in societies of the order Cakiletalia.
  • Polygonum rurivagum Jordan ex Boreau : It occurs mainly in societies of the order Polygono-Chenopodietalia and the class Secalietea, but also in the association Polygonion avicularis.

Fischer distinguishes the following subspecies for Austria:

  • Polygonum aviculare subsp. depressum (Meisn.) Arcang. (= Polygonum arenastrum Boreau )
  • Polygonum aviculare subsp. rurivagum (Jord. ex Boreau) Berher
  • Polygonum aviculare subsp. neglectum (better) Arcang.
  • Polygonum aviculare subsp. aviculare

history

swell

Historical illustrations

literature

  • Manfred A. Fischer , Wolfgang Adler, Karl Oswald: Excursion flora for Austria, Liechtenstein and South Tyrol. 2nd, improved and enlarged edition. State of Upper Austria, Biology Center of the Upper Austrian State Museums, Linz 2005, ISBN 3-85474-140-5 .
  • Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora . 7th edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-8252-1828-7
  • Werner Rothmaler : Excursion flora for the areas of the GDR and the FRG. Volume 2: Vascular Plants . 13th edition. People and knowledge Volkseigener Verlag, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-06-012539-2
  • 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 . (Section ecology)
  • Ingrid and Peter Schönfelder: The new manual of medicinal plants , Franckh-Kosmos Verlagsgesellschaft, 2011, ISBN 3-440-09387-5

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora for Germany and neighboring areas . 8th edition. Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3131-5 . Page 334–335.
  2. ↑ European Union herbal monograph on Polygonum aviculare L., herba
  3. ^ Dioscorides , Materia medica , Book IV, Cap. 4: Male polygonum. Julius Berendes . Pedanius Dioscurides' medicine theory in 5 books. Enke, Stuttgart 1902, pp. 368–369 (Book IV, Cap. 4): Männliches Polygonum (digitized version)
  4. ↑ Pliny , Naturalis historia Book XXVII, Chapter 91, § 113-117: Polygonum. Online edition Chicago (digitized version) ; Translation Külb 1855 (digitized version )
  5. ^ Galen , edition Kühn 1821-1833, vol. XII (1826), p. 104: De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis ac facultatibus , lib. VIII, Chapter XVI / 25 (digitized version)
  6. ↑ Pseudo-Apuleius , printed Rome 1481/82, chapter 19: Herba polygonus (digitized version ) ; Edition Howald / Sigerist 1927, Chapter 18: Herba proserpinaca (digitized version ) ; Translation Brodersen 2015, pp. 68–69
  7. ↑ Pseudo-Dioscorides de herbis feminis , Edition Kästner 1896, Chapter 9: (digitized version )
  8. ↑ Abu Muhammad ibn al-Baitar . Kitāb al-jāmiʿ li-mufradāt al-adwiya wa al-aghdhiya. Translation. Joseph Sontheimer under the title Large compilation on the powers of the well-known simple healing and food. Hallberger, Stuttgart Volume II (1842), pp. 195–196 (digitized version )
  9. ↑ Hildegard von Bingen , Physica , Book I, Chapter 85. Edition: Charles Victor Daremberg and Friedrich Anton Reuss (1810–1868). S. Hildegardis Abbatissae Subtilitatum Diversarum Naturarum Creaturarum Libri Novem. Migne, Paris 1855. Col. 1164 (digitized) . Translation Reier 1980, p. 94: Wizsgras are of moderate nature and drought. They can eat the healthy and the sick like melda and latichen. They do not evoke harmful juices and are easily digested with health.
  10. ^ German Macer . Schnell-Crossgrove 2003 edition, p. 369, chapter 65: Proserpinaca. In Latin Macer floridus is Proserpinacia not listed. Schnell and Crossgrove have identified the 4th chapter of "Spuria Macri" as the source for the Proserpinacia chapter of the German Macer (2003, p. 476).
  11. ↑ Heidelberg, Cpg 226 , Elsass 1459–1469, sheet 201v (digitized version ) : Transcription: (.lxiij. Proserpinata means stepping away (The juice vff kolen smoked with a strong win eight days used helps those who count blood (Whom the breast sweren der neme mixed the juice with rose oleý and butters tempered to seeds and smeared itself so that it verget jme (the juice warmed and poured into the oren dispenses all earth (the juice consumed with water stills the rure (the juice is drunk with pepper) the quartanam (Who knows how to talk away the figure / the hear / it is like the rods on the leaves / the flowers know roses far (it is well drunk with a win before the rides ee jne der frost angeet (it demands the wip seeks / work she looks too long at jr / the necze want in the juice vnd bump it secretly instead of jr (the krut bumped vnd vff the wonden geleyt brings them together
  12. ^ FA Reuss. Walafridi Strabi Hortulus… et Capita aliquot Macri nondum edita . Würzburg 1834, pp. 102-103: Proserpinata (digitized version)
  13. ↑ Nikolaus Frauenlob , herb book , Mattighofen 1482–1486, Cpg 583 , Southwest Germany, sheet 31v (digitized version ) . Transcription: stepping away is also a good krawtt who dy oren we thuond and not being healthy Man kicks away juice so warm in dÿ oren meet that hayllt dÿ oren of everything that the oren has to say and is also a tried-and-true testimony whether a frawen dy tosses wanted to be etc. You kick away with salted turkey whale and then put a vein czwen day of the frawen on the dÿ prust that would be wanted Whether the person throws out pluot to the mouth You kick away with good wine syeden and then drink that helps who dÿ seÿtten we thuendt Man kick away with oil ze bump and so warm onf dÿ seytten lay vein on itf pinden A special ercznej from kick away Man kick away with water whale boil and drink from it and that helps the frawen to jr haymlichait and adjusts jn the plum help against quartan febres and help whoever is thin and vnstätt
  14. ↑ Michael Puff . Little book about the burnt-out waters . 15th century print Augsburg 1478 (Bämler), sheet 5v (digitized version )
  15. ↑ Cpg 558 , Northern Bavaria, around 1470 - 1485, sheet 23v (digital copy ) . Transcription: Wedretten water is good for the rotten through ganck and erased also there wild fewr and also that man has bad pages that makes it there to help people
  16. ↑ Gart der Gesundheit , Mainz 1485, Chapter 302: Proserpinata wegdred (digitized version ) ; Chapter 387: Sanguinaria blutkrut (digitized version )
  17. ↑ Hortus sanitatis , Mainz 1491: Chapter 376: Proserpinata (digitized version)
  18. ↑ Hieronymus Brunschwig , Kleines Distillierbuch 1500, sheet 116r – v: Weggras (digitized version )
  19. ↑ Otto Brunfels , Contrafayt Kreüterbuch 1532, p. 320: Weggrasz (digitized version )
  20. ↑ Hieronymus Bock , New Kreütter Book 1539, Part I, Chapter 128: Weggras (digitized version )
  21. ↑ Leonhart Fuchs , New Kreütterbuch, Chapter 235: Weggraß (digitized version )
  22. ↑ Nicolas Lémery . Dictionnaire universel des drogues simples, contenant leurs noms, origines, choix, principes, vertus, étymologies, et ce qu'il ya de particulier dans les animaux, dans les végétaux et dans les minéraux , Laurent d'Houry, Paris 1699, p. 613–614: Polygonum (digitized version )
  23. ↑ Nicolas Lémery Complete Lexicon of Materials . Complete material lexicon. Initially drafted in French, but now after the third edition, which has been enlarged by a large [...] edition, translated into High German / By Christoph Friedrich Richtern, [...]. Johann Friedrich Braun, Leipzig 1721, Sp. 900 Polygonum ( Digitized)
  24. ^ Albrecht von Haller (editor). Onomatologia medica completa or Medicinisches Lexicon which explains all names and artificial words which are peculiar to the science of medicine and pharmacists art clearly and completely [...]. Gaumische Handlung, Ulm / Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig 1755, Sp. 1144: Polygonum (digitized)
  25. ↑ Monograph of Commission E of the former Federal Health Office. Federal Gazette of March 13, 1986 (digitized version ) . Correction. Federal Gazette of April 23, 1987 (digital version )

Web links

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