Phyteuma halleri

Haller's Devil's Claw ( Phyteuma ovatum )

The Haller Devil's Claw ( Phyteuma ovatum ) is a plant from the family of the bellflower family ( Campanulaceae ). This type is also known as Devil's Claw or Ovate egg head - Devil's Claw.

Description

Haller Devil's claw is a perennial, herbaceous plant that reaches the plant height of 30 to 100 centimeters.

The basal leaves are long-petiolate and heart-shaped. The leaf blade is about as long as wide and roughly double serrated. The stem leaves are smaller, with the top are lanceolate.

The black-violet flowers are in a dense, ovoid to cylindrical spike. The bracts are narrowly lanceolate and shorter than the ear. Before the flowering of the 10 to 15 mm long corolla tube is curved upwards. In the subalpine altitudinal zone plants also occur with yellowish to white crown, only the two scars per individual flower are brownish. Differentiation from Phyteuma spicatum is not entirely clear. Maybe these representatives are hybridogen.

The flowering period extends from June to August.

Location and distribution

The plant prefers inhabited fresh, nutrient -rich meadows and tall herb communities, green alder thickets and beech forests. It is distributed in the mountains of southern and central Europe. This species is found up to an altitude of 2400 m above sea level. In Austria it is scattered in front of the provinces of Styria, Carinthia, Tyrol and Vorarlberg.