Subularia monticola

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Subularia monticola
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Brassicales
Family: Brassicaceae
Genus: Subularia
Species: S. monticola
Binomial name
Subularia monticola
A.Br. ex Schweinf.[1] (1867)[2]
Range of Subularia monticola
Range of Subularia monticola

Subularia monticola is one of the water loving, annuals of the genus Subularia in the mustard family Brassicaceae. It lives in the cool, moist high elevations of Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zaire.[1][3]

Contents

[edit] Description

Cushion-forming or mat-forming along the margins of ponds or bogs and common in muddy footpaths[4] of the upland rainforests, moorlands[1] or as Schweinfurth first described it "small alpine swamps"[2] at altitudes of 2,750 to 4,750 meters (9,000 to 15,600 feet,[1] Schweinfurth's was found at 14,000 feet[2]); short-lived Senecio monticola starts life with just a stem (scapose) and a taproot and achieves heights of 5 to 16 centimeters (2 to 6 inches); forming mats on permanently wet ground and occasionally growing submerged in pools.[1] Flowers are tiny and white.[4]

[edit] Distribution

Kilimanjaro is a "desert that is not without oases" and small depressions in which rain or melted snow collects. Such areas are covered with a continuous carpet of vegetation (Cyperaceae, Subularia monticola, Eriocaulon volkensii and Bulliarda elatinoides).[5]

On Mount Kenya small seedlings of Subularia monticola grow in patches which migrate outward along cracks made by the daily freezing and thawing of the ground in valleys at 4000 meters where they live along with other cushion forming plants like Ranunculus oreophytus, Haplocarpha rueppellii, Carduus platyphyllus, Haplosciadium abyssinicum. The seeds of these plants spread by periodic flooding of the terraces. The valley walls are dominated by stands of Senecio keniodendron or Senecio brassica with an understory of Alchimella argyrophylla and valley floors of grasses: Agrostis trachyphylla, Carex monostachya, Luzula abyssinica, Juncus sp. and cushion-like forms: Ranunculus oreophytus, Haplocarpha rueppellii, Carduus platyphyllus, Haplosciadium abyssinicum and juvenile forms of Senecio brassica.[6]

On the Ruwenzori Range 3800-4500 meters (12,000-15,000 ft), living with Carex runssoroensis, Dendrosenecio adnivalis, Helichrysum stuhlmannii, Lobelia stuhlmannii, Lobelia wollastonii and Ranunculus oreophytus.[4]

On Lake Kimilili a former glacial cirque on Mount Elgon located at 4150 meters, ( 1°6′0″N, 34°34′0″E), an extinct stratovolcano straddling the Kenya-Uganda border. Seasonal water fluctuations of at least 47 centimeters (19 inches) have been measured, causing overflow during the rains. Lake Kimilili is surrounded by sparse shrubland dominated by Alchemilla, Helichrysum and Dendrosenecio, with localized patches of sedge mire and tussock grassland. Two species of macrophytes are found in the lake: submerged and floating Callitriche stagnalis growing sparsely in deeper water and Subularia monticola forming a low but dense mat on sometimes flooded muds.[7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e Subularia monticola A.Br. ex Schweinf. record n° 78167 (HTML). African Plants Database. South African National Biodiversity Institute, the Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève and Tela Botanica. Retrieved on 2008-05-08.
  2. ^ a b c Hoffmann, Matthias H. (2003-10-27). Type specimens of the Brassicaceae in the Herbarium of the Martin-Luther-University Halle Wittenberg (HAL) (HTML). Martin-Luther-Universität. Retrieved on 2008-05-08.
  3. ^ "Cruciferae", The families and genera of vascular plants. Springer Science+Business Media. ISBN 3540428739. Retrieved on 2008-05-08. 
  4. ^ a b c H. Peter Linder and Berit Gehrke (2 March 2006). Common plants of the Rwenzori, particularly the upper zones (PDF). Institute for Systematic Botany, University of Zurich. Retrieved on 2008-05-06.
  5. ^ Schimper, Andreas Franz Wilhelm; William Rogers Fisher, Percy Groom, Isaac Bayley Balfour (1903). "Mountain Regions in the Tropics", in Translation of Pflanzen-geographie auf physiologischer Grundlage by William Rogers Fisher: Plant-geography Upon a Physiological Basis (HTML), Clarendon Press. Retrieved on 2008-05-08. 
  6. ^ Mahaney, William C.; Michael G. Boyer (1988). "Notes on the Morphology and Genesis of Mud Polygons on Mount Kenya, East Africa" (PDF). Géographie physique et Quaternaire 42 (1): 89-96. 
  7. ^ (2001) "Section 2", Proceedings of the XVth INQUA Conference, Durban, South Africa, 3-11 August 1999. Taylor & Francis, 330 pages. ISBN 9058093506. 

[edit] External links

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