Seedlings of the North-western European lowland A flora of seedlings This publication was sponsored by "Fonds Landbouw Export Bureau 1916/1918", Wageningen. The drawings were prepared with assistance from the Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research (ZWO), The Hague and the Royal Netherlands Botanical Society, Utrecht. SEEDLINGS OF THE NORTH-WESTERN EUROPEAN LOWLAND A flora of seedlings Dr F. M. Muller Springer-Science+Business Media, B.V. 1978 ISBN 978-94-009-9983-1 ISBN 978-94-009-9981-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-009-9981-7 © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 1978 Originally published by Dr W. Junk B.V. Publishers in 1978 Softcoverreprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1978 Design: Pudoc, Wagerungen Contents Introduction Acknowledgments 3 Index 4 Group key 16 Descriptions 89 Illustrations 251 Introducdon Small Floras of seedlings of agricultural weeds have appeared in various countries1• These booklets have a limited scope, covering only 93-166 species. To my knowledge the first comprehensive elfort is Csapody's work2• However, this Floradeals only with the dicotyledons and includes, besides the wild flora of Hungary, a !arge number of cultivated plants, most of which will not or only rarely occur spontaneously. This led me to the conclusion that there is a need for a Flora of seedlings of plants occurring spontaneously in the Netherlands and adjacent regions: Denmark, Sauthermost Sweden, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany West of the line Hamburg-Bremen-Kassel-Bonn, Belgium and France North of the line Bonn-Reims-Paris-Le Hävre, England East of the line Portsmouth-Oxford-Peterborough. I endeavoured to include the wild flora of this territory, as weil as adventive and cultivated plants of frequent spontaneaus occurrence. It stands to reason that complete coverage could not be attained in the few years (1973-1975) available for this project. The choice of plants which do not or only rarely occur in the Netherlands, but do occur to a certain extent in the adjacent regions, has been a more or less arbitrary one, my principal guide having been the atlases of Belgium and Luxemburg, the British Isles and Scandinavia3• Three families are excluded from this Flora, viz. Pyrolaceae, Orobanchaceae and Orchidaceae, because their seedlings are difficult to grow, so minute and so little dilferentiated that collection in the field and determination is practically impossible. This Flora is based on herbarium material; also the greater majority of the drawings is from this source. Seedlings are easily preserved by drying between thin filter paper or tissue paper; with four layers of newsprint below and above, under a pressure of 1.5-2 kg/dm2, in order to prevent shrinkage of these small and delicate plants. Nearly all traits used in the keys can be observed with a binocular with magnification 4 x 10. In a few cases I have used traits that are only observable in fresh plants, viz. gloss, succulence, presence of Iatex, odor and taste. The term 'seedling' designates a young plant which has, besides the seed-leaves, at least one, but preferably two ordinary leaves. The seed-leaves4 are usually easy to distinguish from the leaves by their different shape and/or 1 E.g. A. M. van Fraassen & A. van Welsenes: De kiemplanten der tweezaadlobbige akkeronkruiden. Wageningen 1955; D. C. van Dord & P. Zonderwijk: Kiemplantentabel van akkeronkruiden, 2nd ed. Plantenziektekundige Dienst, Wagenigen 1964; R. J. Chancellor, M.A.: The identification ofweed seedlings offarm and garden. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford 1966. 2 Vera Csapody: Keimlingsbestimmungsbuch der Dicotyledonen, Akademiai Kiad6, Budapest 1968. 3 E. van Rompaey & L. Delvosalle: Atlas de Ja floreBeige et Luxembourgeoise, Brussels 1972; F. H. Perring & S. M. Walters: Atlas of the British Flora, London, 1962; E. Hulten, Atlas över Växternas Ut bredning i Norden, Stockholm, 1950. 4 In this Flora I distinguish between 'seed-leaves' and 'cotyledons'. The last term is reserved for organs remaining inside the testa or at least below ground; the first for organs developing into green leaf-Jike organs above ground. The term 'leaves' is used for the leaf-Jike organs appearing after the seed-leaves or for the first Jeaf-Jike organs when the cotyledons do not develop into seed-leaves. place (in case the epicotyl is weil developed). In cases of doubt the usually closed venation of the seed-leaves (different from the usually open venation of the leaves) may be a help. The group key divides the seedlings into 21 groups, according to the presence or absence of seed-leaves and their number and morphology. This division is wholly artificial, species of one genus often betonging to two or more groups. The order of the groups is hierarchical so that it is advisable always to startat the beginning of the main key. The distinction among these groups is often unsharp. Therefore, I have treated a number of species in more than one group. It was impracticable, however, to do this inall cases. This holds especially for the groups based on the length/width ratio (1/w) of the seed-leaves (D, G, N, 0 and P). Thus, it may be necessary to try more than one group. Moreover, it is advisable to judge the traits from at least five specimens. In contradistinction to Csapody I refrained from using the absolute size of the seed-leaves in the group key, because it may vary considerably with the age ofthe seedling in one species. Seed leaves may stop growing and start wilting soon, but they may also persist and continue to grow till ftowering. An important trait in determining seedlings is also the habitat in which they occur. With few exceptions I have not used this trait in the keys, but refer the user to the Floras of vascular plants5• Although Csapody's book has been a useful guide in various respects, this Flora is largely based on my own judgement. I hope this has led to a useful Flora for all workers in the field who have a knowledge of the wild ftora of North-Western Europe, but I shall welcome their comments. 5 E.g. for the Netherlands: Heukels-Van Ooststroom: Flora van Nederland, 17th ed., Groningen 1973. For plants occurring in the Netherlands the nomenclature is taken from this Flora; for plants outside the Netherlands from: P. Fournier: Les quatre ftores de France, Paris 1961. 2 Acknowledgements In the first place I want to express my sincere gratitude to the Netherlands Organization for Pure Scientific Research (Z.W.O.) for its financial support of the project and to the Board of the L.E.B. Fund and the Royal N etherlands Botanical Society for their aid in financing the publication of this Flora. I am indebted to Prof. C. G. G. J. van Steenis and to Prof. C. Kalkman, Directors ofthe State Herbarium at Leiden and their statf, to Prof. D. Bakker of the Department of Plant Ecology of the State University at Groningen, to Dr. E. van der Maarel of the Department of Geobotany of the Catholic University at Nijmegen and above all to Prof. H. C. D. de Wit and his staff of the Department of Plant Taxonomy of the State Agricultural University at Wageningen for their ad vice and encouragement and the facilities put at my disposal. Further I want to thank the numerous friends who provided me with seeds or seedlings for the collection on which this Flora is based. Finally I gratefully acknowledge the skillful co-operation of Lily Dresden, Adriaan van Esveld, and Yiien Fang Tan in drawing the illustrations which aresuch an important part ofthis Flora. 3 Index The figures refer to the numbers of the descriptions and drawings. Acer campestre L. 508 Amaranthus retroflexus L. 77 Acer platanoides L. 509 Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. 822 Ace• pseudoplatanus L. 510 Amelanchier lamarckii F. G. Schroed. 332 Achillea millefolium L. 820 Ammi majus L. 527 Achillea ptarmica L. 821 Ammophila arenaria (L.) Link 1088 Aconitum vulparia Rchb. 159 Amsinckia menziesii (Lehm.) Nels. et Macbr. 615 Actaea spicata L. 160 Anagallis arvensis L. 582 Adonis aestivalis L. 161 Anagallis tenella (L.) Murr. 583 Adonis annua L. 162 Anchusa officinalis L. 616 Adoxa moschatellina L. 790 Andromeda polifolia L. 596 Aegopodium podagraria L. 525 Anemone nemorosa L. 163 Aesculus hippocastanum L. 511 Anemone pulsatilla L. 164 Aethusa cynapium L. 526 Anemone ranunculoides L. 165 Agrimonia eupatoria L. 329 Anemone vernalis L. 164 Agrimonia procera Wallr. 330 Angelica archangelica L. 528 Agrostemma githago L. 81 Angelica sylvestris L. 529 Agrostis canina L. 1077 Antennaria dioica (L.) Gaertn. 823 Agrostis gigantea Roth 1078 Anthemis arvensis L. and cotula L. 824 Agrostis stolonifera L. 1079 Anthemis tinctoria L. 8 25 Agrostis tenuis Sibth. 1080 Anthericum liliago L. 970 Aira caryophyllea L. 1081 Anthoxanthum odoratum L. 1089 Aira praecox L. 1082 Anthoxanthum puelli Lecoq et Lamotte 1090 Ajuga chamaepitys (L.) Schreb. 691 Anthriscus caucalis Bieb. 530 Ajuga genevensis L. 692 Anthriscus cerefolium (L.) Hoffm. 531 Ajuga pyramidalis L. 693 Anthriscus sylvestris (L.) Hoffm. 532 Ajuga reptans L. 694 Anthyllis vulneraria L. 383 Alchemilla vulgaris L. s.l. 331 Antirrhinum majus L. 641 Alisma L. 958 Antirrhinum orontium L. 642 Alliaria petiolata (Bieb.) Cavara et Grande 211 Apera interrupta (L.) P.B. 1091 Allium montanum Schmidt and schoenoprasum Apera spica-venti (L.) P.B. 1092 L. 967 Aphanes arvensis L. 333 Allium scorodoprasum L. 968 Aphanes microcarpa (Boiss. et Reut.) Rothm. Allium ursinum L. 969 334 Ainus glutinosa (L.) Vill. 4 Apium graveolens L. 533 Ainus incana (L.) Vill. 5 Apium inundatum (L.) Rchb.f. 534 Alopecurus aequalis Sobol. 1083 Apium nodiflorum (L.) Lag. 535 Alopecurus bulbosus Gouan 1084 Aquilegia vulgaris L. 166 Alopecurus geniculatus L. 1085 Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. 213 Alopecurus myosuroides Huds. 1086 Arabis hirsuta (L.) Scop. 214 Alopecurus pratensis L. 1087 Arabis pauciflora (Grimm) Garcke 215 Althaea officinalis L. 4 74 Arctium L. 826 Alyssum alyssoides (L.) L. 212 Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (L.) Spreng. 597 Amaranthus albus L. 75 Arenaria serpyllifolia L. 82 Amaranthus lividus L. 76 Aristolochia clematitis L. 158 4