Dragon's mouth

Arethusa bulbosa

The orchid Arethusa bulbosa is the only species in the genus Arethusa. The small, herbaceous Knollengeophyten grow in moist meadows and moors of North America.

Description

The shoot axis of Arethusa bulbosa forms underground storage organs. For this round, greenish tubers springs from the stems. That is a single, linear molded sheet, up to 20 centimeters long and one centimeter wide. The paper develops after flowering. At foothills new tubers are formed, then the old dies from. The plant is short-lived and blooms only a few years before she dies.

From each tuber grows one (rarely two) inflorescence (rarely two) carrying a single bloom. The stems of the plant can be up to 40 centimeters. The flower color is purple, occasionally pink to white or bluish. Bloom time is from late May to June was the southern populations in the north to the middle of July. The sepals are fused together, their shape is oblong- oval, about two to 5.5 inches long and three to nine millimeters wide. You stand upright. The petals are fused at the base with one another and with the column, shape, size and color corresponds approximately to the three outer petals. They are bent forward through the column. The elongated oval lip is three-lobed indistinct. The lower part is vertically upright and includes the column, the anterior part flexes semicircular. The center of the lip has pale pink to white background darker reddish spots and stripes on. From the base to the tip of the lip to pull yellow, comb-like outgrowths. The column is long and curved, winged at the top and greatly broadened. The stamen is located on its underside, the column extends beyond the stamen addition. There shall be four soft pollinia, which are divided into numerous small pollen packets.

The yellow stamens lookalike trichomes on the colored lip attract pollinators. Observed queens of the bumblebee species Bombus Bombus ternarius and terricola, pollen remains on the thorax stick. As to whether nectar is produced or the pollinating insects are deceived, there are different observations.

The fruit is an oval, upstanding capsule, about 1.5 to 2.5 centimeters.

The chromosome number is 2n = 40

Dissemination

Arethusa bulbosa grows in northeastern North America at altitudes 0-1600 meters. In Canada submit their deposits from the southeast to the central Manitoba and the Northwest Saskatchewan. In the U.S., the North East is populated, in the higher elevations of the Appalachians, the rich deposits further south.

The sites are bogs and swamps, moist coniferous forests, river banks and wetlands. Sunny locations are preferred, in the south of the range of the plants grow well in the shade of rhododendron bushes. Two other orchids that occur together with Arethusa bulbosa, are Calopogon tuberosus and Pogonia ophioglossoides. Of these three Arethusa preferred the wettest sites. In culture hybrids between Arethusa bulbosa and Calopogon tuberosus have emerged, however, from the nature they are not known, since the heyday of Calopogon is later.

Use

An earlier use of the tubers as a medicine is reported. Rarely, this orchid is seen in culture, as it is short-lived, special demands on the substrate and provides the tubers can quickly rot.

System

Within the subfamily Epidendroideae the genus Arethusa in the tribe Arethuseae and there in the subtribe Arethusinae is classified. Arethusa is related to the Asian genus Eleorchis and occurring in North America genus Calopogon, the other genera of the subtribe are found in East Asia.

The genus name refers to the Arethusa Arethusa nymph from Greek mythology. The Dutch botanist Frederik Gronovius January chose the name when he described this orchid. Linnaeus then took him in 1753 in his work Species Plantarum. The Artepithet bulbosa refers to the underground, tuberous storage organs.