Shaggy fireweed

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Shaggy fireweed
Shaggy fireweed (Epilobium hirsutum)

Shaggy fireweed ( Epilobium hirsutum )

Systematics
Eurosiden II
Order : Myrtle-like (Myrtales)
Family : Evening primrose family (Onagraceae)
Subfamily : Onagroideae
Genre : Willowherb ( epilobium )
Type : Shaggy fireweed
Scientific name
Epilobium hirsutum
L.

The shaggy fireweed ( Epilobium hirsutum ) is a species of the evening primrose family (Onagraceae).

description

Illustration from Flora Batava , Volume 10

Vegetative characteristics

The shaggy willowherb, also known as the wire-haired willowherb, grows as a perennial herbaceous plant and reaches heights of usually 50 to 180 (rarely up to 250) centimeters. A thick, creeping rhizome is formed as a survival organ , which usually sprouts fleshy shoot axes that are covered with lower leaves during the flowering period . The upright, richly branched stem is covered in dense and soft to tomentose hair with long protruding hair and short glandular hairs on top and feels cool to the touch. The formation of the hair depends on the location. Fleshy runners up to 30 centimeters in length soon develop from the axillary buds of the lower parts of the stem .

The lower leaves are almost cross-opposite , the rest are arranged alternately. The leaves are sessile and half encompassing the stem or with the base slightly sloping down on the stem. The almost bald to glandular shaggy or tomentose hairy leaf blades are narrow-lanceolate with a length of 6 to 12 (rarely up to 23) centimeters and a width of 1 to 4 centimeters. The leaf margins have strong teeth.

The plant's trichomes are made up of a single cell without a basal cell. The cell wall is cutinized and has a sessile pore at the tip. The top of the trichome cell contains flavonoids such as quercitrin and myricitrin .

Generative characteristics

The flowering period is between July and September. The hermaphroditic flowers are radial symmetry . Its purple-colored petals, which are left covering in the bud position, are up to 2 cm in length and up to 2 cm in diameter. The stigma is four-part and the tips of the stigma bow together before they open.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 36.

Shaggy fireweed ( Epilobium hirsutum )

ecology

From an ecological point of view, these are male "funnel flowers" that are self-sterile. In contrast to other Epilobium species, the flowers are upright and open even when it rains. The seeds are lighter than water and can swim for several weeks.

In addition to seeds, the species reproduces vegetatively through the thick, whitish, low-leaf, creeping "rhizomes". So it colonizes mown meadows before flowering. The cattle disdain the leaves and stems both fresh and in the hay. The glandular hairs and needle crystals in the leaf cells act as protection against eating .

Caterpillars

The shaggy willowherb is a food crop for the caterpillars of the following butterfly species: common vine hawk , evening primrose hawk , iris owl , bedstraw and black and white willow-herb hawk ( Spargania luctuata ).

Occurrence and use

The shaggy willowherb grows scattered in herbaceous corridors by streams, ditches, springs and in the edge of willow bushes. It loves loamy, somewhat calcareous soils. According to Ellenberg , it is a half-light plant, a moderate heat pointer, pronounced nitrogen pointer, humidity to wetness pointer as well as weak acid / weak base to base and lime pointer, intermediate-continental growing and, according to Oberdorfer, a federation character of the bindweed communities (Convolvulion = Calystegion sepium) or even a Character of the association Convolvulo-Epilobietum hirsuti. In the Allgäu Alps, it rises in the Vorarlberg part of the Burglalpe on the Feuerstätter Kopf east of Sibratsgfälle up to an altitude of 1270 meters.

Occasionally, the shaggy willowherb is cultivated as an ornamental plant. As such, it was also introduced in Australia and the USA , where it has spread strongly in places since around 1990.

Common names

For the shaggy willowherb the other common German names existed : lapwort, water violet and brown willow tree .

photos

  • Lush inventory

  • The stem is hairy horizontally protruding

  • The sepals are pointed

  • blossom

  • blossom

  • The scar is in four parts

  • fruit

literature

  • Gunter Steinbach (Ed.), Bruno P. Kremer u. a .: wildflowers. Recognize & determine. Mosaik, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-576-11456-4 .
  • 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 .
  • Shaggy fireweed. In: FloraWeb.de.
  • Jiarui Chen, Peter C. Hoch, Peter H. Raven: Epilobium. In: Wu Zheng-yi, Peter H. Raven, Deyuan Hong (Eds.): Flora of China . tape 13 : Clusiaceae through Araliaceae . Science Press / Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing / St. Louis 2007, ISBN 978-1-930723-59-7 , pp. 414 (English, online ). (English).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Krajšek et al. (2011): Morphology and glandular activity of unicellular trichomes of Epilobium hirsutum . Biologia Plantarum, 55 (1), pp. 149-152 ( doi: 10.1007 / s10535-011-0020-z ).
  2. ↑ a b Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora for Germany and neighboring areas . With the collaboration of Angelika Schwabe and Theo Müller. 8th, heavily revised and expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3131-5 , pp. 684 .
  3. ↑ Butterfly food plant : Epilobium hirsutum L., Shaggy willowherb.
  4. ↑ Epilobium hirsutum - Shaggy fireweed
  5. ↑ Erhard Dörr, Wolfgang Lippert : Flora of the Allgäu and its surroundings. Volume 2, IHW, Eching 2004, ISBN 3-930167-61-1 , p. 247.
  6. ^ Georg August Pritzel , Carl Jessen : The German folk names of plants. New contribution to the German linguistic treasure. Philipp Cohen, Hannover 1882, p. 139. ( online ).

Web links

Commons : Shaggy Willowherb ( Epilobium hirsutum )  - album with pictures, videos and audio files