Uvularia

Uvularia grandiflora

The plant genus Uvularia, sometimes called Gold Seal, Gold Bells, suppositories herb or mourning bell, belongs to the family of Timeless plants ( Colchicaceae ). There are about five species, which are distributed only in eastern North America.

• 4.1 Notes and references

Description

Appearance and leaves

Uvularia species grow as perennial herbaceous plants. These geophytes form as outlasting underground, short to long rhizomes, where there are some fibrous or thickened roots. The parts of the plant are hairy hairless or downy. The cross-section strongly edged or round stem is simple or has a branch.

The alternate on the stem arranged leaves are sessile or mixed depending on the section. The leathery or membranous leaf blade is oblong - linear to oblong- ovate. There is Parallelnervatur.

Inflorescence and flower

The flowering time is in the spring to early summer. The stem or branch is via a terminal or seemingly pendant hanging inflorescence stem depending on the type usually to a maximum of four flowers. In the upper part there are parchment-like bracts.

The hermaphrodite flowers are triple. The six equal multiform bracts are free to overlap like roof tiles and are bell-like together. The early sloping bloom are linear to narrowly oblong with obtuse to acute upper end. The colors of the rich bloom depending on the type of greenish, on Whitish yellow and straw yellow to golden- yellow. At the bloom occurs nectar. There are two circles, each with three stamens present. The free or only at the base of the bracts short overgrown, bare stamens are dimorphic, ie only see the three stamens each a dust sheet circle the same. There are connectives present and the anthers are curved linear -oblong and externally. Three carpels are at a cross-section round or sharp triangular, upper continuous, dreikammerigen ovary adherent, which may be stalked. The style ends in a three-lobed stigma, with the stigma lobes if they capable of pollination bulge outward.

Fruit and seeds

The sitting or stalked, loculicidalen capsule when ripe fruits are greenish to yellowish brown, slowly open and contain one to three seeds per fruit tray. The pericarp is leathery to almost membranous.

The brownish- red seeds are spherical to ovoid. The aril is different depending on the type.

Chromosome numbers

Basic chromosome numbers be x = 6 or 7

Systematics and distribution

The Uvularia species are native to eastern North America.

The genus Uvularia was erected in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus in Species Plantarum, 1, pp. 304-305. Type species is Uvularia perfoliata. The genus name is derived from the Latin Uvularia word uvula, the medical word for uvula, this refers to the fact that the flowers hang like this organ; it was formerly with the parts of plants diseases of this organ to deal with. Synonyms for Uvularia L. are: Uffenbachia Heist. ex Fabr, Oakesia S.Watson nom. illeg. , Oakesiella Small.

The genus belongs to the tribe Uvularia Uvularieae in the family Colchicaceae. Previously, it was placed in the families Convallariaceae, Liliaceae or Uvulariaceae. The genus Uvularia is divided into two sections: Uvularia sect. Oakesiella (Small) Wilbur sect with seated and Uvularia. Uvularia with marbled leaves.

There are about five Uvularia types:

• Uvularia floridana Chapm. Thrives in biodiversity-rich hardwood forests and alluvial areas at altitudes between 0 and 100 meters in the U.S. states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina.
• Uvularia grandiflora Sm: It thrives in species-rich wet forests on calcareous to neutral soils at altitudes 0-1100 meter and in eastern Canada and the eastern United States is widespread.
• Uvularia perfoliata L.: It grows in deciduous forests and upland thickets on acidic to neutral soils at altitudes between 0 and 1000 meters; it occurs in Ontario, Canada and is widely used the eastern United States.
• Uvularia puberula Michx. Thrives in moist to dry, open forests at altitudes 0-900 meters and is widespread in the eastern United States.
• Uvularia sessilifolia L.: It thrives in moist hardwood forests and alluvial areas, in thickets and northward into xeric forests at altitudes between 0 and 1000 meters and in eastern Canada and the eastern United States is widespread.

Use

From Uvularia perfoliata and Uvularia sessilifolia the young shoots are eaten cooked as a savory asparagus substitute. The subterranean parts of plants of Uvularia sessilifolia be used for the preparation of dietary drinks.

The medical effects of Uvularia grandiflora, Uvularia perfoliata and Uvularia sessilifolia were investigated.

Uvularia grandiflora and Uvularia perfoliata be used in temperate latitudes as an ornamental plant.

Swell

• Frederick H. Utech & Shoichi Kawano Uvularia, pp. 147 - text the same online as printed work, Flora of North America Editorial Committee ( eds.): Flora of North America North of Mexico, Volume 26 - Magnoliophyta: Liliidae: Liliales and Orchidales, Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, 2002. ISBN 0-19-515208-5 (Section Description, distribution and systematics)
• Kazuhiko Hayashi, Seiji Yoshida, Hidetoshi Kato, Frederick H. Utech, Dennis F. Whigham & Shoichi Kawano: Molecular Systematics of the genus Uvularia and Selected Liliales Based upon mat K and rbc L genes Sequence Data Plant Species Biology, Volume 13, Issue 2 -3, 1998, pp. 129-146: doi: 10.1111/j.1442-1984.1998.tb00254.x