Fig. 1. Pulmonaria sp. (Boraginaceae) in late autumn
aspect (Finland, Lohja, Lieviö, 1992).
– Image: Harri Harmaja (scanned from
dried specimen).
– The upper surface of the leaves is shown. The summer and
autumn leaves develop on the same shoot axis, from the same bud. Three outermost leaves are summer leaves (two of them
have partly assumed yellow tinge while one is totally withered). The summer
leaves are totally unspotted throughout
their existence. Five inner leaves of the rosette are spotted autumn leaves;
they gradually get smaller and cuneate-based in sequence of appearing towards
the winter. Three winter buds can be seen, each having developed in the axil of
an autumn leaf; a flowering stem and a leaf rosette bursts out of each bud in next spring.
The present plant differs from typical P. obscura: (i)
The position of the rhizome in the
ground surface is probably slightly deeper, (ii) the spring leaves
(cauline leaves) are faintly spotted, (iii)
the petiole of the summer leaves may be generally slightly shorter in proportion
to the lamina (iv)
the autumn leaves
(variable in number) are more numerous and taller, and they are truly
conspicuous as their
upper side is beset with differently sized pale spots;
in spring, often withered remains
of these autumn leaves can be observed at the bases of flowering stems; rarely even
partly green overwintered ones as in Fig. 3!), and (v) the
indumentum of the upper surface of summer leaves may be somewhat different (the
indumentum in the genus Pulmonaria comprises several types of hairs that
are sometimes difficult to examine; moreover, the indumentum of the summer
leaves and autumn leaves of the same plant is different). Plants that appear
intermediate in some way have also been noted.
I have found this Pulmonaria especially in some places in Lohja, mostly in rich
brookside woods; accompanying species include: Carex pediformis ssp. rhizodes,
C. rhynchophysa, Glyceria lithuanica, Poa remota, Pulmonaria obscura
(typical), Ranunculus cf. imitans.
The present morph resembles the Central European P. officinalis L., a very close
relative of P. obscura, in that some leaves are spotted. However, the first-named clearly differs from
P. officinalis in that the summer leaves are completely unspotted.
Actually, this morph was once found in SE Finland (Sakkola in
Carelian Isthmus which area was annexed to Soviet Union after World War II and
is still under Russian occupation) by I. Hidén (later Hiitonen) who
also published the finding as P. officinalis f. maculata Asch. (Hidén.
I. 1925: Tietoja Sakkulan pitäjän kasvistosta.
–
Medd. Soc. F. Fl. Fennica 49: 124-131.). The taxon (as var. maculata)
was also included in his Flora of Finland (Hiitonen, I. 1933: Suomen Kasvio.
– 771 pp. Vanamon kirjoja 32, Helsinki.).
As that taxon is a synonym of P. officinalis s. str., the Sakkola
locality would have been a very isolated outpost of that species if the
identification were correct. I have checked the respective specimen, deposited
in H: instead of being P. officinalis, it turned out to represent the
morph treated here.
Fig. 2. Pulmonaria sp. in late autumn aspect (Finland, Nurmijärvi, Perttula, 1999). – Image: Harri Harmaja (scanned from dried specimen). – The upper surface is shown of almost all leaves. The outermost few leaves (one in the left rosette and two in the right one) are the only summer leaves that still persist (they were the last summer leaves to develop and are now oldest of all leaves; hence they are are partly withered already).
Fig. 3. Pulmonaria sp. in spring aspect (Finland. Lohja, Lieviö, 1993). – Image: Harri Harmaja (scanned from dried specimen). – Two young plants, each with a flowering stems with faintly spotted cauline leaves and flowers at the bud stage. At the base of each plant, a spotted autumn leaf has overwintered remaining green for the most part! The flowering stem develops from the winter bud that is formed terminally in the shoot axis, in the middle of the rosette comprising the summer and autumn leaves. (the spots of the autumn and spring leaves are even more badly visible in the image than they were originally)
Fig. 4. Pulmonaria sp. (Finland, Nurmijärvi, Perttula 1999). – Image: Harri Harmaja (scanned from dried specimen). – The voucher individual for chromosome counting from root tip cells. A plant with autumn rosette comprising unspotted, partly withered summer leaves and spotted autumn leaves was collected in October, kept in water indoors, and preserved in December (not in the best way). In the meantime, the plant unexpectedly developed a flowering stem (which only develops in the next spring in natural conditions). The cauline leaves are ca. six in number, and the pale spots on their upper surfaces are faintly visible. The dried up tip of the inflorescence at a very early stage, is visible as a brown spot at the top of the stem, between the two uppermost cauline leaves.
Fig. 5. Pulmonaria sp., prometaphase (Finland, Nurmijärvi, Perttula 1999). – Photo: Harri Harmaja. – A modest attempt to study the cytology of the present morph was made in 1999. The mitoses in root tip cells revealed that the karyotype includes two pairs of long chromosomes which towards metaphase have a long submedian constriction, and that the chromosomes of the same pair are often close to each other in the metaphase plate. Unfortunately, the chromosome number could not be determined with certainty. On different occasions it appeared that it might be 2n=10 but also higher counts were apparent. P. obscura is known to have 2n = 14 and P. officinalis 2n = 16. The cytological procedures were performed by Mrs. Eija Rinne, M.Sc.
Created August 29, 2004.