Prunus mahaleb
Rock cherry (Prunus mahaleb )
Rock cherry or bird cherry ( Prunus mahaleb ) is a flowering plant in the rose family ( Rosaceae ).
Description
The rock cherry grows as a small tree or large shrub, reaching heights of growth 2-6 (up to 10) meters. The 4-8 cm long leaves are smooth, shiny, eirundlich with attached top and short blunt teeth.
The rock cherry blossoms around April to May. The white, about 1 cm wide flowers are four of us to twelfth in a screen grape.
The drupes of rock cherry are small, oval and black, the stone core is smooth.
Ecology
The flowers are weak vorweiblich and open with the leaves unfold. There are " nectar leading disk flowers ." This species is gynodiözisch ie there occur also plants with pure female flowers. According to P. Jordano the pollen is transported by various Fly and bee relatives ( Apiden ). Female plants have other visitors as a hermaphrodite. The pollen dispersal reached a maximum of 548 meters. flowering period is from April to May
The fruits are 1- samige, bitter-tasting drupes. There is digestive spread by mammals, such as by marten; next carried out mouth spread during peeling of the flesh by birds, as well as hiding spread by squirrels and mice. As a disseminator chokes and warblers were observed. Grosbeak, the stone cores crack. Fruit ripening in July.
The Spanish botanist Pedro Jordano could accurately determine with the help of modern methods of analysis ( DNA typing ) propagation distances. As expected, following birds spreader: Blackcap and Robin attended at " mouth hike " only for propagation in the immediate vicinity (up to 51 m). Mistle Thrush, pigeon and carrion crow, which spread through the intestine, made even lengths of less than 51 m. A few cores were also taken from the badger, stone marten and fox and carried. They play an important role in the propagation distance. Therefore, a ruthless hunting of mammals restrict the Verdaungsverbreitung enormous. Only larger birds and mammals provide a spread of 110-990 m, mostly on population boundaries. Vegetative propagation is very numerous by root shoots, which sprout removed often meters far from the parent plant.
Occurrence
The rock cherry comes from Morocco, Spain and France along the northern Mediterranean region, the Balkans and Asia Minor to small before. In North America it is regarded as naturalized. The Central European occurrences are limited initially to the heat- favored regions such as Emperor chair, Altmühltal and near field. The rock cherry grows in dry, sunny thickets, hedges and downy oak forests, it is kalkhold and warmth. By using as an ornamental shrub and Propfunterlage it can be found on the original distribution area also in other places.
Use
The stone Vistula was formerly used mainly in eastern Austria, Hungary and the Vosges for their fragrant wood for pipes pipes and walking sticks and cultivated it. The culture method was developed in the early 19th century in Baden near Vienna and a regionally important special culture. The labor-intensive production of rash rods was carried out with a four-year rotation period to a few hundred square meter plots. Last remains of this tree head - cultures still exist in northern Burgenland in space Mattersburg. Today the species is planted mainly as ornamental tree and used as a rootstock for the culture of sour cherries in warm dry areas. The fruits of the rock cherry are not edible, but the ground kernel under the name Mahlab be used as a spice in the West Asian region, as noted by the scientific name of the species refers.
Similar Species
Possible confusion exist with the ordinary black cherry ( Prunus padus ), of this, it differs in the smooth leaves, shorter flower cluster and the smooth stone core. The bird cherry preferably beyond significantly wetter sites than the rock cherry.
Swell
- Local wood proliferation, Project NE Wild wood, RGV releases 1 /2007 ( PDF)
- Thomas Schauer and Claus Caspari: The BLV flowers guide untwegs, BLV Verlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-405-16908-9
- Werner Roth painter, Eckhart J. Hunter, and Klaus Werner: Excursion Flora of Germany, Volume 2, 17th Edition, Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg - Berlin, 1999 ISBN 978-3-8274-1600-1
- R. Duell / H. Kutzelnigg: Pocket Dictionary of Plants in Germany. 7th edition, Quelle & Meyer Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-494-01424-1
Steinkerns