Honckenya

Illustration of salt chickweed ( Honckenya peploides )

The salt chickweed ( Honckenya peploides ), also called Strandportulak, is the only species of the genus Honckenya in the carnation family ( Caryophyllaceae ). This low-growing plant beach is so robust that she endures life in the moving beach area and is a valuable aid in coastal protection. At appropriate places it forms large mats. They are found circumpolar to the sea shores of Eurasia and North America.

• 5.1 Notes and references
• 5.2 External links

Description

Vegetative characteristics

The salt chickweed grows as an evergreen, perennial herbaceous plant, reaching stature heights of 10 to 30 cm. This salt plant ( Halophyt ) has succulent leaves. It forms an extensive root system. If they buried under the sand, it sends new stems upwards. The bald fleshy stem is decumbent to ascending, square to roundish and rooting at the nodes.

The yellow- green, the stalk resting leaves are arranged in a cross - opposite sides. As an adaptation to the location of the beach leaves are equipped with salt glands, can be excreted by the excess salt. The bare and fleshy leaf blades are ovate with a length of 1 to 4 centimeters and a width of 3 to 20 mm. Stipules are not available.

Generative features

The flowering period extends from May to August. It sits only one flower on the end of a stalk branching, each springs from the leaf axils and so the inflorescence umbel forms a sham.

The inconspicuous flowers are fünfzählig. There are five ovate - lanceolate sepals present. The five white -green to ivory colored petals are oblong ovate and entire. The 2 to 3 millimeters long petals are about as long as the sepals. Besides unisexual, hermaphrodic flowers occur. In female and hermaphrodite flowers three pens are available. In the female pollen and petals are stunted, while the male flowers do not form a stylus.

The seeds ripen from June to September. The with a diameter of 6 to 10 mm, almost spherical fruit capsule opens with three tabs from which the seeds fall out when moving. The teardrop-shaped, smooth, chestnut- brown seeds are 2-4 mm long.

The chromosome number is n = 24,32,33.

Occurrence and ecology

The salt chickweed is used in several subspecies circumpolar in almost all northern coastlines of Eurasia and North America. They settled in unconsolidated Vordünen and Spülsäumen the coasts until just prior to Flutsaum. On these exposed places it not only keeps sand drifts and flooding with sea water, but also was the desiccating winds and the blazing sun. At relatively unaffected marine coastal areas is widespread. It is characteristic of the phytosociological association Salsolo - Honckenyion peploides ( Salt Herb Spülsaum companies). It requires sunny places in moist to wet saline containing sand with a chloride content to 0.9 %.

Your Überdauerungsknospen are both underground ( Geophyt ) and at the surface ( Hemikryptophyt ). It occurs in larger, sometimes forming groups existed. About the rooting of stem nodes, the type also spreads vegetatively.

Pollination is by insects rarely, but the pollen is carried by drifting sand from flower to flower; this type of wind propagation is very rare. The hermaphrodite flowers can also self-pollinate.

System

This species was first published in 1753 under the name Arenaria peploides by Carl Linnaeus in Species Plantarum, 1, p 423. Jakob Friedrich Ehrhart introduced in 1783 with her as the type species of the genus Honckenya peploides Honckenya in New magazine for physicians, 5, p 206. The genus name honors the German botanist Gerhard Honckenya August Honckeny ( 1724-1805 ). Another synonym for Honckenya peploides (L.) Ehrh. is Minuartia peploides (L.) Hiern.

There are four subspecies of the salt chickweed ( Honckenya peploides (L.) Ehrh. ) Distinguished:

• Honckenya peploides subsp. diffusa ( Hornem. ) Hultén: The main stem has many nodes at a distance of five to thirty millimeters. He is busy evenly with leaves and has about the same length as the lateral stems. The seeds are yellowish to reddish brown. This subspecies blooms in summer and is particularly common in the arctic regions of Eurasia and North America.
• Honckenya peploides subsp. major ( Hook. ) Hultén: The main stem has few nodes and the leaf pairs are far apart on him, he is also much longer than the lateral stems. Main distribution areas are the west coast of North America and the Pacific coasts of northern East Asia.
• Honckenya peploides subsp. peploides (L.) Ehrh. main distribution area are the European seashores.
• Honckenya peploides subsp. robusta ( Fernald ) Hultén: plant with few ascending stems that are too weak to stand upright but with just a few simple branches. Branching nodes on the main stem every 10 to 55 mm. The sepals are four to seven millimeters longer and blunt at the tip. Main distribution area is the North American east coast.

Use

The young sprouts are rich in vitamin C and A. They can be eaten raw or cooked and taste sour. At best they should be as long as the plant is not yet in bloom. The preparation in the form of sauerkraut is in use. In Iceland, the salt chickweed is inserted in whey and fermented into liquor.

Sources and further information

The article is mainly based on the following documents: