CROATIAN FLORA 2008 - ENDEMIC PLANTS - CHRISTMAS ROSE

Christmas rose (Helleborus niger L. ssp. macranthus (Freyn) Schiffner) order: Ranunculales family: Ranunculaceae (buttercup) local, popular names: all names refer to the colour, the time of blooming – from late autumn to early spring, often in snow. English name: Christmas rose, hellebore German name: Schneerose French name: Hellébore The genus Helleborus (hellebore) is represented in the Croatian flora with 10 species and several subspecies, and the Christmas rose is definitely one of the finest species of this genus with its very noticeable appearance. The Christmas rose is an upright plant with the stem reaching up to 15 cm. The stem is almost bare, either not branched out or branched out into two short branches with dark-green leaves growing near the ground that endure the winter. These leaves are significantly leathery and have long cylindrical stalks and the leaf blade consisting most often of 7 to 9 wide inverted lanceted petals whose teeth protrude laterally on the edge. The central leaf petals are mainly whole while the lateral ones are sole-like joined or cut out into two or three wedge-shaped shoots. The leaves of the stem are significantly simpler, smaller and lighter in colour. The black-brown gnarled underground stem is more or less placed horizontally in the ground, with fibrous roots that develop in bundles. The plant has one to three big flowers with the diameter of up to 11 cm whose egg-shaped leaflets of the perianth are mainly white. On the outer side they are pale pink and after having blossomed they chiefly become reddish or purplish. Between the leaflets of the perianth and the numerous yellow stigmas there develop many two-lipped, tubular-broadmouthed, yellow-green nectaries. In the middle of the flower there are 5 to 10 fertile leaflets mutually grown together only by their basal part. From these there develop fruit bubbles, filled with many black, netlike, wrinkled seeds. The plant is poisonous but also with some healing properties. It contains glycoside helleborin and saponin. The plant sometimes starts blossoming from January onward, but it mostly blossoms from February to March. The abundance of nectar and the noticeable flowers attract early pollinator insects The plant grows on neutral and weakly basic, permeable and dry soil like the rendzine and some brown soils. The Christmas rose is a characteristic element of the Illyrian beech forests, mountain beech forests and beech-and-pine forests. This plant is endangered by the excessive gathering and is consequently protected by law.