Scrophularia oblongifolia
| Scrophularia oblongifolia | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Lamiales |
| Family: | Scrophulariaceae |
| Genus: | Scrophularia |
| Species: | S. oblongifolia
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| Binomial name | |
| Scrophularia oblongifolia Loisel. (1827)
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| Synonyms | |
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List
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Scrophularia oblongifolia (syn. S. umbrosa), green figwort, is a perennial herbaceous plant found in Europe and Asia. It grows in damp, shady places such as wet woodland and ditches.
The species looks very similar to the closely related Scrophularia auriculata (water figwort). Green figwort has a greener stem than water figwort, and lacks the leaf auricles which give water figwort its Latin name.
Description
[edit]Green Figwort is a perennial monoecious herb with a short rhizome. that grows to about 100 cm tall. The whole plant is pale green coloured, sometimes with a hint of brown or purple, and completely glabrous (hairless). The stem is square in section, with broad wings at the angles, and generally rather weak, causing the plant to sprawl over over vegetation rather than growing upright on its own.
The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs on petioles up to 15 mm long, with an ovate to oblong blade of about 12 x 4 cm and a fairly pointed tip, with a rounded (but not cordate) base. The margins are more sharply serrated than in water figwort.
The inflorescence is a panicle, essentially an extension of the main stem, that consists of opposite pairs of rather lax cymes which arise from the axils of the bracts (upper leaves). Each flower has a pedicel about 5 mm long, the same length as the flower. The calyx and corolla are 5-lobed, but the lobes of the corolla are grouped into two "lips" - the upper one made of two of the lobes and the lower one of the other three, which are almost fused. The flowers are bisexual with 4 fertile stamens and 1 sterile staminode, which is distinctively 2-lobed. There is one style with a capitate (blob-shaped) stigma.
At maturity, the fruit is a round capsule some 4-6 mm long, containing many tiny, brown wrinkled seeds about 0.5 mm in diameter. [2][3]
Taxonomy
[edit]The name Scrophularia oblongifolia was coined by the French botanist Jean-Louis-Auguste Loiseleur-Deslongchamps in Mémoires de la Société linnéenne de Paris vol. 6, p. 418 (1827).[4] The same year, the Belgian botanist Barthélemy Charles Joseph Dumortier named a rather similar plant Scrophularia umbrosa in his Florula Belgica.[5][6] The descriptions of both are rather scanty and there has long been speculation that they may be the same species;[3] currently they are, so the correct name should be S. oblongifolia, as that one was published first.
In Britain, this species was first described by C.A. Stevens and William Allport Leighton in 1840 from a specimen in the Linnaean Herbarium that had been collected by the German botanist Jakob Friedrich Ehrhart some 50 years earlier and mis-labelled S. aquatica (= S. auriculata). However, this was a continental specimen, not a British one, and so it does not count as the first British record, although various publications make that claim. Stevens named the apparently new species Scrophularia Ehrharti, which makes that name a synonym of S. oblongifolia.[7][8][9]
Identification
[edit]Green figwort is very similar to the much commoner water figwort, which is why it was overlooked by botanists for so long. Differences include the leaf shape (sometimes lobed in water figwort), the teeth on the leaf margin (blunter in water figwort), and the shape of the staminode, which is bilobed in green figwort vs. entire in water figwort.[3]
Distribution and status
[edit]Green figwort is native to Europe and western Asia, as far north as the Baltic states and eastward to Xinjiang. It does not occur in Africa and in Sweden it is considered to be a recent introduction. It is not otherwise recorded as an introduction outside its natural range.[1] There are old records of a figwort, either green- or water-figwort (accounts differ), as a casual in harbours in New York and Pennsylvania in the 19th century, but it did not persist.[10]
In Britain there are several areas where green figwort is quite common. These are centred on several major river basins, such as the lower Severn in Worcestershire and neighbouring counties. Possibly the first British record is from this area, in 1848, when it was found by J.H. Thompson beside the Sapey Brook.[11]
The global conservation status of this species, as of 2013, is Least Concern,[12] as it is in Britain and France.[13] In Ireland, however, it is much rarer and considered to be Near Threatened in the Republic,[14] and protected under Schedule 8 of the Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order in the north.[15][16]
Habitat and ecology
[edit]The habitat of green figwort is on the edge of ditches and small streams, where it trails over other plants rather than growing erect. It is found in swamps of sedges such as false fox-sedge or in light woodland, typically slightly calcareous W8 ash woodland in Britain.[9] Its Ellenberg values in Britain are L = 7, F = 9, R = 7, N = 7, and S = 0, which describe its habitat as semi-open, very wet, with a neutral pH and moderate fertility; but no salt.[17]
There is no information on the toxicity of green figwort specifically, but the closely-related water figwort has been reported to cause sickness in young cattle that ate it, and the same might well be true of green figwort.[18]
It is pollinated by bees and wasps. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade, but requires moist or wet soil.[19]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Scrophularia oblongifolia Loisel. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
- ^ Sell, Peter; Murrell, Gina (2009). Flora of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- ^ a b c Stace, C.A. (2019). New Flora of the British Isles (4th ed.). Suffolk: C&M Floristics. ISBN 978-1-5272-2630-2.
- ^ "Scrophularia oblongifolia Loisel". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2024-12-18.
- ^ "Scrophularia umbrosa Dumort". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2024-12-18.
- ^ Du Mortier, B.-C.; Du Mortier, B.-C.; Spring, Anton Friedrich; Durand, Théophile Alexis (1827). Florula Belgica, operis majoris prodromus, auctore B.C. Dumortier. Staminacia. Tornaci Nerviorum: Typis J. Casterman.
- ^ Leighton, W.A. (1841). A Flora of Shropshire. London: John van Voorst.
- ^ Clarke, W.A. (1900). First Records of British Flowering Plants. London: West, Newman & Co.
- ^ a b Lockton, Alex; Whild, Sarah (2015). The Flora and Vegetation of Shropshire. Montford Bridge: Shropshire Botanical Society. ISBN 978-0-9530937-2-4.
- ^ "Scrophularia - FNA". floranorthamerica.org. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
- ^ Maskew, Roger (2014). The Flora of Worcestershire. Stoke Bliss: Roger Maskew. ISBN 978-0-9926693-0-0.
- ^ IUCN - Scrophularia umbrosa
- ^ "Scrofulaire à feuilles oblongues". Inventaire National du Patrimoine Naturel. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
- ^ "Red Lists | National Parks & Wildlife Service". www.npws.ie. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
- ^ "The Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order 1985". www.legislation.gov.uk. Expert Participation. Archived from the original on 2024-06-24. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ Online Atlas of British and Irish Flora - Scrophularia umbrosa
- ^ Hill, M.O.; Mountford, J.O.; Roy, D.B.; Bunce, R.G.H. (1999). Ellenberg's indicator values for British plants. ECOFACT Volume 2. Technical Annex (PDF). Institute of Terrestrial Ecology. ISBN 1870393481. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
- ^ Cooper, M.R.; Johnson, A.W.; Dauncey, E.A. (2003). Poisonous Plants and Fungi. London: The Stationery Office. ISBN 0-11-702861-4.
- ^ Plants for Life database