Arisarum vulgare
Flowering crooks in Crete
The crook, more precisely called Common crook, ( Arisarum vulgare ) is a plant of the family Araceae ( Araceae ). The German vernacular name of the plant refers to the visual similarity to the episcopal insignia, the crosier.
Description
The crook is a perennial herbaceous plant that reaches the plant height 10-30 centimeters. This species forms tubers as outlasting. There are only formed basal, long -stalked leaves, with egg-shaped, arrow-shaped at the base, about 15 inches long and up to 12 cm wide leaf blades.
The often purple-violet flowers speckled stem is about as long as the petioles. The single bract ( spathe ) is fused down to a brown or olive green purple striped tube and is about 5 inches long. The upper part is open and helmet or hood curved forward. The greenish spadix ( spadix ) is also curved forward and protrudes from the tube. The crook is monoecious getrenntgeschlechtig ( monoecious ). The 20 male flowers are located above the four to six female, with sterile flowers are entirely absent. Pollination is by insects. Bloom time is from October to May The berries are green.
Occurrence
The distribution area includes the entire Mediterranean region, the Azores and Madeira. This type thrives mainly on brownfield sites, Garigues, but also on cultural country like oil tree populations as well as in forests. It is preferred to shady locations.
System
There are several subspecies described (selection):
In southern Spain and North Africa is the subspecies
- Arisarum vulgare subsp. simorrhinum ( Durieu ) Maire & Weiller separated. The flower stem is much shorter than the petioles in this subspecies. Spathe and spadix are upright. The latter is thickened at the tip, so that the opening of the high leaf is more or less closed.
Use
The roots were eaten. All plant parts that are to be eaten must be cooked because of the high proportion of oxalate crystals before.