Rhynchospora alba
Inflorescence of white beak Ried ( Rhynchospora alba)
The White beak-sedge ( Rhynchospora alba) belongs to the family of the Sedge family ( Cyperaceae ). Another common name is white beak rush. It is a distinctive kind in wet depressions ( hollows ) Bult - bog complexes in rain Moor centers and silted Direction of quaking Moorkolke.
Features
The perennial herbaceous plant reaches heights of growth between 10 and 40, sometimes up to 65 centimeters. This deciduous Hemikryptophyt forms loose turf. The rhizome is no or only short runners, but ten to 20 millimeters long whitish winter onions. The stems are erect and leafy, triangular in cross-section and surface upward rough. The leaf sheaths are yellow -brown; the bottom do not have leaf blades. These are flat - rinnig up to two millimeters wide and at the edge and at the top a bit rough.
The bracts of the inflorescence are leaves- leaf-like, about as long or slightly longer than this. The inflorescence consists of several stalked, like the head of contracted Spirren. Each Spirre has two to five Short-stalked, whitish at first, later yellow -brown to almost reddish spikelets. These are round and about 4 to 5 mm long, ovate to oblong, pointed and rounded. A spikelet consists of two to three hermaphroditic flowers and at the bottom two or three sterile glumes. The initially white and later reddish glumes are ovate lanceolate and mucronate. The light brown Hüllfäden the perianth ( perianth ) are nine to thirteen millimeters long and shorter than the fruit. At the bottom, they wear long cilia. The flower has two stamens ( anthers ) and scars. The caryopsis ( a special type of nut fruit ) is compressed lens- shaped and has two sharp edges. They are one and a half to two millimeters long and light brown. The remaining pen -based forms in the fruit of a beak-like appendage, which the name refers. The yellow-brown fruit is 2.0 to 2.5 millimeters long. The flowering period extends from June to August.
Possible confusion
A possible confusion of the kind exists with the habitually very similar, but much rarer brown beak sedge ( Rhynchospora fusca ). These forms foothills. The Spirren are widely dominated by mostly one to two bracts. The sessile ( sedentary ) spikelets are dark brown to reddish brown.
Distribution and location
The White beak-sedge occurs in almost all of Europe before, with the exception of the far north and south. It is also native to North America and Asia. It grows on waterlogged, often bare, lime -and base- poor peat and peat mud into oxygen intermediate bogs and peat bog rain and moss -rich quaking, rarely also a pioneer on sandy, humus-rich soils. Its total area is given as ten million to one and a half billion km ². His area share in Germany is 10% to 30 %. In Germany is the kind of always been native ( indigenous ).
Socialization
At these locations, the plant forms often species-poor small harrows Riede. Your main deposit is located in the plant communities of the order of the pioneer communities of bog hollows ( Scheuchzerietalia palustris).
Within the Association of Rhynchosporion albae the White beak-sedge forms the Kennart the Association of Rhynchosporetum albae. The low competitive and less productive stocks are often trained sparse and very small areas. They are composed of Middle Sundew ( Drosera intermedia), Sumpfbärlapp ( Lycopodiella inundata ) and Schmalblättrigem cotton grass ( Eriophorum angustifolium). The companies usually form in hollows of the central rain bogs of Central Europe in small areas structured mosaics with the dwarf shrub rich Highmoorpath Torfmoosgesellschaften Class Oxycocco - Sphagnetea to drier tussocks ( Bult - bog complex) from.
In addition, the plant has a major presence in oxygen intermediate bogs in rare thread harrows transition Moor ( Caricetum lasiocarpae ). The plant community often occurs in close contact with bogs and forms to bog waters such as bog pools and ponds Heath quaking from.
Finally, the sour grass heathland in the order of the cross-leaved heath -Moore ( Sphagno - Ericetalia ) often together with Deutsche grass bulrush ( Trichophorum cespitosum subsp. Anglicum ) occurs.
Ecology
Ecological indicator values according to Ellenberg: L - 8 T - 5 K - 3 F - 9 = R - 3 N - 2 S - 0
The White beak-sedge is a half - light to full light plant, bears only a slight shading. His focus is on ecological often sodden little air, nitrogen-poor and acidic soils. It overwinters with Winterzwiebelchen from which it shoots emerging in spring.
The flowers are pollinated by the wind ( anemophily ). The fruits are spread via Velcro spread.
The White beak-sedge is a so-called stress strategist, which means it has at low biomass growth and low competitive strength adaptations to extreme site conditions developed so that it is not there beset by other species. So it colonized bare peat bogs usually as a pioneer.
Threats and conservation
The White beak-sedge is valid throughout Europe not as a risk, and is not world separately protected by law. In Germany it is considered endangered. Similarly, it applies in all federal states as endangered to critically endangered. In Saxony -Anhalt, Saarland, Hesse, and Berlin, it is considered an endangered species. In Germany their population dynamics is whether the decline of their natural sites considered to be in decline.
In Switzerland, the White beak-sedge is considered near threatened ( NC, near threatened ). In some cantons, it is considered endangered ( EN, endangered ) to critically endangered ( CR, critical endangered ).
The causes of danger lie in the cultivation of high moors and heathland, Abtorfung, eutrophication and drainage of bogs and wet heaths.