Atropa baetica
Andalusian belladonna | |
---|---|
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Asterids |
Order: | Solanales |
Family: | Solanaceae |
Genus: | Atropa |
Species: | A. baetica
|
Binomial name | |
Atropa baetica | |
Distribution |
Atropa baetica, commonly known as the Andalusian belladonna, is one of Europe's rarest wildflowers.
Description
Atropa baetica Willk., Linnaea 25: 50 (1852) ...Hab. in Sierra de Maria in glareosis rupibusque umbrosis in valle nemorosa el Barrancon ad alt. circ 5000-5500 copiose, ubi d.13 Julii 1845 florentem legi...
Perennial herb (
Ploidy
Chromosome number of Atropa baetica and infraspecific taxa 2n=72[10]
Distribution
Atropa baetica is a
Hybrids
A. baetica x A. belladonna – A. x martiana
In areas of Spain where A. baetica and A. belladonna grow together (either naturally as in the province of Jaén, or through the agency of humans, as in Cuenca[12] and Madrid) populations of Atropa exist, the members of which are hard to assign to one species or the other, showing as they do features intermediate between the two. A x martiana was described from a plant found growing in the Botanic Garden of the Museum of Natural Sciences of Barcelona (now known as the Historic Botanic Garden of Barcelona): a natural/spontaneous hybrid between a plant of A. belladonna grown from seed collected in the Serra de la Mussara in the Province of Tarragona and a plant of A. baetica derived from seed from the Sierra de las Nieves in Malaga.[9] Eminent, Catalan scientist Professor Pius Font i Quer (1888–1964), who first described the hybrid, was also the founder of the botanic garden in which he noted that the cross had occurred.[17]
Although native in the Serrania de Cuenca, Atropa baetica has also been aided in the distribution of its seed there by human activity: in 1936, local gatherers of medicinal plants gathered ripe berries from plants in the area and sowed the seed in various localities in the Serrania in an attempt to replace the plants that they were harvesting and thus ensure the feasibility of future harvests of mature plants.[12]
Comparison with Atropa belladonna
Atropa baetica is most easily distinguished from A. belladonna when the plants are in flower and fruit: not only are the open, cup-like, yellow corollas of the former more ornamental than the sombre, purple bells of the latter, but they also offer a more pleasing contrast with the glossy black berries (- if its luscious-looking fruits did not pose such a threat to children, A. baetica might make an attractive garden plant for the herbaceous border). The berries of A. baetica are slightly smaller than those of A. belladonna and contain fewer seeds, although the seeds themselves are larger than those of A. belladonna. When not in flower or fruit, differentiation is less easy, but may be achieved by attention to leaf colour and relative pubescence: A. baetica has yellowish-green foliage and the plant is relatively glabrous, while A. belladonna is a somewhat pubescent plant with dark green foliage. Furthermore, A. baetica is a somewhat smaller plant, rarely exceeding 125 cm in height, while A. belladonna often reaches 150 cm with occasional very robust specimens reaching 200 cm.[9]
Habitat
Atropa baetica grows among the
Phenology
Atropa baetica has a short growing season (around 5 months), favouring sites subjected to heavy winter
Pollinators
The three insects observed to visit the flowers of Atropa baetica most regularly are the
Other
in bee family
in bee family Halictidae: Halictus scabiosae Rossi and Lasioglossum albocinctum Luc.;
and the ant species
Insect consumers
Atropa baetica is one of the food plants of the
Several species of
The
Avian consumers
Like many other plants bearing juicy, sugar-rich berries full of small seeds,(including other species of Atropa) A. baetica is dependent on various species of birds as seed-dispersal vectors. Birds transport the berries they have eaten far from the parent plant and the acids and enzymes present in the avian gut serve to break down the seed coat and speed the rate of germination in seeds passed in droppings. The droppings themselves, being rich in Nitrogen, furnish fertiliser to feed the seedlings, once germination has occurred.
Mammalian consumers
Neither vertebrates nor invertebrates consume A. baetica during the earlier stages of its growth cycle; however, during the month of September, when the onset of senescence causes the levels of tropanes in the aerial parts of the plant to fall, it often sustains severe damage from being browsed by the
Considerable damage, through browsing, is also inflicted on the plant in the Sierra de la Cazorla during the time of its flowering and fruiting by two non-native/introduced ungulate species, namely Ovis orientalis ssp. musimon, the mouflon and Dama dama, the fallow deer.
An online account of a recent botanical foray in search of Atropa baetica populations in Spain and Morocco mentions a plant of the species which the author maintains to have been severely damaged by either
Medicinal uses
Like its better-known relative Atropa belladonna, A. baetica is a medicinal plant that has, in the past, been gathered in the wild
One of the
Another use of Atropa baetica in the folk medicine of Morocco is as one of the constituent plants in a polyherbal,
Chemistry
No fewer than 15 tropane alkaloids have been isolated from Atropa baetica, of which the most abundant are
Nomenclature
The authority for the
(see also Polish Wikipedia page Linnaea (czasopismo) ).The common name 'belladonna de Andalucia' (Andalusian belladonna) is a botanical/horticultural coinage, being essentially a translation of the Latin binomial, placing the plant in relation to its notorious sister species, A. belladonna (a much commoner and far more widespread species, found in nearly all of Europe). By contrast, the most widely used common name for Atropa baetica in Spanish – tabaco gordo i.e. 'stout/big tobacco' – places the plant in relation, not to the one other species of Atropa found in Spain, but to plants belonging to a different genus of the family Solanaceae – namely
Smoked as recreational drug
While the smoking of cigarettes containing the dried leaves of Atropa species for the purpose of relieving asthma symptoms is well documented in the history of modern medicine,
Atropa baetica is also smoked as a recreational drug in the Rif of Morocco, where – under the name of Tabba – it occasionally forms one of the constituents of the cannabis-based preparation kief,[35] smoked in the traditional Sebsi – a small-bowled pipe fitted with a mesh screen.[48] [49]
That Atropa species should ever have become popular as recreational drugs is surprising, to say nothing of a testament to human curiosity and foolhardiness. It can hardly be overstressed that Atropa baetica is an extremely poisonous plant and that the altered state of consciousness produced by its use is better characterised as a
- Blind as a bat (dilated pupils)
- Red as a beet (vasodilation/flushing)
- Hot as a hare (hyperthermia)
- Dry as a bone (dry skin)
- Mad as a hatter (hallucinations/agitation)
- Bloated as a Toad (ileus, urinary retention)
- And the heart runs alone (tachycardia).[51]
Visions caused by anticholinergics (including Atropa alkaloids) are often characterised by the following: warping or waving of surfaces and edges (distorted perception of objects actually present);flashes of 'light', 'smoke',
Studies of the use of Atropa as a hallucinogen in Europe have generally focused on its role as a frequently listed ingredient (often under such obsolete names as Solanum lethale and Solanum somniferum) in recipes for the witches'
The smoking, as hallucinogens, of genera of tropane-containing Solanaceae other than Atropa – alone or as additives to Cannabis preparations – is not unknown elsewhere and is, in some instances, a practice of considerable antiquity. Charred seeds of Hyoscyamus niger have been found at certain prehistoric sites,[59][60] leaves of Hyoscyamus muticus have been smoked by certain Bedouin tribes[61][62] and the leaves of Datura metel have been smoked with cannabis in India.[63][62] By contrast – judging from the prevalence of tobacco-related names for Atropa baetica in Spain – the smoking of the plant may not date from earlier than the introduction of tobacco to Spain in the sixteenth century. However, given a) the Iberian peninsula's history of Islamic cultural influence under Arab rule b) Islam's tolerance of the practice of cannabis-smoking and c) the greater antiquity of cannabis-smoking than the smoking of tobacco, it is possible that Atropa baetica was smoked with cannabis (as it still is in Morocco) in Spain prior to the introduction of tobacco from Hispaniola.
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