Euphrasia-rostkoviana_4

Description:

Euphrasia rostkoviana Hayne, syn.: Euphrasia officinalis L. ssp. rostkoviana, Euphrasia pratensis Fr.Family: Orobanchaceae Vent.EN: Eyebright, Eyewort, DE: Bunter Augentrost (?)Slo.: navadna smetlikaDat.: Sept. 15. 2019Lat.: 46.35993 Long.: 13.70712 (WGS84)Code: Bot_1252/2019_DSC7660Habitat: extensively used grassland, mowed once a year (exceptionally two times), fertilized once a year with barn manure; flat terrain; full sun, moderately dry and shallow soil on calcareous, alluvial deposits; elevation 540 m (1.770 feet); average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 6-8 deg C, alpine phytogeographical region. Substratum: soil.Place: Lower Trenta valley, between villages Soa and Trenta, right bank of river Soa; near Otokar farmhouse, Trenta 4; East Julian Alps, Posoje, Slovenia EC. Comment: (relates to the album Euphrasia rostkoviana): Eyebrights (Euphrasia) species are easy to recognize on genus level by their beautiful and typical flowers but extremely difficult for determination on species level (and lower taxonomical levels). They are very variable and hybridize frequently. Botanists have not yet reached a consensus about the number of different taxa in the genus In 1753 Linnaeus started official naming of these plants with two species Euphrasia officinalis and Euphrasia tricuspidata. The former one was, of cause, a collective name for a 'sea' of different varieties and forms. Later the number of recognized and described taxa grew gradually. So, in 1896 R. von Wettstein (Ref.4) wrote an exhaustive world revision of the genus (about 350-page book!). He described already over hundred taxa. Yeo (Ref.3) described 48 European species in 1978 and in 2008 Vitek in Fischer et al. (Ref.1) estimates about 170 species worldwide and about 47 in Europe. Nomenclature is huge and veered. Already at the end of 19th century more than 500 different names were known, some of them applied to different taxa as well as several different once applied to the same taxon. Euphrasia rostkoviana is originally an European floral element. It is one of the most common species of this genus in Europe. It can be found wild from Spain to Ural Mountains and from Scandinavia to Turkey. It is a semi-parasitic plant partly taking water and nutrients from roots of neighboring plants, most often grasses. Its medical uses are widely known. It has traditionally been used to relieve eye irritations and to treat seasonal allergies or hay fever among others.Note the following characteristic traits of this species: erect habit, much longer cauline internodes than the subtending leaves, long glandular hairs on leaves and calyx (and some on stalk too), ovate or orbicular leaves with 2-4 teeth on each side with rounded or broadly cuneate base, teeth about as long as broad with convex sides and not acuminate or aristate apex, relatively large corolla, lower lip no longer than 1.5x upper lip, the flower tube extended at the end of anthese (see Fig.1 and 2), length of the capsule less than two times its width, slightly shorter than calyx and emarginate at the apex and finally, typical habitat.Ref.(1) M.A. Fischer, W. Adler, K. Oswald, Exkursionsflora fr sterreich, Liechtenstein und Sdtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 752.(2) A. Martini et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnina Zaloba Slovenije (2007), p 564.(3) P.F. Yeo, A taxonomic revision of Euphrasia in Europe, (1978) Bot. Journ. of the Linneae Soc, 77:223-334. (4) R.V. Wettstein, Monographie der Gattung Euphrasia(1986), Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig.