Ajuga pyramidalis

Pyramidal Bugle ( Ajuga pyramidalis )

The pyramid bugle ( Ajuga pyramidalis L. ) is a plant from the mint family ( Lamiaceae).

Description

The pyramidal growing, perennial, herbaceous plant reaches heights of growth of about usually 5 to 20 (up to 35 ) centimeters. It makes no foothills in contrast to Creeping bugle. The stiff upright stem is hairy square and short. The simple leaves have a slightly wavy edge. It is a dense basal rosette of leaves available, the leaves of which are significantly larger than the stem leaves.

Most all stem leaves bear flowers, so are bracts. The inflorescence is upwards strict square, pyramid-shaped. The slowly shrinking, ganzrandigen or weakly notched bracts are intensely red-violet crowded and are twice as long as the flowers. The hermaphrodite flowers are zygomorphic. The 10 to 18 mm long corolla is purple to violet with a short lower lip, which underscore juice times has ( pollinators are bumblebees and butterflies).

The flowering period extends from June to August.

The chromosome number is 2n = 32

Also the name Steingünsel is occupied for the pyramid bugle.

Ecology

The bracts in the inflorescence form effective shelters for the flowers from rain, their red-violet color enhances the signal effect of the flowers. The shaggy hairiness of the calyx protects the flower against small, crawling insects. The nectar is additionally secured by a stiff, upturned hair ring.

The fruits with fleshy, oily appendages ( elaiosomes ) are abducted by ants, so uneven occurrence in different societies.

Occurrence

Deposits are mainly in the central and southern Alps, but also in the mountains of southern and northern Europe and the Caucasus. The pyramid bugle is a type of silicate rock - poor grassland; it is a characteristic species of the order Nardetalia. In the Alps, he comes up against at altitudes of 2700 m.

Medicinal plant

This is the pyramid Günsel an old medicinal plant that is used as a wound means and metabolic disorders.