Image of Horseshoe-vetch

Description:

Slo.: navadna podkvica - Habitat: alpine pasture, modestly southeast inclined mountain slope; calcareous, skeletal ground; open, dry place, full sun, exposed to direct rain, average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 7-9 deg C, elevation 610 m (2.000 feet), alpine phytogeographical region. Substratum: shallow soil, among low grasses and mosses, also on nearly barren ground. Comment: Hippocrepis comosa is a common plant and distributed all over the Europe. It grows in all regions of the Alps and in all other European mountains from lowland to subalpine elevations. The plant is small and of low growth and its beauty is seldom admired in spite of its colorful flowers. Hippocrepis comosa is often confused with another common plant - Coronilla vaginalis. Both plants have very similar habitus and flowers, often grow together and both are variable. Distinguishing them with certainty requires some attention. One has to observe the following small detail. This is a pair of small leaf-like structures, which grow from the main stem of the plant at the points where petioles (leaves stalks) are attached to it (see picture 7). They are very small with Hippocrepis comosa, while with Coronilla vaginalis they are much larger, almost as large as a leaflet of the pinnate leaves. They are fused together, so they form a kind of vagina. Ref.: (1) M.A. Fischer, W. Adler, K. Oswald, Exkursionsflora fr sterreich, Liechtenstein und Sdtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 580. (2) A. Martini et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnina Zaloba Slovenije (2007), p 316. (3) D. Aeschimann, K. Lauber, D.M. Moser, J.P. Theurillat, Flora Alpina, Vol. 1., Haupt (2004), p 950. (4) K. Lauber and G. Wagner, Flora Helvetica, 5. Auflage, Haupt (2012), p 627.