Rumex acetosella

Sheep Sorrel ( Rumex acetosella ), habitus

The Little Sorrel ( Rumex acetosella ), also called dwarf sorrel or Little Sorrel, is a species of the genus of dock ( Rumex ).

Description

The Little Sorrel is a perennial herbaceous plant that reaches the heights of growth between 10 and 40 centimeters. From a " rhizome " drive usually several stems arching to upright ascending from. You are unbranched in the lower half, but often run up branching and reddish.

The leaves are very variable, between 1.5 and 5 cm in size and shape, the ratio between length and width is between three and eight. At the plant base, the leaves are often long-petiolate, stalk above the middle but only short handle or sitting. The basal leaves often have a significantly pike -shaped base with two horizontally projecting basal lobes, whereas in the stem leaves or inner rosette leaves of the leaf base is often truncated. At the leaves, which have a pike -shaped base, the middle lobe is lanceolate and often pointed, but not egg-shaped. The side leaf sheaths have a lanceolate slashed top. The leaves have a bitter taste.

From May to July, the Little Sorrel is Rispige inflorescences with numerous erect or slightly arched, projecting, slightly branched side branches from. The flowers are usually unisexual and very rarely hermaphrodite. As a rule, are male and female flowers on different plants. The individual flowers are arranged in loose balls and standing forth in the rule not the armpit of a supporting sheet.

The Valven are not or only barely larger than the fruit and not adherent to it. They carry sublime nerves and no calluses. The fruits are 1.3 to 1.5 mm long dark brown shiny nuts. You are always longer than wide. Fruit ripening begins from the end of June, an important detail to distinguish from Hüllfrüchtigen sorrel ( Rumex angiocarpus ).

Dissemination

The Little Sorrel is native to most of Europe. The southern boundary of the distribution area is Crete, the northern boundary of the North Cape. To the east, the species is widespread throughout Siberia to Manchuria and Japan. Part areas are in the Atlas Mountains, in southwest and central Asia as well as in northeastern Asia Minor. In the U.S. there are neophyte occurrence, there is the widespread invasive species and is considered a noxious weed ( " noxious weed" ).

This species needs a nutrient-poor, at best slightly acidic soil that is optimally rather loosely as fixed. Happy heathen, sandy meadows, gravel plains, acidic mats, acidic lands or wall cracks are populated. In the Alps, the distribution area rises up to 1500 m.

System

The morphological differences between Hüllfrüchtigen sorrel ( Rumex angiocarpus ) Schmalblättrigem sorrel ( Rumex tenuifolius ) 's Small sorrel ( Rumex acetosella ) and Rumex graminifolius are not working out sharp and do not justify their own species. Genetically, the four species, a polyploid series:

• Rumex angiocarpus, 2n = 14 ( diploid)
• Rumex tenuifolius, 2n = 28 ( tetraploid )
• Rumex acetosella, 2n = 42 ( hexaploid )
• Rumex graminifolius, 2n = 56 ( oktoploid )

However, these diverse sets of chromosomes and existing sterility barriers justify a classification in four different ways. Occasionally, however, they are nevertheless in a collective species Rumex acetosella agg. summarized.

In addition, the Little Sorrel has next to nominotypischen taxon three subspecies:

• Rumex acetosella subsp. acetoselloides ( Balansa ) Den Nijs
• Rumex acetosella subsp. multifidus (L.) Arcang.
• Rumex acetosella subsp. pyrenaicus ( Pourr. ex Lapeyr. ) Akeroyd

Sheep Sorrel and man

The Little Sorrel heard depending on natural space to frequent to very frequent or only scattered occurring species. Due to its wide ecological valence and the property well to settle on the newly created People of sites and at least temporarily, to assert that the species is neither declining nor in need of protection. The Little Sorrel tolerate a double mowing in June and is only slightly sensitive to fires.

Plant parts contain abundant oxalic acid, which is harmful in larger quantities for everyone, especially for people with kidney disease. If it is eaten by the cattle in large quantities, it causes diarrhea.

The oldest fossil evidence of the species comes from the Boreal / Atlantic period and 1931 in Moosburg ( Federseemuseum ) found. The earliest literary mention is by Johann ileocecal from the year 1592nd Jerome Harder also collected the species in Baden- Württemberg in the 16th century.