White anaga adder head
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White anaga adder head ( Echium simplex ) |
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The white anaga adder's head ( Echium simplex ), also known as the simple adder's head , is a species of the genus of the adder's heads ( Echium ) in the predatory family (Boraginaceae). He is endemic to the Canary Island of Tenerife . The Spanish-speaking common name is Arrebol tajinaste .
description
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Vegetative characteristics
Echium simplex is a perennial herbaceous plant . It forms a leaf rosette (" Schopfrosette "). The simple, close-fitting silvery-silky haired leaves are elliptical with a length of 10 to 40 centimeters and a width of 4 to 9 centimeters.
Generative characteristics
The flowering period extends from April to May. The inflorescence appears only after 4 to 5 years, when numerous wild plants were examined, the age of flowering plants was even estimated to be around 5 to 9 years. The plant then reaches a stature height of up to 3 meters, of which the elongated inflorescence takes up to 1.5 meters. After the seed formation, the specimen dies. The inflorescence is leafy. The flowers are very dense in an elongated inflorescence, which is made up of double coils ( thyrsen ). The hermaphrodite flowers are five-fold with a double flower envelope . The calyx is 6 mm long with lanceolate, pointed calyx tips. The narrow, bell-shaped, regularly five-lobed, white, pale blue annoyed crown is 9 to 12 millimeters long.
Similar species
Echium simplex is one of the three perennial, but only one candle-shaped flowering and then dying (technical term: monocarp ) Echium species of the Canaries (also: the red flowering Echium wildpretii on Tenerife and the blue flowering Echium pininana on La Palma).
Occurrence
The White Anaga Adderhead occurs in a small area in the north of the Anaga Mountains in the upper areas of the succulent bush up to an altitude of about 650 meters. The largest known population northwest of the village of Chamorga, below the rocks on the way from the Casas de Tafada to the El Faro lighthouse, comprises about 10,000 specimens. Due to its small distribution area , this species was included in the Spanish Red List in the category "vulnerable" = "endangered". It is a neophyte in regions with a similar climate, for example Australia and South Africa .
use
The white anaga adder head is also used as an ornamental plant.
literature
- Peter Schönfelder , Ingrid Schönfelder: The Kosmos-Kanarenflora (= Kosmos-Naturführer ). Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-440-06037-3 , p. 180.
- Adalbert Hohenester, Walter Welß: Excursion flora for the Canary Islands. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-8001-3466-7 , p. 203.
- Jürg Stöcklin and Heiner Lenzin Echium simplex, a rare crested rosette tree on Tenerife. In: Bauhinia , Volume 24, 2013 :, pp. 23–37.
- JC Moreno (coord.) (2008). Lista Roja 2008 de la flora vascular española. Dirección General de Medio Natural y Política Forestal (Ministerio de Medio Ambiente, y Medio Rural y Marino, y Sociedad española de Biología de la Conservación de Plantas), Madrid, 86 pp.
