Cornus suecica

Swedish dogwood (Cornus suecica )

The Swedish dogwood (Cornus suecica ) is a plant of the genus dogwood (Cornus ). He has a circumpolar distribution area; some deposits rich south to Schleswig -Holstein and the Netherlands.

Description

The Swedish Dogwood is a perennial herbaceous plant. The shoots formed annually arise depending on the location around the beginning of June a branched rhizome and reach a height of about 10 to 30 centimeters. The rhizome is covered with scaly leaves, each containing a bud and at which spring from the roots. The roots form a symbiosis with certain fungi a ( mycorrhiza ).

The leaves are oval against permanent and pointed. The leaf pairs were divided fairly evenly on the stems, in contrast to the Canadian dogwood, in which they are clustered at the stem ends. The stems are usually unbranched, rarely form on the last pair of leaves branches. The stems end in an inflorescence or vegetative remain pure.

The inflorescence contains about eight to 25 flowers. The inflorescence is surrounded by four white bracts. There are four dark -purple bracts present. The flowers contain a nectar -secreting disc and are pollinated by insects, or adjacent flowers of the inflorescence pollinate. When Canadian dogwood, a mechanism for ejection of the pollen has been described, which should also occur at the Swedish Dogwood similar: there is a sensitive bristle that the still closed flower can burst open when touched and the anthers spun by a hinge upwards on a Blütenhüllblatt. The flowering time is in July and August.

The round red berries ripen in September. They are nontoxic, but bland and mealy. They are eaten by animals, so arrange for the distribution. The seed germinates in the following spring.

Dissemination

The Swedish Dogwood has a wide distribution in the arctic and subarctic zone. However, he lacks in continental North America, where similar Canadian dogwood occurs, and in continental Siberia. This results in two disjoint distribution areas of the Atlantic and Pacific: once from eastern North America, Labrador, Newfoundland, Greenland and Iceland to northern Europe and northwestern Russia; on the other hand about the Aleutian Islands of Alaska to Kamchatka.

The deposits in Central Europe are at the southern limit of distribution; the Swedish Dogwood here is rare and legally protected in Germany. ( Federal Species Protection Ordinance ) He is on the red list of endangered species ( category 1) and is threatened with extinction in Germany.

The Swedish dogwood grows on acidic substrates and needs a good water supply. He is often associated with various Vaccinium species and colonized Moore, Heath and clear birch and pine forests.

Others

Theodor Storm has a poem entitled " Cornus suecica " written in his novel forest angle:

Swell

• K. Taylor: Cornus suecica L. ( Chamaepericlymenum suecicum (L.) Ascherson & Graebner ). In: Journal of Ecology. 87, No. 6, pp. 1068-1077, doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2745.1999.00415.x.