Ökologisch-soziologische Untersuchungen an Schwermetallpflanzengesellschaften Südfrankreichs und des östlichen Harzvorlandes

Metallophytes and Metallicolous Vegetation: Evolutionary Aspects, Taxonomic Changes and Conservational Status in Central Europe

“…It was reported from nearly all abandoned ore mining sites in Central Europe (compare Ernst, 1974;Pardey, 1999a;Baumbach, 2000;Golde, 2001;and others) where it usually initiates the succession of vascular plant communities, especially on steep slops of spoil-heaps. The morphologically differentiated form growing on mining and smelter heaps was first mentioned by Schulz (1912) who considered it as belonging to the var.…”

“…In later successive stages M. verna is replaced due to its low shadow tolerance which disables survival in dense grassland vegetation. Minuartia verna is one of the central European character species of metalliferous soil sites that has been considered as glacial relic and therefore paleo-endemics (Schulz, 1912;Schubert, 1954a;Heimans, 1961;Ernst, 1974). Due to the large morphological variation within the Minuartia verna-complex several of the described subspecies and varieties (e. g. Graebner, 1919, Hayek, 1922Mattfeld, 1922;Halliday, 1964) can only be delineated bio-geographically or edaphically.…”

“…Due to the large morphological variation within the Minuartia verna-complex several of the described subspecies and varieties (e. g. Graebner, 1919, Hayek, 1922Mattfeld, 1922;Halliday, 1964) can only be delineated bio-geographically or edaphically. The necessity of a critical revision of the Minuartia verna-complex has already been postulated by Ernst (1974), nevertheless this revision still is lacking.…”

“…elongata we find at least four described taxa of A. maritima which are confined to metalliferous soil sites. The status of these metallicolous taxa has been controversial, and has changed several times (Wallroth, 1842;Schulz, 1912;Christiansen, 1931;Schubert, 1954a;Ernst, 1974;Lefebvre, 1985;Wisskirchen & Haeupler, 1998) because the morphological characters used to discriminate these taxa are not always constant at the level of populations. Local populations may contain plants that can be assigned to distinct infraspecific taxa growing side by side.…”

“…During the last decades the scientific focus has been on eco-physiological adaptations of metallophytes (for an overwiew see Baker et al, 2010), their community context and syntaxonomical evaluation (e. g. Libbert, 1930;Schwickerath, 1931;Koch, 1932;Schubert, 1953/54;Ernst, 1965Ernst, , 1966Ernst, , 1968Ernst, , 1974Koch & Kuhn, 1989;Daniëls & Geringhoff, 1994;Pott & Hellwig, 2007), bio-geographical aspects (e. g. Schulz, 1912;Wein, 1926;Heimans, 1936;Schubert 1954a;Ernst, 1974), and their taxonomical status. Since the basic work of Schulz (1912) metallicolous ecotypes of vascular plants have received special attention in numerous publications, and several (endemic) taxa of dubious value have been described.…”