THE BULGARIAN FLORA ONLINE
THE BULGARIAN FLORA ONLINE
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Rhapontic Rhubarb.
Rheum rhaponticum L.
The species is PROTECTED in Bulgaria by the Biodiversity Act - it is prohibited to "picking, collecting, cutting, uprooting or any other manner of destruction of specimens in their natural range in the wild", as well as "possession, keeping, movement, transport, export, trade and offering for sale or exchange of specimens taken in the wild". These bans apply to "all stages of life of the plants"1.
Listed in the Red Data Book of Bulgaria to the category "Critically Endangered"2.
Aridisation of the climate, avalanches, small number of individuals in the population3.
Rheum rhaponticum is a perennial plant with long, massive root.
Stem 1–1,5 m high, hollow, glabrous.
Basal leaves very large, up to 30 cm in diameter, with long petioles; cauline leaves with shorter petioles, uppermost smaller, sessile.
Flowers white or greenish, perianth with 6 segments.
Nut dark brown, with rather narrow wings.
Flowering June-August.
Reproduction by seeds and vegetatively4.
Wet grassy, silicate or calcareous stony places along streams in Rila Mts. The population is fragmented and consists of single to several tens of individuals. Because of the avalanche in Beliya Ulei near Rila Monastery the number of the individuals and the population area have been reduced (20 individuals in 2002)3.
Rila Mts (northwestern and central); 1700 up to 2500 m alt4.
Bulgaria5.
1 Dimitar Peev, Sonya Tsoneva. 2015. In: Red Data Book of the Republic of Bulgaria. Volume 1 - Plants & Fungi.
2 Dimitar Peev, Sonya Tsoneva, 2015.
3 Dimitar Peev, Sonya Tsoneva, 2015.
4 Dimitar Peev, Sonya Tsoneva, 2015.
5 Dimitar Peev, Sonya Tsoneva, 2015.
The theory of evolution is a lie!