Eryngium maritimum
Beach thistle ( Eryngium maritimum )
The beach thistle ( Eryngium maritimum ), also called sea holly, a plant belonging to the Umbelliferae family is ( Apiaceae ).
Description
The biannual to perennial dune plant is 10 to 40 inches high and is anchored by a strong, up to two meters deep reaching tap root firmly in the ground. The plant forms several strong stems that are covered with stiff, coarse bristly leaves. The basal leaves are long-petiolate, the cauline short-stalked, the upper stem leaves usually amplexicaul. The blue- green leaves are lobed palmate. The whitish leaf margin is wavy in itself. It forms several prongs which go into a long, sharp thorns. The entire plant is frosted with a layer of wax to bluish white.
The sessile flowers are bunched together in almost spherical, spiny heads. Below the inflorescence are egg-shaped, shallow lobed and spiny bracts, the edges of which overlap each other. The amethystblaue single flower is composed of five Kron and sepals and five yellow stamens. The calyx tube provided with small hook -shaped scales ending in five distinctive stachelspitzigen and ovate - lanceolate calyx teeth. The tips of the ausgerandeten ovate - oblong petals tend inwardly toward the flower center. The under constant, bicompartmental ovary goes into two long stylus on which rest a flat glandular stylus pad.
The flowering period is between June and October. The beach thistle is pollinated by butterflies and other insects, the seeds are spread through the wind. The plant contains saponins.
The bluish wax coating protects the beach thistle against evaporation and strong sunlight. The wax keeps the water back into the plant and reflects the sun's rays. The extremely hard sheets are interpreted as an adaptation to shifting sand, the sharpness of a sandblasting machine comes close.
Occurrence
The plants are found on the coasts of Europe on nährsalzhaltigen sandy soils of the white dunes. It grows singly or in small groups, often accompanied by tufts of beach grass. It is common, however, is considered endangered and is one of the species whose stocks are decreasing sharply in almost the entire native distribution area or locally extinct. In Germany scattered holdings of the coasts of Northern Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg- Vorpommern and Schleswig -Holstein are known.
The beach thistle was chosen as the flower of the year 1987.
Protection status
By Federal species protection regulation, the wild stocks of plants in Germany are especially protected. Furthermore, is the species as critically endangered on the Red List in Germany.
The threat to beach thistle is especially justified by illegal digging and picking them and by rabbit browsing. Abgepflückte inflorescences can not balance on renewable, new shoots the plant. The lack of coastal dynamics in the context of coastal protection measures establishing dunes contributes significantly to the inventory reduction. The beach thistle is dependent on locations listed their soil nutrient salts of the sea. In gray or brown dunes they can not thrive. Plantings of white dunes, for example, to bind the shifting sands and so to increase protection from storm surges destroy the locations of the beach thistle.
Swell
- Dietmar Aichele, Marianne Golte - Bechtle: What flowers there? Wild growing flowering plants in Central Europe, Stuttgart, Franckh cosmos, 54th Edition, 1991, ISBN 3-440-05615-5.
- Ruprecht Duell, Herfried Kutzelnigg: Pocket Dictionary of Plants in Germany. A botanical and ecological excursion companion to the most important species. 6 completely revised edition. Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2005, ISBN 3-494-01397-7.
- Werner Roth painter ( Lim. ), Eckhart J. Jäger, Klaus Werner ( eds.): Excursion Flora of Germany. Volume 2 vascular plants: baseband. 18, Edit. Ed, spectrum, inter alia, Heidelberg, 2002, ISBN 3-8274-1359-1.
- The beach thistle. Protection station Wadden Sea, accessed on May 29, 2011.
- Beach thistle ( Eryngium maritimum ), flower of the year 1987. Conservation Foundation and Hamburg Foundation Loki Schmidt, accessed on May 29, 2011.