Erodium-malacoides_5

Descrição:

Erodium malacoides (L.) L'Hr., syn.: Geranium malacoides L., Erodium althaeoides Jord., Erodium malvaceum Jord., Erodium subtrilobum Jord.Family: Geraniaceae Juss.EN: Mediterranean Stork's bill, Soft Stork's-bill, Heron's Bill.; DE: Herzblatt-Reiherschnabel, Malvenblttriger ReiherschnabelSlo.: srasto listni apljevecDat.: April 17. 2023 Lat.: 44.52653 Long.: 14.48171Code: Bot_1515/2023_DSC2566 Habitat: grassland patches near sea shore; semiruderal place: locally almost flat terrain; calcareous ground; open, sunny place; precipitations ~ 1.000 mm/year, average temperature 13-14 deg C, elevations 10 m (33 feet), Sub-Mediterranean phytogeographical region. Substratum: soil.Place: Adriatic Sea region, island Loinj, Valdarke beach east of the town Mali Loinj, Kvarner bay, Rijeka region, Croatia. Comments (pertain to pictures in Flicker album Erodium malacoides): Erodium malacoides is originally a South European, North African and west Asia species, but it is now introduced to all continents of the globe (Ref. 5). The name of the genus comes from the Greek word 'Erodios' meaning a heron suggesting the similarity of the long neck of the heron with the long beak of the fruit of Erodium malacoides. Although the flowers are small, the beak can be as much as 3.5 cm long. 'Malacoides' derives from Greek word 'malakos' meaning soft referring to the leaves.The seeds of the plant are marvelously designed (Fig. 7). They can drill themselves into the ground. To hide themselves from hot, dry soil surface in the Mediterranean late spring and summer conditions is essential for seeds, when they germinate. The case of a seed (mericarp) of the Erodium malacoides (and other Geraniaceae) is narrowly cone shaped, so it can easily find a crack in the soil and protrude in it. It is covered by stiff hairs, which all are oriented at an optimal angle so they exert little friction during driving into the soil, but prevent pulling the seed out of the ground, when it is in place. The driving force resides in the long, coil shaped (when dry), 'tail' (part of the former beak) of the mericarp. The coil starts to unwind itself under the influence of the humidity and hence drives the mericarp with the seed into v soil. The coil has at the other end a long 'lever', which randomly sticks to some ground surface obstacle and hence allows that all rotational moment of the unwinding coil is effected at the tip of the seed case. A perfectly designed 'drilling machine', which is automatically activated when the soil becomes softer (due to moist, rain) (Fig.7). Do you really need a more spectacular miracle?Ref.:(1) A. Martini et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnina Zaloba Slovenije (2007), p 352. (2) W.K. Rottensteiner, Exkursionsflora fr Istrien, Verlag des Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins Krten (2014), p 517.(3) T. Nikoli, Flora Croatica, Vaskularna flora Republike Hrvatske, Vol. 3. Alfa d.d.. Zagreb (2020) p 27,(4) M. Blamey, C. Grey-Wilson, Wild Flowers of the Mediterranean, A & C Black, London (2005), p 113.(5) powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:372332-1 (accessed: July 2. 2023)