Tolmiea

Hen with chicks ( Tolmiea menziesii)

Hen with chicks ( Tolmiea menziesii), also known as Alive sheet, is the only species in the genus Tolmiea in the family Saxifragaceae ( Saxifragaceae ). It is located in north-western North America and is used as an ornamental plant in parks, gardens and rooms.

Description

Vegetative characteristics

The hen with chicks is an evergreen, perennial, herbaceous plant. It is a rhizome formed as Überdauerungsorgan; it can be seen on his halbaren leaf bases.

The stalked leaves are arranged in a basal rosette and on the stem. The leaf blade is ovate and weakly with a length of up to 10 centimeters five to siebenlappig with sweetheart Spreitenbasis and usually acute, rarely obtuse upper end. The leaf margin is serrated cut more or less irregularly up and almost every leaf tooth ending in a glandular hair. The stem leaves are at most slightly longer than wide, the length to width ratio is on average 0.9 ( 0.6 to 1.1 ). The leaf blade often has leaf buds, which are used for vegetative propagation and to which their trivial names refer. There are Stipules present.

Generative features

The flowers are borne in a racemose inflorescence. They stand on a flower stem in each case on a cover sheet. The hermaphrodite flowers are zygomorphic with a double perianth. The flower cup ( hypanthium ) is deeply incised at its base. The top three sepals are blunt, pointed, and the two lower smaller than the upper. There are four petals present. The usually three, rarely there are only two stamens have thin filaments and are inserted on top of the flower cup. Two carpels are fused to a constant above, unilocular ovary only in the lower range. The mostly two stylus are brown, filiform and recurved.

The flowering period extends from May to June.

The capsule fruit is zweischnabig. The almost black seeds are almost spherical and considerably prickly.

The chromosome number is 2n = 28

Occurrence

Hen with chicks occurs in British Columbia, Alaska, Oregon and Washington in the northwestern North America. It grows on river banks and in moist forests at altitudes 0-1800 meters.

Use

Hen with chickens scattered used as an ornamental plant for groups of trees, traffic lights, balconies and rooms. It is in culture at least since 1812. The variety ' Taff 's Gold' has bright green leaves that are covered with white and yellow spots or dots.

Documents

• Douglas E. Soltis, Walter S. Judd, Pamela S. Soltis, Patrick E. Elvander: Tolmiea in the Flora of North America, Volume 8, 2009, p 108: Tolmiea menziesii - Online. (Section Description, systematics and distribution, there are two types )
• Eckhart J. Hunter, Friedrich Ebel, Peter Hanelt, Gerd Müller, K. (ed.): Rothmaler Exkursionsflora of Germany. Volume 5: Herbaceous ornamental and useful plants. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg 2008, ISBN 978-3-8274-0918-8.
• Cheers Gordon (ed.): Botanica: The ABC's of plants. 10,000 species in text and image. Könemann Publishing Company, 2003, ISBN 3-8331-1600-5 ( in page 891-892 ).