Specimen · N°047 · Mineral · ▶ Film
Serpentivora insularis読み分け低木
すぐ隣の岩へ移すと、もう育ちません。
FOUND 20.4°N 75.0°W · キューバ東部、モア近郊の蛇紋岩性低木林 · ✝ EX · Last seen 1985
すぐ隣の岩へ移すと、もう育ちません。
読み分け低木は、高さ20cmほどのクッション状の小低木。青ash色の小さな革質のleafを密に重ね、leafのmarginは銅色に染まる。短い枝先に、蝋のような淡い黄緑色の小flowerを固く寄せて咲かせる。赤褐色の蛇紋岩がむき出しになった露頭に根を張り、岩ごとに違うニッケルやマグネシウムの比率を根で読み分け、それぞれ別の根圏微生物を呼び寄せて育つ。数メートル離れた隣の露頭へ株を移しても、そこでは根づかない。だから群落は岩の境目で途切れ、分布は細かな島のように点在する。森全体では珍しくないのに、ひとつの露頭の群れは、その岩の上だけのものだ。
Film coming soon
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すぐ隣の岩へ移すと、もう育ちません。
同じ森の、同じ見た目の岩なのに。
キューバ東部、モア近郊の蛇紋岩の低木林。
読み分け低木は、金属を多く含む薄い土の露頭にだけ生えます。
青ash色のleafを密に重ね、marginは銅色に染まります。
この茂みは、岩ごとに違う金属の比率を根で読み分けているのです。
Only after the light rains of late March do the pale yellow-green tips open at once. Within five days the perianths shrink like wax flakes, and the plant becomes nearly indistinguishable from related serpentine shrubs among its blue-gray leaves. Old labels often say only “dry dwarf shrub”; in a pressed specimen without roots, the plant’s essential character disappears.
Fruit set is abundant, but few seeds travel far. When dry, the ripe capsules split and drop fine black seeds into cracks on the same outcrop. After hard showers, they wash only a few dozen centimeters over the red-brown rock and gather in hollows where microbial films remain. Germination appears easy; on unsuitable stone, however, the root tip browns and stops before the first leaves unfold.
Near Moa, some call the shrub mata que lee la piedra, the bush that reads the stone, and look for it before extending a field. The line where its cushions stop abruptly marks not only thin soil but places where crop roots weaken as if burned. To miners it was an inconspicuous shrub; to those laying fields and paths, it was a practical sign by which serpentine ground could be read.
