Wulfenia carinthiaca

Carinthian Wulfenie ( wulfenia carinthiaca )

The Carinthian Wulfenie ( wulfenia carinthiaca ), also called Kuhtritt, is a plant from the family of the plantain family ( Plantaginaceae ).

The species is named after Franz Xaver von Wulfen, who discovered it in 1779 on the Gartnerkofel in Carinthia.

• 3.1 Notes and references

Features

The Carinthian Wulfenie is a perennial rosette plant and reaches stature heights of 30 to 40, rarely up to 50 cm. The leaves are undivided. The rosette leaves are inversely egg-shaped, 15-20 cm long, notched, shiny and almost bald. On stems are changing constantly shed leaves. The stems are erect, and are simply spring from the horizontally growing, branched rhizome. The plant is glabrous except the petioles and leaf midribs. The rosette leaves overwinter and give the plant in early spring a development advantage over other plant species.

The inflorescence is 20-30 cm high, bears scale leaves and is einseitswendig. The flowers are tight. The cup is fünfzählig and up to 8 mm long. The crown is blue-violet, and 12 to 15 mm long. Bloom time is in July. As pollinators, bees and bumblebees are suspected.

The fruits are vielsamige capsules which open with four flaps and are slightly shorter than the calyx.

The chromosome number is 2n = 18

Systematics and distribution

The species is divided into two subspecies, which were previously managed as separate species:

Subspecies carinthiaca

The nominate, wulfenia carinthiaca subsp. carinthiaca occurs only on a very small area on the Gartnerkofel in the Carnic Alps. My site covers 10 km ². On the Austrian side it grows on Garnitzenalm, the Kühwegeralm and Watschigeralm, on the Italian side on the Auernigalm and Zirkelalm. In its area, it is not rare, but is considered due to the smallness of the area as endangered and is fully protected in Carinthia. A angesalbter inventory is located at Radhausberg in Bad Gastein (Salzburg).

It grows in Hochstaudenfluren and pasture grass especially the subalpine altitudinal zone, mainly 1300-2000 m above sea level, but also descends to 1000 m. It is light demanding, in shady locations such as green alder bushes it does not come to bloom. It prefers a good water and nutrient supply. The soil should be neutral to slightly acidic at a pH of 5.4 to 7.3. Strongly acidic and basic soils avoids them.

Subspecies blecicii

The plants of the subspecies blecicii hardly differ from those of the subspecies carinthiaca. Their populations are, however, of which the nominate separated 700 km: they come in Prokletija mountains before the border between Montenegro, Kosovo and Albania and colonize an area of ​​approximately 400 km ².

Documents

• M. Staudinger: wulfenia carinthiaca, in: Wolfgang Rabitsch, Franz Essl: endemics - treasures in Austria's flora and fauna. Naturwissenschaftlicher Association for Carinthia and Umweltbundesamt GmbH, Klagenfurt and Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-85328-049-2, pp. 253f.
• Siegmund Seybold (ed.): Schmeil Fitschen - interactive ( CD -Rom ), Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2001/2002, ISBN 3-494-01327-6 ( Features )
• M. A. Fischer, K. Oswald, W. Adler: Exkursionsflora for Austria, Liechtenstein and South Tyrol. Third Edition, Upper Austria, Biology Centre of the Upper Austrian Provincial Museum, Linz 2008, ISBN 978-3-85474-187-9