Saxifraga oppositifolia
Purple saxifrage ( Saxifraga oppositifolia )
The Gegenblättrige saxifrage ( Saxifraga oppositifolia ) belongs to the genus Saxifrage ( Saxifraga ) and of the family Saxifragaceae ( Saxifragaceae ).
Description and ecology
The Gegenblättrige saxifrage grows as a perennial herbaceous plant that reaches heights of growth from 1 to 5 cm and forms loose grass or loose, rare solid cushion. The small, undergraduate rosettes against constantly standing leaves are obovate to oblong- lanceolate and 2.5 to 5 mm long. You are ciliated at the edge and hold at the top of a (rarely three) kalkausscheidendes dimples.
The flower stems are mostly naked axes and bear only one flower. The radial symmetry, hermaphrodite, five petals are pink to purple and have a diameter of 1-2 cm. The five sepals are ciliated and often red. The five purple pink to wine-red, fading petals are broad - lanceolate to obovate and two to three times as long as the sepals.
The flowering period extends from May to August.
The species has 2n chromosome numbers = 26 or 52, but 39 or 56
Occurrence
The Gegenblättrige saxifrage preferred in temperate latitudes open stony turf and moraines at altitudes 1600-4500 meters. In Switzerland, lush flowering cushions of this plant were discovered at an altitude of 4505 m below the summit of the cathedral, which thus constitutes, moreover, also the world 's highest flowering plant in Europe, the probably coldest location in which a flowering plant was found. In the north of its range it grows at lower altitudes.
He settled with his subspecies areas of the Spanish Sierra Nevada in the south to Greenland in the north. There he is still growing at 83 ° 40'N on the Kaffeklubben Island, which is generally regarded as the northernmost dry land Earth, and is thus - together with the there also occurring Arctic Poppy (Papaver radicatum ) - the most northerly growing higher plant species. It grows eastward to Siberia and Kashmir and belongs to Nivalflora.
Subspecies
When Gegenblättrigen saxifrage one distinguishes at least six subspecies in Europe:
- Bodensee- saxifrage ( Saxifraga oppositifolia subsp amphibia ( Sünd. ) Br.-Bl.. ); he was endemic at Lake Constance and is considered to be extinct since 1956
- Saxifraga oppositifolia subsp. blepharophylla (A. Kerner ex Hayek ) Vollmann; This subspecies is found only in the Eastern Alps in Austria
- Saxifraga oppositifolia subsp. murithiana ( Tissières ) Br.-Bl., is found only in south-western Europe and in the Alps, in Spain, France, Italy and Switzerland
- Saxifraga oppositifolia subsp. oppositifolia, arrives in Europe in the mountains, Western, Central and Southern Europe as well as in northern Europe before
- Saxifraga oppositifolia subsp. paradoxa D. A. Webb, occurs only in the Pyrenees (Spain and France)
- Saxifraga oppositifolia subsp. speciosa ( Dörfler & Hayek ) Engler & Irmscher, is found only in the mountains in central Italy.
The Rudolph saxifrage ( Saxifraga rudolphiana WDJ Koch) is by some authors as a subspecies Saxifraga oppositifolia subsp also. rudolphiana ( Hornsch. ) Nyman asked to Gegenblättrigen saxifrage.
In Asia, there is another subspecies:
- Saxifraga oppositifolia subsp. asiatica ( Hayek ) Engl & Irmscher; it occurs in East Asia, Central Asia, in Eastern Siberia, in the Tiber River and Kashmir.
Ecology
The evergreen leaves tolerate temperatures down to -40 ° C without damage. The flowers are already created in the late summer and autumn of last year. The flowers are very resistant to the cold and endure temperatures down to -15 ° C. The new shoots of sensitive leaves occurs only later, when the danger of freezing is over. The seeds weigh only 0.0001 g and spread with the wind.
The few pollinators in the high mountains are attracted by a disproportionately large flowers. Due to the upholstery growth is reached a cluster of flowers and thereby achieves a greater signaling effect.
Pictures
In Greenland
On Spitsbergen
On Bear Island
In the South Tyrolean Alps
In the Carpathians