Darlingtonia californica

Cobra Lily ( Darlingtonia californica )

The cobra lily ( Darlingtonia californica ) is a präkarnivore plant and the only species of the monotypic genus Darlingtonia in the family of Pitcher plants ( Sarraceniaceae ). It is closely related to the carnivorous pitcher plants ( Sarracenia ).

Features

The cobra lily is an evergreen, perennial, herbaceous plant with a rhizome from one to two centimeters in diameter. It grows very slowly, only after two or three years it assumes its typical shape and after seven to ten years it blooms for the first time.

Root

The plants do not have a tap root, but form from the rhizome out numerous fine hair roots.

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The driving directly from the rhizome out foliage of the plants consists exclusively of the typical tubular leaves that form a loose rosette. The leaves are slightly tapered and widen at the base. They are hollow and are 60 to 80 centimeters, sometimes up to a meter high, attracts over its entire length on the front of the sheet a wing bar. At its upper end, they are covered by a helmet-like hood, at the front end of a reversed V-shaped appendage hanging down. Behind this " snake tongue " is a small, soil facing opening, which is encircled by a peristome. The leaves are either upright or grow almost parallel to the ground, so that the snake's tongue touches the ground and, unlike the upright leaves, mainly live in the soil attracts insects. Each leaf is up to 270 ° twisted in itself, so that opening and Wormtongue show from the rosette off - presumably to attract prey better.

The leaves are divided into six zones: Zone 1 is the " snake tongue ", Zone 2, the peristome, Zone 3, the hood, Zones 4 to 6 lower-lying sections of the actual hose. Each of these zones has a function for which it is equipped in accordance with the prey.

• Zone 1: The snake tongue. It is usually dyed bright red color and provided on its back with numerous nectaries, serves both to attract the prey. A directed pubescence of the surface makes it the insect it easier to head to the tube opening, as to turn away from this.

• Zone 2: The opening. It is made of a peristome which ceases particularly large quantities of nectar, and also attracts the prey from the appendage in the actual hose.

• Zone 3: the hood. They covered the hose and hervorkragende opening, thereby preventing the escape of prey upwards. At its highest point it is frequently provided with chlorophyll-free patches that can almost pass freely through the outside light and act as windows. Prisoners of prey are now trying to leave through this " window " the trap of these " escape attempts " they now fall into the upright tube.

• Zone 4: Upper tube area. This directly exploiting dividend under the hood portion of the tube is provided with a layer of wax and downward hair. Both forces the prey further down.

• Zone 5: Mean hose area. Here are the downward hair in a particular density, wax stains can be found any more.

• Zone 6: Lower hose area. This zone is equipped purely smooth and with no more catching device, it is only used for digestion. In it there is the liquid of the plant, which provides for the digestion, it is pumped from the plant himself in the tubing, reinforced by a prey. The surface of the tube is capable of an inadequate cuticle to absorb nutrients, which are solved by a symbiotic bacteria fauna, but also by commensals.

Despite this complex case construction is the cobra lily compared to their relatives, the hose plant, not a very good prey capture. Also it is not itself able to produce digestive enzymes, but relies on the decomposition of the catch by bacteria in the solution. The prey spectrum covers due to the two different leaf shapes (upright and lying on the ground ) both aircraft as well as ground insects.

Flowers

The bracts with occupied from May to forming inflorescence is up to one meter high, so he towers, unusual for a carnivore, the traps only slightly; for flowering time the traps are not yet active. The single, coherent, selbstfertile, but weakly protandrous flower is built unusual: the yellowish light green sepals are slightly longer than the purple petals. 1994, however, was discovered around 30 individuals, in which the petals are not purple, but of the same color as the sepals. This will not open, but form a kind of capsule that is accessible for potential pollinators only by small indentations formed by the petals at the edge near the tip openings. What type of pollinators this complex flower is formed, but in some cases despite many years of observations of the species is still not clearly known, probably spiders are involved in the - uncomfortable for people - but fragrance of the flower also leads to the assumption that flying involved are.

Fruit and seeds

After pollination, the ovary rises gradually, so that the fruit capsule is upright. The trained fruit is inversely egg-shaped and contains about ten weeks after pollination several hundred to over a thousand sand-colored, hairy seeds of two to three millimeters in length, the embryo is quite large, the endosperm is present. Through their hair they are buoyant and float away ( Bythisochorie ) with the flow of the mother plant.

Vegetative propagation

The rhizome of the plant forms spurs that can form large meshes with increasing age of a colony. Each Nodie of the rhizome in turn can autonomously form new roots and leaves. At many sites, the proliferation rate is significantly higher than that caused by seed by stolons. On particularly nutrient-poor sites, the Rhizomgeflechte may also serve to nutrient exchange between individuals of a colony.

Dissemination

The species is endemic to the Pacific Northwest. It is found only in western Oregon and northern California, a single occurrence at Chase Lake at Seattle in Washington State is considered angesalbt. Mainly it is found in mountainous areas ( Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, Klamath Mountains, Siskiyou Mountains, Trinity Mountains ) on up to 2500 m above sea level, but rises in Oregon at appropriate conditions, down to sea level directly to the Pacific coast down (eg in Florence, Oregon where the only seven -acre Darlingtonia Botanical Wayside, the only protected area of Oregon is dedicated to only a single species ). The number of specified occurrences fluctuates between 200 and 250 pieces, divided fairly evenly across Oregon and California.

Habitats

Cobra lilies grow preferentially at sites with rocky terrain (mostly serpentine), low nutrient availability and high heavy metal content ( against which the plants are tolerant ). The deposits are often tight and extended, the largest known reserves in the Siskiyou Mountains covers several thousand plants. Common locations include wet meadows and bogs, but also the riverbank or floors of pure ( non-calcareous ) sand in pine forests. All sites are oriented south or southwest and are located in zones of high rainfall ( 1000-2000 mm).

For the prosperity of the plant, a high level cool groundwater and plenty of running water is at the same time well-drained ground of relevance, which provide the necessary cool root temperature. Equally important are open, sunny locations that remain actually ensured by periodically occurring fires in the area of ​​distribution. This plant is hardy and is limited in some locations at this time under snow and ice. The species is found in society, among other things with peat moss, the round-leaved sundew, the commons fat herb, Pinguicula macroceras ssp. nortensis and Panther Lily (Lilium pardalinum ).

Hazard and status

Since 1981, the cobra lily is listed in Appendix 2 of CITES (CITES ), whereby the trade is regulated to approval and strict with wild plants. In addition, the type is also subject to different sub- protective positions at the state, regional and local level; all of these have in common is that they classify the species as in no immediate danger, but because of their small distribution area and the specific site requirements as relatively vulnerable.

As mainly hazardous factors mining activities are ( the distribution is often rich in nickel, chromium and cobalt), Holzfällaktivitäten, road construction and leisure and settlement pressure (the latter especially in Oregon), which as habitats are destroyed as indirectly through the suppression of fires and the act as natural mowing. The up in the 80s was the strongest threat Absammeln the plants by dealer or collector, this has since been significantly reduced by the various sub- protective positions and increased environmental awareness by collectors. After all, some reserves are located in protected areas and are to be regarded as safely.

Communities

Many insect species live in and cobra lilies, some of them in very close community. Common commensals are Metriocnemus edwardsii ( a fly ), Eperigone trilobata ( a spider ) and Sarraceniopus darlingtoniae, a species of mite that is found exclusively in the hoses of cobra lilies.

System

Within the genus, there is only one kind, without further species and varieties, however, is a known form albino. To distinguish from the closely related Pitcher plants besides morphological characters such as the flower structure, the ability to regulate the state of the digestive fluid in the hoses and the Präkarnivorie serves mainly the isolated from the hose plant in eastern and southern United States and considerably remote area of ​​distribution. The latter is also used as a confirmatory feature of the classification as a separate genus.

The phylogeny of the family is very little research, molecular genetic studies revealed that the cobra lily is a sister taxon of the other two genera of the family:

Bugs plants ( Roridula )

Cobra Lily ( Darlingtonia )

Marsh pitchers ( Heliamphora )

Pitcher plants ( Sarracenia )

Botanical history

Was discovered in the plant until 1841 in wetlands south of Mount Shasta by William Dunlop Brackenridge, a member of a botanical expedition of the U.S. government. The first description was in 1850 by John Torrey, was not published until 1853, the botanical genus name ( which it shares by a nice coincidence with a snake species in the animal kingdom ) refers to the American physician and botanist William Darlington ( 1782-1863 ), the epithet of the first discovery in California.

1871, the Cobra Lily in Kew Gardens was put into culture, today it is found in many botanical gardens and private Karnivorensammlungen, isolated in alpine and rock gardens.

In the 70 years of the 19th Century Rebecca M. Austin explored first the cobra lily. For several years she ran intensive fieldwork and shared from 1875 to 1877, their results in a letter to the botanist William Marriott Canby with which she supported it and encouraged. Their records were, however, up to now only excerpts published.

1891 turned out that the name Darlingtonia had already been awarded in 1825 by de Candolle for a mimosa plant. Thus, the name was invalid, whereupon the genus of Greene was renamed Chrysamphora. But after the now run as a genus Darlingtonia was incorporated into the genus Desmanthus 1954, the road was virtually free and ICBN Commission allowed the return designation of Chrysamphora in californica Darlingtonia californica, because this was ( = nomen conservandum ) the more established.

Evidence

• Barthlott, Wilhelm; Porembski, Stefan; Seine, Rüdiger; Theisen, Inge: carnivores. Stuttgart, 2004, ISBN 3-8001-4144-2
• Braem, Guido: Carnivorous plants. Munich, 2002, ISBN 3-426-66762-2
• Elder, Christine Leigh: Reproductive Biology of Darlingtonia californica. In: Fremontia, October 1994
• Ellison, Aaron M.; Farnsworth, Elizabeth: The Cost of Carnivory for Darlingtonia californica. In: American Journal of Botany 92/7/2005, pp. 1085-1093.
• Fashing, Norman J.: Biology of Sarraceniopus darlingtoniae. In: Phytophaga XIV/2004, pp. 299-305.

• Website Kobralilie
• Comprehensive website for cobra lily in English
• Information about the plant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• Darlingtonia californica in the Red List of Threatened Species IUCN 2006 Posted by: . Schnell, D., Catling, P., Folkerts, G., Frost, C., Gardner, R., et al, 2000 Accessed on the 12th.. May 2006