Glaux

Beach - Saltwort ( Glaux maritima )

The beach - Saltwort ( Glaux maritima ) is the only species of the genus in the subfamily Glaux Myrsinengewächse ( Myrsinoideae ) within the family of Primrose ( Primulaceae ).

Description

The beach - milk herb is an overwintering green, perennial herbaceous plant that reaches only plant height of about 3 to 25 cm. The creeping to ascending stems forms roots at the nodes ( more nodes ). The closely spaced leaves are fleshy, about 4 to 15 mm long, 1.5 to 3.5 (rarely to 5 ) mm and oblong- lanceolate or elliptical in shape. The lower leaves are opposite, the upper alternate, however. The leaf margin is smooth.

The almost sessile flowers stand singly in the leaf axils. The hermaphroditic, radial symmetry, five petals have a diameter of 3 to 6 mm. There is a lack petals. For five kronblattartige, pink -colored, extremely rare white-colored sepals are formed; They are 1.5 to 2 mm wide. The stamens are slightly shorter than the sepals. The pen is about as long as the stamens.

The capsule fünffächrige fruit has a diameter of 2.5 to 3 mm. The triangular seeds are reddish - brown and about 1.2 mm long.

The chromosome number is 2n = 30,

Ecology

The beach - milk herb blooms from May to August in a rather damp salty places. During the winter, take it as Hemikryptophyt. It forms from underground runners ( stolons ) by formation of secondary beets, through which it can reproduce vegetatively. His vorweiblichen flowers are usually pollinated by insects kurzrüssligen.

Occurrence

The beach - milk herb comes on the entire northern hemisphere naturally in the meridional to the boreal climate zone. Here it grows only litoral on the coasts. Its main distribution is in northern Europe and northern Asia.

The beach - milkweed grows preferentially in very humid, saline sites which may be periodically flooded also. Typically, these are sections of coastlines. Inland this species therefore rarely occurs in natural or anthropogenically disturbed salt marshes. Due to the increasing anthropogenic influences stocks, especially in the inland go back strong. Therefore, the beach - milk herb is also in the southern states on the Red List. In Rhineland -Palatinate and Baden- Württemberg it is even regarded as extinct. In North Rhine -Westphalia and Berlin, it is threatened with extinction. In Austria, the beach - milk herb has in Zwingendorf (Lower Austria ) be single instance.

The plant has its main occurrence in halophytes corridors and is Kennart the Association Armerion maritimae and order Glauco - Puccinellietalia. It often grows along with beach - grass cloves, salt plume, Bodden - rushes, beach trident and salt environments.

After the Ellenberg indicator values ​​, it is a penumbral to the half-light plant ( L6), exhibits moderate heat, or heat to (T6 ), grows in moist sites ( F6) shows moderate nitrogen abundance of (N5 ) and endures a high salt content (S7).

Swell

• Qiming Hu & Sylvia Kelso: Primulaceae in Flora of China: Glaux maritima - Online.
• Flora of Pakistan: Glaux maritima - Online.
• Erich Oberdorfer: Phytosociological Exkursionsflora for Germany and adjacent areas. 8th edition. Stuttgart, Verlag Eugen Ulmer., 2001. ISBN 3-8001-3131-5