Chamaedaphne

Torfgränke

The Torfgränke (also dwarf laurel ) belongs to the family of the heather family ( Ericaceae ). The genus Chamaedaphne consists only of this one kind Chamaedaphne calyculata.

Appearance

The Torfgränke is a shrub of about 40 to 60 cm high. The coarse, leathery leaves are lanceolate, obovate and about 2 cm long. The five petals are white and the Torfgränke sit short stalks, singly in the axils of last year's leaves. These so form a single- grape. It blooms from May to June. In summer the flower buds for the next year are created with the maturity of the fruit capsules already.

The leaves are poisonous.

Dissemination

The Torfgränke preferred moors, comes in quaking before and in ( noise Beer) pine swamp forests. Less often the plant is found in intermediate marshes. It has a circumpolar distribution. Resources exist in north-eastern Europe, particularly in Finland, Russia and the Baltic States, North Asia and North America. Low deposits are also known in Poland. In Germany no natural occurrences are known. However, the plant was treated in the German botany, since it is present in the former East Prussia. The plant is occasionally planted as an ornamental plant and traded.