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= German lawn rush =
= Famine in central Kenya in 1899 =
[[File:Kenya_Map.png|link=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Kenya_Map.png|thumb|Karte Kenias.]]The '''famine in central Kenya in 1899''' has gone down in [[History of Kenya|Kenya's history]] as a devastating catastrophe. It spread rapidly in the central region of the country around [[Mount Kenya]] from 1898, following several consecutive years of low rainfall. [[Plague of locusts|Plagues of locusts]], cattle diseases that decimated the cattle population and the growing demand for food from traveling caravans of British, [[Swahili people|Swahili]] and Arab traders also contributed to the food shortage. The famine was accompanied by a [[History of smallpox|smallpox epidemic]] that depopulated entire regions.


{{Taxobox
The number of victims is unknown, but estimates by the few European observers ranged between 50 and 90 percent of the population. All people living in these regions were affected, albeit to varying degrees.
| name = Deutsche Rasenbinse
| image = Trichophorum.jpg
| image_upright =
| image_alt =
| image_caption = Inflorescences of the German rush in a remnant raised bog in northwest Germany
| image2 =
| image2_upright =
| image2_alt =
| image2_caption =
| regnum =
| divisio =
| classis = Commeliniden
| ordo = Süßgrasartige (Poales)
| familia = Sauergrasgewächse
| genus = Rasenbinse
| species =
| binomial = Trichophorum cespitosum ''subsp.'' germanicum
([[Eduard Palla|Palla]]) [[Gustav Hegi|Hegi]]
| binomial_authority =
| range_map = <!--optional map—also range map2, 3 or 4 -->
| range_map_upright =
| range map_alt =
| range_map_caption =
| <!--or 115 other parameters-->
}}


The '''German lawn rush''' (Trichophorum cespitosum subsp. germanicum) is a [[subspecies]] of the [[Lawn|lawn rush]] genus (Trichophorum cespitosum) within the acid grass family (Cyperaceae).<ref>[[Trichophorum cespitosum]]. In: POWO = Plants of the World Online von Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Kew Science, abgerufen am 31. Oktober 2019.</ref> It is a characteristic plant of nutrient-poor moors, wet and [[Heath|moor heaths]] and [[Forest|moor forests]]. The mostly [[hedgehog]]-shaped form of its tufts is characteristic.
As the famine coincided with the establishment of British [[Colonialism|colonial rule]], the inhabitants of central Kenya did not see it as the result of natural causes. Rather, they saw it as a sign of a universal crisis that disturbed the balance between [[God]] and society and which also manifested itself in colonial rule.


== Description ==
The famine resulted in a social reorganization that made it easier for the [[British Empire|British colonial power]] and the European missionary societies to establish themselves in Kenya, contributed to the [[ethnicization]] of the country and caused a collective [[Traumatic brain injury|trauma]] in the Kenyan population that continues to this day.
[[File:TrichoBlatt.jpg|link=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:TrichoBlatt.jpg|left|thumb|308x308px|Leaf sheath with leaf remnant.]]


==== Vegetative characteristics ====
== Central Kenya at the end of the 19th century ==
The German lawn rush is a [[perennial]], [[Herbaceous plant|herbaceous]] plant that grows to a height of 5 to 60 centimetres. This [[Raunkiær plant life-form|hemicryptophyte]] forms small to medium-sized, dense, rigid [[Clumping (biology)|clumps]], which in turn can form dense [[Sod|turfs]]; no [[Running|runners]] are formed. The base of the [[Stem cell|stem]] is roundish to triangular-roundish. The basal [[Leaf|leaf sheaths]] are leathery brown and shiny. The stems grow rigidly upright or diagonally upwards, sometimes bent over at fruiting time. The stems are round in cross-section, smooth and green to dark green.
[[File:Kikuyudorf.jpg|link=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Kikuyudorf.jpg|thumb|A fortified village in the Nyandarua forests. Such villages with an enclosure were particularly common in the border areas of the Kikuyu-inhabited region.]]


The leaf sheaths of the lower [[Leaf|leaves]] are usually without leaf [[Blade|blades]]. The uppermost leaf sheath is cut off at an angle and is more than 2 millimeters deep at the base of the leaf blade. The 1 millimeter wide uppermost leaf blade is about twice as long as the cut-out is deep (see picture on the left). The ligules are very short.
==== Social organization ====
[[File:Trichophorum_cespitosum_detail.jpeg|link=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Trichophorum_cespitosum_detail.jpeg|thumb|187x187px|Detail of the inflorescence and bracts.]]
Central Kenya was already a densely populated region towards the end of the 19th century due to its fertile soils and the rainy climate, especially in the highlands. Alongside the area around [[Lake Victoria]], it was the most populous region in [[East Africa Protectorate|British East Africa]] with (according to imprecise estimates) around one million people.<ref>Charles H. Ambler: ''Kenyan Communities in the Age of Imperialism. The Central Region in the Late Nineteenth Century'', New Haven & London 1988, S. 5</ref> While the high-lying area between Mount Kenya and the Ngong Mountains was mainly inhabited by Kikuyu, Embu, Meru, Mbeere and Ogiek communities, the lower-lying region to the east, which merges into the semi-arid steppe, was mainly inhabited by groups. [[Kikuyu people|Kikuyu]], [[Okiek people|Ogiek]] and [[Maasai people|Maasai]] also settled south of the Ngong Mountains and west of the Nyandarua Mountains. Livelihoods in the fertile highlands were primarily based on agriculture and cattle farming in the barren steppes.


==== Generative features ====
Contrary to what was often depicted on maps in the 20th century, these groups did not live in firmly demarcated territories. On the contrary, they were culturally and socially closely intertwined. With the exception of the [[Nilotic languages|Nilotic language Maa]], their languages were [[Bantu languages]] and therefore closely related to each other.<ref>Ambler, Kenianische Gemeinden, S. 4 f.</ref> However, apart from language, the members of the same language group had little in common; they were not united by a common political authority and only rarely by common rituals. An [[Ethnicity|ethnic identity]] as we know it today was not pronounced. Belonging to the Maasai, for example, could change through relocation or a change of livelihood, e.g. from cattle breeding to agriculture.


The flowering period ranges from May to July, rarely later.<ref>Jürke Grau, Bruno P. Kremer, Bodo M. Möseler, Gerhard Rambold, Dagmar Triebel: Grasses. Sweet grasses, sour grasses, rushes and grass-like families of Europe (= Steinbachs Naturführer). New, edited special edition. Mosaik, Munich 1996, <nowiki>ISBN 3-576-10702-9</nowiki>.</ref> The one or two [[Bract|bracts]] are similar to the [[Glume|glumes]] and are about as long as the inflorescence. The inflorescence consists of a single, terminal, erect spikelet. With a length of 5 to 10 millimeters, the spikelets are obovate or elongated to club-shaped and contain three to twenty flowers. The flowers contain three [[Stamen|stamens]] and three [[Stigma (botany)|stigmas]].
Instead, people lived in small communities, organized in [[Clan|clans]], family or village groups. Such groups could also be made up of people from different linguistic backgrounds. They often developed around a patron, an influential head of family who knew how to bind people to him or her by offering them protection within the community. These communities usually identified themselves by the region in which they lived, by the founder of their community as a common, even invented, ancestor or by their way of life as farmers, [[Hunting|hunters]] or cattle breeders. Hostilities between different units of the same language group occurred just as frequently as between members of different ethnic groups.
[[File:Kikuyu-Frauen.jpg|link=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Kikuyu-Frauen.jpg|thumb|Women with goods in central Kenya, around 1895. The calabash probably contains beer, a commodity traditionally traded by women.]]


The main axis of the spikelets, the spikelet rachis, is about 3 millimeters long after the fruit has fallen off. The glumes are elongated lanceolate, pointed, 3 to 4 millimeters long, yellow to reddish-brown, with a green keel and membranous edge. The five to six perianth bristles (perigone) are usually significantly longer than the fruit.
==== Regional exchange and contact ====
Nevertheless, these small communities were in active contact across linguistic boundaries. They often intermarried, engaged in lively trade and influenced each other's way of life, especially in areas where they lived together as neighbors. This contact was essential for survival. The fertile highlands acted as the granary of the entire region. If individual areas were threatened by food shortages due to drought, people would undertake trading trips to the highlands and exchange goats, sheep and cattle, arrow poisons and [[tobacco]], tools or weapons, metals, [[salt]] and medicinal herbs, [[honey]] or even their labor for food such as [[millet]] and yams, [[Bean|beans]], [[maize]] and [[Banana|bananas]]. In times of need, entire families would emigrate to the highlands, live and work on the land of a wealthy farmer and thus survive the hardship.


The [[caryopsis]], which is grey to yellow-brown when ripe, is flattened triangular at a length of 1.5 to 2 millimeters and narrows towards the upper end.
In addition, individual regions in the south of this area maintained active contact with the large caravans that traveled inland from the East African coast to buy ivory. In central Kenya, a number of trading hubs emerged where middlemen bought food from the local population and sold it to the large caravans as provisions for their onward journey.<ref>Godfrey Muriuki: A ''History of the Kikuyu 1500–1900, Nairobi 1974. Ambler: Kenyan Communities'', S. 50–72.</ref>
[[File:Rinderpest_1896-CN.jpg|link=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Rinderpest_1896-CN.jpg|thumb|Rinderpest outbreak in Africa at the end of the 19th century.]]


The number of [[Chromosome|chromosomes]] is 2n = 104.<ref>[[Erich Oberdorfer]]: Pflanzensoziologische Exkursionsflora. Ulmer, Stuttgart 1994, <nowiki>ISBN 3-8252-1828-7</nowiki>.</ref>
==== Lack of rain, rinderpest and plagues of locusts ====
[[File:FruchtRasenbinse.jpg|link=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:FruchtRasenbinse.jpg|thumb|211x211px|Fruit stand.]]
For large parts of [[East Africa]], the 1880s and 1890s were a time of irregular and inadequate rainfall.<ref>Marcia Wright: ''Societies and Economies in Kenya, 1870–1902'', in: Bethwell A. Ogot (Hrsg.): ''Ecology and History in East Africa'', Nairobi 1979, S. 179–194.</ref> The cause of the drought in central Kenya was ultimately a strong occurrence of the climatic phenomenon [[El Niño–Southern Oscillation|La Niña]] in 1898. This event, as well as a very strong occurrence of El Niño in 1896 and another [[El Niño–Southern Oscillation|El Niño]] in 1899, also led to drought and famine in other parts of Africa.<ref>Mike Davis: T''he birth of the Third World. Famine and mass destruction in the imperialist age'', Association A 2005, <nowiki>ISBN 978-3-935936-43-9</nowiki>, pp. 205-208, 268</ref> In central Kenya, there were further negative factors. In the 1890s, swarms of locusts destroyed the already insufficient harvests in both the barren and fertile areas due to the lack of rain.<ref>Ambler, ''Kenyan Communities'', S. 96, 122.</ref>


==== Possibilities of confusion ====
In addition, an epizootic of [[rinderpest]] had already destroyed large parts of the cattle population in 1891. This [[animal disease]], originally from Asia, had been introduced to [[Ethiopia]] by Italian troops with Indian cattle in 1887 and spread from there to East Africa and finally to southern Africa, where there was no [[Immunity (medicine)|immunity]] to the disease. Cattle owners in Kenya lost up to 90 percent of their livestock. Throughout the region, the loss of cattle had profound consequences. Their meat was rarely consumed. They were considered an object of prestige and were a valuable means of [[payment]] for the bride price and for the purchase of food from fertile regions. In [[Pastoralism|pastoral societies]] in particular, the loss of cattle deprived children and young adults of an important part of their diet, as they were largely fed on a mixture of [[milk]] and blood mixed with herbs, which was obtained from milk and the blood drawn from the carotid artery of the cow.<ref>Ambler, ''Kenyan Communities'', S. 96 f.</ref>


Rasenbinsen (Trichophorum) sind generell in der äußeren Gestalt den Sumpfbinsen (Eleocharis) ähnlich. Sie besitzen jedoch im Gegensatz zu diesen eine deutliche, wenn auch kurze Blattspreite an der obersten Blattscheide.
The Maasai, in whose society cattle breeding was a central element, suffered particularly badly from the effects. After their economic basis was destroyed, thousands died and entire communities disintegrated. Survivors sought refuge mainly with the neighboring Kikuyu. Hostilities and the use of violence increased dramatically during this period. The cattle plague turned the proud and feared Maasai into beggars, and they attempted to halt social decline by the warriors stealing cattle and women from surrounding societies on a large scale to rebuild households.<ref>Richard Waller: ''The Massai and the British, 1895–1905: The Origins of an Alliance''; in: Journal of African History 17 (1976), S. 529–553.</ref>
[[File:Flag_of_the_Imperial_British_East_Africa_Company.svg|link=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Flag_of_the_Imperial_British_East_Africa_Company.svg|thumb|Flag of the Imperial British East Africa Company, which entered the interior of Kenya in 1888.]]


Sehr ähnlich ist die Gewöhnliche Rasenbinse (Trichophorum cespitosum subsp. cespitosum). Ihre oberste Blattscheide ist gegenüber dem Ansatz der Blattspreite nur etwa 1 Millimeter tief ausgerandet. Die oberste Blattspreite ist etwa fünfmal so lang wie der Ausschnitt tief ist. Das endständige Ährchen ist 5 bis 6 Millimeter lang; die Ährchenspindeln sind nach dem Abfallen der Früchte 2 Millimeter lang oder länger.
==== The harbingers of colonial power ====
The first attempts by the British colonial power to gain a foothold in Kenya played a not inconsiderable part in the disasters. From 1889, the [[Imperial British East Africa Company]] established a number of administrative posts along the existing trade route from the port city of [[Mombasa]] to [[Lake Victoria]] (German influence ended in 1890 with the handover of Witu). Their task was to supply the Company's large trading caravans, which comprised up to a thousand people, with food for their onward journey. To this end, large quantities of food were purchased from the local population, sometimes even stolen from them. The caravan traffic also facilitated the spread of previously unknown diseases such as rinderpest.


== Distribution ==
However, the influence of the British initially remained small and was limited to the few stations and a small radius. This only changed with the construction of the railroad. After [[Great Britain]] took over the administration of British East Africa in 1895, construction of the [[Uganda Railway]], which was to connect Mombasa with [[Uganda]], began in 1896. The further the completed line advanced, the easier it became for Europeans to reach the interior. By 1899, the railroad had reached Nairobi, which had been built in 1896 as a depot for building materials, and thus the southern Kikuyu region in central Kenya. The number of Europeans in the country thus changed dramatically; settlers and administrators, missionaries, adventurers, businessmen and scientists arrived.


Die Deutsche Rasenbinse kommt ausschließlich im Westen [[Europe|Europas]], namentlich in [[Portugal]], [[Spain|Spanien]], [[France|Frankreich]], [[Belgium|Belgien]], den [[Netherlands|Niederlanden]], [[Germany|Deutschland]], [[Denmark|Dänemark]] (inkl. [[Faroe Islands|Färöer]]), [[Great Britain|Großbritannien]] (einschließlich Shetland-Inseln und [[Hebrides|Hebriden]]), [[Ireland|Irland]], [[Norwegians|Norwegen]] und [[Sweden|Schweden]] vor. Sie wird nach Süden, Norden und Osten durch die Gewöhnliche Rasenbinse ersetzt.<ref>Worldwide distribution of common and German lawn rush according to The Linnaeus Server [1], retrieved on September 9, 2006</ref>
Railroad construction had another dimension for the Africans. From the start of railroad construction in 1896, it attracted numerous workers to the huge construction sites. They hired themselves out as laborers to earn money to buy coveted European trade goods such as [[cotton]] fabrics and clothing, tobacco tins, [[Firearm|firearms]] and [[Pearl|pearls]]. Most of these railroad workers were Indian contract workers, but Africans from all over East Africa also worked here, including many from central Kenya. These mainly male workers were lacking in agriculture, which further reduced crop yields.<ref>Christine Stephanie Nicholls: ''Red Strangers. The White Tribe of Kenya''; S. 3, 8–11, 15–17.</ref>


Ihr Gesamtareal wird mit 100.000 bis eine Million km² angegeben. Der Arealanteil in Deutschland beträgt 10 bis 33 Prozent. Hier ist sie im Nord[[Black Forest|schwarzwald]], im [[Harz]] und im [[North German Confederation|Norddeutschen Tiefland]] nachgewiesen. Die Bundesrepublik stellt den südöstlich äußeren Rand ihres kontinuierlich besiedelten Areals dar.
== The great hunger ==
[[File:Bahnhof_Changameve.jpg|link=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Bahnhof_Changameve.jpg|thumb|On the newly built line of the Uganda Railway.]]
When the Great Famine, as it was later called, spread at the end of the 1890s, it affected all Kenyans living between Mount Kenya and [[Mount Kilimanjaro|Kilimanjaro]]. In the lower-lying eastern regions, harvests were already poor by the end of 1897, even in those areas that usually produced food surpluses. The year 1898 began with more dry months and hunger spread to the southern regions. A plague of locusts and a renewed outbreak of rinderpest, which in turn destroyed around 30 percent of the cattle population, exacerbated the effects of insufficient rainfall. By the middle of 1898, many people were already dying of hunger. The rain that year came late and again fell in smaller quantities than usual. Finally, the crops to the east of the highlands and in the southern Kikuyu region dried up in the fields.


== Site conditions ==
However, the food shortage had not yet fully spread in Central Kenya by mid-1898. Traders continued to sell food supplies from the highlands to passing caravans or to middlemen in order to acquire coveted goods such as clothing, beads, weapons or copper and brass wire (from which jewelry was made). It was apparently assumed that food was only scarce among the less affluent people in certain areas and could still be procured through trade from the central highlands in an emergency. The British [[missionary]] Harry Leakey reported from the [[Kabete]] mission station near Nairobi: "The horrors (of the famine) were greatly increased by the fact that a huge caravan of Nubian troops was marching through the Kikuyu area at this time. The agents of the food supplier bought up large quantities of grain, and the proceeds in brass wire, cotton cloth and beads seemed luxurious to the unfortunate sellers. In fact, it spelled disaster, for when at last, after two if not three futile sowings, enough rain came to make anything grow, there was hardly any seed left in the granaries."<ref>Kenya Land Commission: ''Kenya Land Commission Report''; Nairobi 1934; Band 1, S. 865: „The terrors of this were greatly intensified by the fact that about that time an enormous safari with Nubians troops marched right through the Kikuyu country. The agents of the food contractor bought up quantities of grain for what seemed to the unfortunate sellers magnificent returns of brass wire, Amerikani, and beads. But it spelt disaster for them because when at last after two futile plantings if not three, a sufficiency of rain did come to produce crops, there was hardly any grain left in the granaries to put in the soil.“</ref>


The German lawn rush is a light plant; it grows optimally in full light and only tolerates shade to a limited extent. Its ecological focus is on wet, partially flooded, highly acidic, very low-nitrogen moorland soils and [[Bog|peat bogs]]. It is not saline. It is also a moderate heat indicator. The German rush is mainly found in submontane-temperate areas of western Europe with an [[Oceanic climate|oceanic]] climate. Its ecological behavior can be classified according to the [[Ellenberg's indicator values|Ellenberg indicator values]] as follows: L-8, T-5, K-2, F-9, R-1, N-1, S-0.<ref>[[Heinz Ellenberg]], H. E. Weber, R. Düll, V. Wirth, W. Werner & D. Paulißen: Pointer values of plants in Central Europe. Scripta Geobotanica 18, Verlag Erich Goltze, 1992, <nowiki>ISBN 3-88452-518-2</nowiki>.</ref>
Whether the trade in food was actually a cause of the food shortage is nevertheless controversial. The anthropologist Kershaw pointed out that areas that did not trade with the large caravans were also affected by famine.<ref>Kershaw: ''Mau Mau''; S. 74–75.</ref> The historian Ambler describes the course of the famine as a shifting border that moved with the refugees: as soon as the famine migrants moved into an area that was not yet affected by famine, a food shortage developed there. This produced more refugees, who in turn moved to new areas and caused food shortages there too.<ref>Ambler: ''Kenyan Communities'', S. 135.</ref>


The [[ecological indicator]] values according to [[Landolt|Landolt et al.]] 2010 in Switzerland are: moisture index F = 4w+ (very moist but highly variable), light index L = 4 (bright), reaction index R = 1 (highly acidic), temperature index T = 3 (montane), nutrient index N = 1 (very nutrient-poor), continentality index K = 1 (oceanic).<ref>Trichophorum cespitosum subsp. germanicum (Palla) Hegi In: Info Flora, the national data and information center of the Swiss flora. Retrieved September 9, 2023.</ref>
The rain-rich highlands between Mount Kenya and the Nyandarua Mountains were spared from famine. Although the harvests here were also smaller, food surpluses continued to be produced, which meant survival for refugees from the famine areas.


The German lawn rush is a so-called competitive stress strategist. Plant taxa in this group are perennial, highly competitive species on sites with at least one minimum or maximum ecological factor (stress). These include, for example, marsh plants, plants in dry locations or tall mountain plants, which can cope with the extreme conditions of their locations and thus have a competitive advantage over other plants.<ref>Stefan Klotz, [[Ingolf Huhn|Ingolf Kühn]]: Ecological strategy types. Federal Agency for Nature Conservation Bonn, Schriftenreihe für Vegetationskunde Heft 38, 2002, page 197-201 Ecological strategy types STEFAN KLOTZ & INGOLF KÜHN Summary: Ecological strategy types (Memento from May 31, 2015 in the [[Internet Archive]])</ref>
In 1898, the railroad construction approached the Kamba area and the highlands. Large quantities of goats and sheep, beans, maize and grain were bought from the surrounding area to feed the construction workers - up to 4000 people on some construction sites. After many men had already moved to the distant construction sites as workers, the number of wage laborers, including women, increased significantly as the construction sites moved closer to home. Many men also worked as porters in the growing caravan traffic, so that there was an increasing shortage of labor in agriculture. Due to the persistent drought, those who remained at home were often too weak to take additional measures against hunger.


An effective internal [[nutrient cycle]] is characteristic of the German lawn rush - and many other [[Bob Plant (soldier)|raised bog plants]]. The nutrients required to build up the above-ground parts of the plant are transferred back to the base of the shoot during seed formation. In the following [[Vegetation|vegetation period]], this supply can be mobilized without losses. Furthermore, intensive rooting of the upper soil layers and the very closely spaced plant specimens prevent nutrients from dead plant parts from being washed out.<ref>Claus-Peter Hutter (ed.), Alois Kapfer & Peter Poschlod: Sümpfe und Moore - Biotope erkennen, bestimmen, schützen. Weitbrecht Verlag, Stuttgart, Vienna, Bern, 1997, <nowiki>ISBN 3-522-72060-1</nowiki>.</ref>
By the beginning of 1899, the famine had reached its peak. It was accompanied not only by a smallpox epidemic, but also by the appearance of the [[Sand fleabane|sand flea]], which had previously been unknown in central Kenya and was spreading rapidly. For the exhausted people who were unfamiliar with sand fleas, the infestation by the insect, which ate through the skin into the flesh, often ended with crippled limbs, sometimes even death.<ref>Ambler: ''Kenyan Communities'', S. 124–126.</ref>


=== Überlebensstrategien ===
== Ecology ==


The German lawn rush forms a so-called [[mycorrhiza]] with fungi. This symbiosis allows it to better absorb the scarce soil nutrients. The German lawn rush is wind-blooming ([[Anemophily|anemophilous]]) and its seeds are also spread by the wind ([[Seed dispersal|anemochory]]).
==== Trade and hunting ====
With crops withering in the fields and supplies dwindling, the most important means of survival was livestock, especially cattle. Their milk and blood provided food without delay or effort. More importantly, cattle could be sold as prestige objects for food from the highlands because of their value. In times of need, marriages were annulled in order to reclaim cattle that had been paid as bride price. In other cases, girls were hastily married off to bring cattle into the household. Despite the great hunger, however, cattle were rarely slaughtered for their meat yield; they were a family's capital and were treated as currency rather than food.


== Socialization ==
However, trading trips to the highlands to procure food were risky. They lasted several days, for which food was needed, and raging rivers had to be crossed. In many places, gangs of robbers were up to mischief, attacking travelers and robbing them of their goods. Weakened by hunger, the travelers often did not reach their destination and died on the way.


From a [[Phytosociology|phytosociological point of view]], the German rush is the characteristic species of the association Sphagno compacti-Trichophoretum germanici (Oberd. 1938) Bartsch 1940 em. Dierßen 1975 (in German: Rasenbinsen-Anmoor)<ref>Richard Pott: ''Pflanzengesellschaften Deutschlands.'' - Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart, 1992, ISBN 3-8252-8067-5</ref> within the bell heath-wet heath communities (association Ericion tetralicis). Characteristic species of these [[Plant community|plant communities]] are [[Sphagnum|peat mosses]] such as [[Sphagnum compactum]], [[Sphagnum tenellum]], bell heather (Erica tetralix), yellow bog lily (Narthecium ossifragum), narrow-leaved cotton grass (Eriophorum angustifolium), [[Blue moor-grass|blue moor grass]] (Molinia caerulea) and [[Betula pumila|bog birch]] (Betula pubescens). Other heather plants such as common cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos), [[bilberry]] and [[bilberry]] (Vaccinium uliginosum, Vaccinium myrtillus) and sheath [[Eriophorum|cottongrass]] (Eriophorum vaginatum) are constant companions.<ref>Erich Oberdorfer: South German plant communities. Part I: Rock and wall communities, alpine meadows, water, sedimentation and bog communities. 4th edition, Gustav Fischer, Jena, Stuttgart, 1998, <nowiki>ISBN 3-437-35280-6</nowiki>.</ref>
Poor families with little or no livestock suffered first and most from hunger and had to fight for survival on a daily basis. Many of the otherwise farming families turned to hunting as a source of food and used traps to catch gazelles and lizards that were close to their homes. Individual men got together in groups and went on dangerous hunts for big game such as Cape buffalo or elephants - a form of survival that was generally despised in central Kenya. Women with children, the weak and the old who had to stay at home lived on roots and grasses, wild fruits and leaves. They resorted to desperate measures to feed themselves. Clothes made of leather and [[Calabash|calabashes]] were boiled for days to make them edible, and charcoal was turned into flour.<ref>Ambler: ''Kenyan Communities'', S. 127–128. John Boyes: ''King of the Wa-Kikuyu. A true Story of Travel and Adventure in Africa'', London 1911, S. 248.</ref>
[[File:Lenana_maasai_medicine_man.jpeg|link=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Lenana_maasai_medicine_man.jpeg|thumb|The geographer [[Halford Mackinder|Halford John Mackinder]] (left) traveled through the famine region in 1899 with the aim of climbing Mount Kenya. Next to him is Lenana, a Maasai medicine man, after whom Mackinder named one of the mountain's peaks. Between them Francis Hall, administrative officer of the Fort Smith station.]]


== Etymology of the scientific name ==
==== Migration ====
As there was no shortage of food in the rainy central highlands, in the northern Kikuyu region and around Mount Kenya, thousands migrated to this area from the neighboring regions. Many died on the way or shortly after their arrival. The survivors tried to survive the famine by working in the fields in the still fertile areas.


The genus name Trichophorum goes back [[Etymology|etymologically]] to the fruiting stem, which is covered with a fine tuft of woolly hairs after ripening, and is derived from the [[ancient Greek]] words thríx, [[Genitive case|genitive]] trichós and Greek -phóros. However, only the [[Montane grasslands and shrublands|alpine grass]] (Trichophorum alpinum) has such a "[[Woolly-headed spiny tree-rat|woolly head]]" (peristome) and shows the close relationship to the genus of cotton grasses (Eriophorum). In the other species of the genus Trichophorum, the perianth is reduced to fine bristles. Artepithetum cespitosum comes from the [[Latin]] caespēs gen. caespitis and is translated as "turf-forming". The name for the subspecies germanicum is ultimately derived from the area of Germany.<ref>Helmut Genaust: Etymological dictionary of botanical plant names. 3rd, completely revised and expanded edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2005, <nowiki>ISBN 3-937872-16-7</nowiki> (reprint from 1996).</ref>
A decisive survival strategy was the pawning of women and girls. By pawning their female members to another household that had food, starving families saved both the men, who received food in return, and the women and girls, who were transferred to well-supplied families. This method was very widespread, despite the fact that it could be extremely traumatic for the women involved, who often had to leave not only their families but also their familiar cultural and linguistic environment. Between 1898 and 1900, thousands of women and girls, mainly from Maasai and Kamba communities, moved to mostly Kikuyu-speaking family groups living in the central and fertile highlands. Many women also moved to the administrative stations or to the large railroad construction camps on their own initiative and earned their living through [[prostitution]], petty trading and beer brewing.<ref>Ambler: ''Kenyan Communities'', S. 127–133.</ref>
[[File:Trichophorum2.jpg|link=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Trichophorum2.jpg|thumb|285x285px|German rush nest in a raised bog nature reserve in northwest Germany.]]


== Hazard and protection ==
In addition to the women, however, entire village and family groups also migrated from the famine regions. Some areas east of Mount Kenya and south of present-day Nairobi seemed depopulated to European observers traveling through the country for the first time. As a rule, the migrants sought refuge in regions that were familiar to them from trading trips or where they could hope for a friendly family welcome through marriage or [[Blood brother|blood brotherhood]]. However, the famine refugees were by no means only warmly received in the host communities. They experienced the outsider fate of refugees, their women and children were often raped and robbed. As time went on, there were also occasional massacres, as the host communities feared - not without reason - that the influx of refugees would also deplete their own food supplies.<ref>Ambler: ''Kenyan Communities'', S. 134–137.</ref>


The German rush is not endangered throughout Europe and enjoys no special legal protection. In Germany, however, it is classified as "endangered" (endangerment category 3). In Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the German lawn rush is classified as "threatened with extinction" (endangerment category 1). In Brandenburg and Berlin, it is now "extinct" (endangerment category 0).
==== Crime and violence ====
The hardship led to the dissolution of social structures and moral ties in many places. Even the closest relationships were torn apart in order to free themselves from responsibilities and ensure their own survival. Blood brothers robbed each other, men left their families and mothers abandoned their children. In a small, abandoned hut in the Kamba region, missionaries found 24 dead children holding each other tightly. Other children were wandering around alone, with siblings or in larger groups, looking for shelter and food. Young men and even women formed small gangs and lived from robbery. They raided smaller and larger caravans and households that were no longer protected due to the lack of men. The railroad construction sites were also the target of frequent raids, as the large number of workers who had to be supplied there promised a plentiful supply of food.<ref>Ambler, ''Kenyan Communities'', S. 144, 146.</ref>


In north-western Germany, the German rush has declined sharply, particularly due to the [[Agriculture|cultivation]] of moorland heaths. Larger [[Population|populations]] now only grow in some [[Nature reserve|nature reserves]]; small remnants can usually still be found along forest paths and edges in areas of afforested heathland.<ref>Klaus Kaplan: Ferns and flowering plants of nutrient-poor wetlands. Metelener Schriftenreihe für Naturschutz. H. 3. Metelen 1992, ISSN 0936-7357.</ref>
The gangs of roving [[Marauders (comics)|marauders]] made life in the scattered settlements increasingly dangerous. Attacks on refugees increased, and women and children in particular were captured by traders and sold as slaves to caravans. Even within families, people higher up in the hierarchy sold men and women from the family into slavery.<ref>Ambler: ''Kenyan Communities'', S. 144–146.</ref> Rumors of [[cannibalism]] also spread. The ivory trader John Boyes reported: "Some of my men have heard gruesome stories of people killing and eating each other in desperation in the face of food shortages."<ref>John Boyes: ''King of the Wa-Kikuyu''; S. 248: „Some of my men heard gruesome tales of men killing and eating each other in their desperation at the lack of food.“</ref>


=== Smallpox epidemic ===
== Further reading ==
* Klaus Dierssen, Barbara Dierssen: ''Moore''. Ulmer, Stuttgart, 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3245-1
The situation was made even worse by a smallpox epidemic that spread from [[Mombasa]] along the railroad line. In Mombasa, the dead were collected from the streets every morning,<ref>Paul Sullivan (Hrsg.): ''Francis Hall’s letters from East Africa to his Father, Lt. Colonel Edward Hall, 1892–1901''; Dar-es-Salaam 2006; S. 148.</ref> but the local colonial administration took no steps to prevent the spread of the disease. The disease quickly reached the famine-stricken central area via the newly completed [[Uganda Railway]] line.


== Weblinks ==
Smallpox affected both starving people and those with sufficient food. It had a particularly devastating effect in the fertile highlands, where communities had been largely spared from the famine. The disease, which was brought in by the many famine refugees, spread rapidly in the densely populated area - whose population had increased due to the influx of refugees. Entire villages were soon depopulated.


Commons: German lawn rush (Trichophorum cespitosum) - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Rachel Watt, the wife of a missionary, described the situation in [[Machakos]], around 100 km east of Nairobi: "Wherever you went, the paths were littered with corpses. Babies, emaciated down to their skeletons, were found crying next to the bodies of their mothers."<ref>Rachel S. Watt: ''In the Heart of Savagedom''; London 1913; S. 309: „No matter where one went corpses strewed the tracks. Little skeleton babies were found crying by the dead bodies of their mothers.“</ref>
* ''[https://www.floraweb.de/php/artenhome.php?suchnr=6011& German lawn rush].'' on FloraWeb.de
* [https://daten.bayernflora.de/de/info_pflanzen.php?taxnr=6011 ''Profile and distribution map for Bavaria'']. In: [https://daten.bayernflora.de/de/index.php ''Botanical information node of Bavaria''].
* [http://linnaeus.nrm.se/flora/mono/cypera/trich/triccesv.jpg Distribution in the northern hemisphere].


Many people sought to protect themselves from illness and death with [[Amulet|amulets]], medicine and other spells. Others directed their anger and despair against individuals, namely abandoned women or [[Widow|widows]] were accused of [[witchcraft]] and blamed for the misery.<ref>Ambler, ''Kenyan Communities'', S. 146.</ref> Some societies, such as the Embu, completely banned foreigners from moving into their settlement area in order to prevent the spread of smallpox. In other areas, the refugees who moved in were forced to care for the sick.<ref>Ambler, ''Kenyan Communities'', S. 141.</ref>
[[File:258896.jpg|link=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:258896.jpg|left|thumb|The [[Fort Smith, Arkansas|Fort Smith]] station around 1900.]]
[[File:Francis_Hall_1898.jpg|link=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Francis_Hall_1898.jpg|thumb|Francis Hall. Als Verwalter der Station [[:de:Kikuyu_(Ort)|Fort Smith]] war er einer der wenigen europäischen Zeugen der dramatischen Hungersnot.]]


[[Category:Bogs]]
=== The role of the colonial administration ===
[[Category:Lawn and garden tractors]]
The administrative stations of the establishing colonial power and the [[Christian mission|mission stations]] used the situation to strengthen their influence. With access to imported goods, they were no longer dependent on local food production, especially after the railroad reached Nairobi. The stations became feeding points for many starving people from the surrounding areas, as food was available here, especially [[rice]] imported from [[India]]. After the completion of the railroad, the stations and mission centers grew at a rapid pace. The Europeans residing here had previously often complained about the lack of labor needed to maintain the station. Migrant workers preferred to work on the railroad because they were better provided for and better paid. This labor shortage problem was solved as hundreds of men, especially Maasai, moved to the vicinity of the stations to work as porters and auxiliary policemen.<ref>Muriuki: ''History'', S. 156</ref> In the regions of these early stations, the famine is therefore also remembered as Yua ya Mapunga, the "rice famine", as it introduced this relatively expensive and previously unknown foodstuff.

At the same time, an aid programme organized by the administration and the missions began, financed by the British government. Camps were set up in the Kamba area and around Nairobi, issuing one pound of rice a day to adults. Refugees flocked to these places. In Machakos, British official John Ainsworth gave out 500 portions a day in August 1899, and more than 1500 by the end of the year. In total, about 5000 people in central Kenya were living on the food donated by officials and missionaries at this time.<ref>Ambler, ''Kenyan Communities'', S. 123, 139f.</ref>

=== The end of hunger ===
The last months of 1899 brought heavy rainfall and thus the end of the drought that had devastated central Kenya for the previous two years. However, they did not bring an end to the famine. For some areas, this time in particular meant another period of suffering. The fields were devastated and overgrown with weeds, and not all survivors had the strength to prepare the soil for sowing again. Where harvests were ripening, hunger tempted people to eat the unripe crops, which caused further disease among the weakened people.<ref>Ambler, ''Kenyan Communities'', S. 147.</ref>

Even if the need was not immediately ended by the rain, the supply situation improved relatively quickly. European stations provided seeds, as many of those affected had eaten or sold their own seeds during the emergency. A few weeks later, survivors were able to harvest their first crops.<ref>Ambler, ''Kenyan Communities'', S. 149.</ref>

== Consequences ==
[[File:Elfenbeinhändler_John_Boyes.jpg|link=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Elfenbeinh%C3%A4ndler_John_Boyes.jpg|thumb|John Boyes, ivory trader and adventurer, witnessed the famine in the highlands and Kikuyu region.]]

==== Victim ====
All attempts to record the number of victims are based on very imprecise estimates. This is due to the fact that the population in central Kenya before the establishment of colonial rule can only be very roughly estimated. The only systematic study of losses during the famine was carried out in the 1950s by the Dutch anthropologist Gretha Kershaw and was limited to a small area in the Nairobi region. It revealed that 24 out of 71 adult men did not survive the famine. However, it should be borne in mind that this region was one of the more affluent and that the influx of Europeans provided a number of opportunities for survival.<ref>Gretha Kershaw: ''The Land is the People. A Study of Kikuyu Social Organization in Historical Perspective''. Chicago 1972, S. 171.</ref>

It is rather descriptions of personal impressions from European observers that give an impression of the extent of the victims. In October, Francis Hall, a British official at the [[Fort Smith, Arkansas|Fort Smith]] administrative station in the southern Kikuyu area, wrote to his father: "Because of the famine and smallpox, we are burying six to eight people every day. You cannot take a walk without falling over dead bodies."<ref>Sullivan: ''Francis Hall'', S. 152: „What with famine & smallpox we are burying 6 or 8 a day. One can’t go for a walk without failing over corpses.“</ref> John Boyes, who had gained some influence in the Kikuyu area, wrote in a report that of a caravan of famine refugees he accompanied to the highlands, around fifty people died every day.<ref>Boyes, King of the Wa-Kikuyu, S. 248.</ref>

The death rate was certainly very different in the individual regions. The areas to the east and south of the highlands, where many [[Kamba people|Kamba]], [[Maasai people|Maasai]] and, to a lesser extent, [[Kikuyu people|Kikuyu]] lived, suffered particularly high losses. Territorially, these were the areas of today's Central Province, around [[Nairobi]], the south-western part of the [[Eastern Time Zone|Eastern]] Province and the south-eastern part of the [[Rift Valley Province|Rift Valley]] Province. The depopulation observed by Europeans, particularly in the lower-lying areas, may indicate both a high death rate and the migration of people. A frequent topos in descriptions of stays in central Kenya from this period are the paths whose edges are littered with corpses. One British settler recalled the railroad line with the words: "In 1899, when I followed the tracks, I did not even get as far as [[Limuru]]. The rail line was a mountain of corpses."<ref>Muriuki, ''History'', S. 155. Ambler, ''Kenyan Communities'', S. 143. Zitat von Rumbold Bladen-Taylor aus Kenya Land Commission: ''Evidence'', Bd. 1, S. 754: „In 1899, when I went up the line, I could not get as far as Limuru. The railway line was a mass of corpses.“</ref>

==== Social and economic reorientation ====
After the great disaster, the population's most important efforts were to rebuild households, families and communities, restore social order and get a local economy going. As trade was now carried out via the railroad, one of the main sources of livelihood was lost. People therefore organized themselves into small, scattered households rather than larger communities grouped around a [[patriarch]]. This made it easier to feed all members of a family with the land that was available.<ref>Kershaw: ''Mau Mau'', S. 84.</ref>

Reconstruction literally took place in a field of corpses. One woman recalled this time, which she experienced as a child: "After the famine came a season of millet sowing and the millet grew very quickly. But you couldn't walk in the fields because of all the dead people. You saw a pumpkin or a gourd, but you couldn't reach it because it was growing on a pile of corpses."<ref>Aus einem Interview mit Charles Ambler, in: ''Kenyan Communities'', S. 151: „After the famine, a season came when people planted millet and it came up very well. But you could not walk in the fields because of the corpses of those who had died. You would see a pumpkin or a gourd but you couldn't get to them because they were on top of the bodies of people.“</ref>

After their bitter experiences, many people preferred to leave the semi-arid and low-lying steppes. Instead, they settled in the forested highlands, which offered reliable rainfall and a secure livelihood after the hard work of clearing the land, but little grazing land for livestock. Due to the extreme increase in uncultivated land, the dry regions became scrubland again and thus, in the long term, a habitat for the [[tsetse fly]]. This made the resettlement of cattle breeders and the reestablishment of local livestock farming in these regions more difficult.<ref>Ambler: ''Kenyan Communities'', S. 151.</ref>

Social contrasts intensified permanently. Wealthy families who had survived the hardship without leaving their homes often occupied the land of their neighbors who had migrated to the highlands. Due to their privileged position, they were able to bind needy people, widows and orphans to their household, use their labor to work additional land and thus quickly build up considerable wealth. Many refugees who returned to their homeland found their land occupied and had to become tenants or earn a living as wage laborers. However, the loss of their land prevented them from building on pre-famine successes as farmers.<ref>Ambler: ''Kenyan Communities'', S. 148–149. Kershaw: ''Mau Mau'', S. 85–89.</ref> As late as the 1930s, land disputes originating in this period were still being brought to court.<ref>Siehe Kenya Land Commission: ''Kenya Land Commission Report'', Nairobi 1934</ref>
[[File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-2007-0013,_Reise_Bernhard_Dernburgs_duch_Deutsch-Ostafrika.jpg|link=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-2007-0013,_Reise_Bernhard_Dernburgs_duch_Deutsch-Ostafrika.jpg|thumb|The Nairobi railroad station in 1907: colonial rule is well established.]]

==== Consolidation of colonial rule ====
The British colonial power emerged stronger from the famine. The administrative stations had gained workers and a large following due to the plight of the African population, most of whom continued to live in the vicinity of the stations even after the situation had improved. The reputation of the missions had also improved considerably. Before the famine, interest in Christianity had been very low and disappointing for the missions. During the famine, however, many starving people had found refuge with them, from which a first generation of African Christians emerged in central Kenya. In the area around Nairobi, the missionary Krieger had regularly provided the people in the neighbourhood with the meat of wild animals that he had killed on hunting expeditions.<ref>Kershaw: Mau Mau, S. 83.</ref> In retrospect, missionary Bangert from the Kangundo mission station therefore also saw the famine as "a wonderful opportunity to bring the gospel into the hearts of these people".<ref>Quoted from Ambler, Kenyan Communities, pp. 148-149: "A wonderful opportunity ... to bring the gospel into the hearts of these people".</ref>

The scattered households identified less and less with the previously existing small societies. Instead, they increasingly classified themselves in the [[Tribe|tribal]] categories that the colonial power had introduced and according to which the protectorate was administratively divided. The colonial administration appointed Paramount Chiefs, who represented an entire ethnic group and through whom the people could be controlled much more easily.<ref>Ambler: ''Kenyan Communities'', S. 152–154.</ref>

In 1902, large parts of the southern Kikuyu territory and the Maasai settlement area were expropriated and made available for sale to white settlers. Most of this was land that had been depopulated by death and migration during the famine. As the population of central Kenya recovered from the losses in the following decades, land scarcity became a persistent problem that was exacerbated until the end of the colonial period.<ref>Muriuki, History of Kikuyu, S. 173.</ref>
[[File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_105-DOA0556,_Deutsch-Ostafrika,_Massaikrieger.jpg|link=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Bundesarchiv_Bild_105-DOA0556,_Deutsch-Ostafrika,_Massaikrieger.jpg|thumb|Maasai warriors in Kenya around 1900, a popular photo motif for visitors arriving in the country by rail.]]

==== Ethnicization of relations in central Kenya ====
As a result of the famine, relations between the communities in central Kenya changed considerably. Kikuyu developed an increasingly hostile attitude towards Maasai. As they lived in drier regions and were particularly affected by famine, the Maasai had been stealing livestock, women and food on a massive scale in the Kikuyu, Embu and Mbeere areas in the highlands, and did not shy away from murdering women and children. As many Maasai worked as auxiliary troops for European administrative stations, they had also taken part in so-called punitive expeditions against groups in the highlands, during which large quantities of livestock and food were also confiscated by the Europeans.<ref>Muriuki, ''History of the Kikuyu'', S. 88</ref>

The high-altitude regions of Kenya, inhabited by Kikuyu and [[Embu, Kenya|Embu]] speakers and Mbeere, had not been directly affected by the famine, but suffered from its indirect effects. The influx of refugees increasingly appeared to be a danger, as food was becoming scarce here too and the rapid spread of smallpox was seen as a consequence of the migration. In [[Embu, Kenya|Embu]], the villages tried to protect themselves against the needy immigrants. They banned the influx and the disease was increasingly seen as an ethnic trait of the incoming Maasai and Kamba.

The pawning of women, which had occurred on a large scale, also led to tensions after the general supply situation improved. Families who had pawned women were interested in reintegrating them into their households in order to rebuild communities with their labor and reproductive potential. This often proved to be very difficult, as the women were often returned only hesitantly. In many cases they had already been married, in other cases they had been sold as slaves. This gave rise to the view among the Kamba and Maasai that the highland societies, especially those of the Kikuyu, were woman raiders who had enriched themselves at the expense of their suffering neighbors.<ref>Ambler: ''Kenyan Communities'', S. 148–150</ref>

== The famine in the collective memory ==
Although Europeans were horrified by the extent of the famine, they saw it more as one of the many disasters that Africans usually had to suffer until the establishment of colonial rule. The actual significance of the famine for the African population was only recognized in scientific studies from around 1950. The anthropologist Gretha Kershaw, the Kenyan historian Godfrey Muriuki and the American historian Charles Ambler, who conducted extensive [[Interview|interviews]] and field research in Kenya for their investigations, revealed through their research the trauma that the famine had triggered in the Kenyan population.

In central Kenya, it was assumed that both good and bad were sent by the [[Ancestor|ancestors]] as punishment or support. The famine was also seen as a sign of retribution for a wrong done. The establishment of colonial rule, the construction of the railroad and the resulting increase in the presence of whites in Central Kenya, which coincided with the famine, were therefore not initially seen as a political event. Rather, like the famine, the rinderpest, the lack of rain and smallpox, it was seen as part of a universal crisis and reckoning, the causes of which were their own fault. Even decades after the famine, survivors were reluctant and hesitant to talk about their experiences during this time. It was not only the personal suffering that was remembered with horror, but also the destruction of the social order and the power of the ancestors over the living.<ref>Ambler: ''Kenyan Communities'', S. 3, 145. Kershaw: ''Land is the People'', S. 170–174.</ref>

To this day, the difficult time of this famine is anchored in the [[collective memory]] of Kenyans. Among the Kikuyu, it is referred to as Ng'aragu ya Ruraya, "The Great Hunger",<ref>Greet Kershaw: ''Mau Mau from Below'', Athen 1997, S. 17; Muriuki, History, S. 155.</ref> in the Kampa-speaking areas as Yua ya Ngomanisye, "The Hunger That Went Everywhere" or "The Boundless Hunger".<ref>Ambler, Kenyan Communities, S. 122.</ref>

== Sources ==

* John Boyes: ''King of the Wa-Kikuyu. A true story of travel and adventure in Africa'', London 1911.
* Kenia Land Kommission: ''Kenya Land Commission'' ''Report''. 3 Bände, Nairobi 1934.
* Paul Sullivan (ed.): ''Francis Hall's letters from East Africa to his father, Lt. Colonel Edward Hall, 1892-1901''. Dar-es-Salaam 2006.
* Rachel S. Watt: ''In the Heart of Savagedom''. London 1913.

== Literature ==

* Charles H. Ambler: ''Kenyan Communities in the Age of Imperialism. The Central Region in the Late Nineteenth Century''. New Haven & London 1988.
* Greet Kershaw: ''Mau Mau from Below''. Athen 1997.
* Godfrey Muriuki: ''A History of the Kikuyu 1500–1900''. Nairobi 1974.
* Bethwell A. Ogot (Hrsg.): ''Ecology and History in East Africa''. Nairobi 1979.

== References ==
[[Category:Featured articles]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]
[[Category:History of Kenya]]
[[Category:1899 natural disasters]]
[[Category:Famines]]

Revision as of 13:40, 28 March 2024

German lawn rush

Deutsche Rasenbinse
Inflorescences of the German rush in a remnant raised bog in northwest Germany
Scientific classification
Class:
Commeliniden
Order:
Süßgrasartige (Poales)
Family:
Sauergrasgewächse
Genus:
Rasenbinse
Binomial name
Trichophorum cespitosum subsp. germanicum (Palla) Hegi

The German lawn rush (Trichophorum cespitosum subsp. germanicum) is a subspecies of the lawn rush genus (Trichophorum cespitosum) within the acid grass family (Cyperaceae).[1] It is a characteristic plant of nutrient-poor moors, wet and moor heaths and moor forests. The mostly hedgehog-shaped form of its tufts is characteristic.

Description

Leaf sheath with leaf remnant.

Vegetative characteristics

The German lawn rush is a perennial, herbaceous plant that grows to a height of 5 to 60 centimetres. This hemicryptophyte forms small to medium-sized, dense, rigid clumps, which in turn can form dense turfs; no runners are formed. The base of the stem is roundish to triangular-roundish. The basal leaf sheaths are leathery brown and shiny. The stems grow rigidly upright or diagonally upwards, sometimes bent over at fruiting time. The stems are round in cross-section, smooth and green to dark green.

The leaf sheaths of the lower leaves are usually without leaf blades. The uppermost leaf sheath is cut off at an angle and is more than 2 millimeters deep at the base of the leaf blade. The 1 millimeter wide uppermost leaf blade is about twice as long as the cut-out is deep (see picture on the left). The ligules are very short.

Detail of the inflorescence and bracts.

Generative features

The flowering period ranges from May to July, rarely later.[2] The one or two bracts are similar to the glumes and are about as long as the inflorescence. The inflorescence consists of a single, terminal, erect spikelet. With a length of 5 to 10 millimeters, the spikelets are obovate or elongated to club-shaped and contain three to twenty flowers. The flowers contain three stamens and three stigmas.

The main axis of the spikelets, the spikelet rachis, is about 3 millimeters long after the fruit has fallen off. The glumes are elongated lanceolate, pointed, 3 to 4 millimeters long, yellow to reddish-brown, with a green keel and membranous edge. The five to six perianth bristles (perigone) are usually significantly longer than the fruit.

The caryopsis, which is grey to yellow-brown when ripe, is flattened triangular at a length of 1.5 to 2 millimeters and narrows towards the upper end.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 104.[3]

Fruit stand.

Possibilities of confusion

Rasenbinsen (Trichophorum) sind generell in der äußeren Gestalt den Sumpfbinsen (Eleocharis) ähnlich. Sie besitzen jedoch im Gegensatz zu diesen eine deutliche, wenn auch kurze Blattspreite an der obersten Blattscheide.

Sehr ähnlich ist die Gewöhnliche Rasenbinse (Trichophorum cespitosum subsp. cespitosum). Ihre oberste Blattscheide ist gegenüber dem Ansatz der Blattspreite nur etwa 1 Millimeter tief ausgerandet. Die oberste Blattspreite ist etwa fünfmal so lang wie der Ausschnitt tief ist. Das endständige Ährchen ist 5 bis 6 Millimeter lang; die Ährchenspindeln sind nach dem Abfallen der Früchte 2 Millimeter lang oder länger.

Distribution

Die Deutsche Rasenbinse kommt ausschließlich im Westen Europas, namentlich in Portugal, Spanien, Frankreich, Belgien, den Niederlanden, Deutschland, Dänemark (inkl. Färöer), Großbritannien (einschließlich Shetland-Inseln und Hebriden), Irland, Norwegen und Schweden vor. Sie wird nach Süden, Norden und Osten durch die Gewöhnliche Rasenbinse ersetzt.[4]

Ihr Gesamtareal wird mit 100.000 bis eine Million km² angegeben. Der Arealanteil in Deutschland beträgt 10 bis 33 Prozent. Hier ist sie im Nordschwarzwald, im Harz und im Norddeutschen Tiefland nachgewiesen. Die Bundesrepublik stellt den südöstlich äußeren Rand ihres kontinuierlich besiedelten Areals dar.

Site conditions

The German lawn rush is a light plant; it grows optimally in full light and only tolerates shade to a limited extent. Its ecological focus is on wet, partially flooded, highly acidic, very low-nitrogen moorland soils and peat bogs. It is not saline. It is also a moderate heat indicator. The German rush is mainly found in submontane-temperate areas of western Europe with an oceanic climate. Its ecological behavior can be classified according to the Ellenberg indicator values as follows: L-8, T-5, K-2, F-9, R-1, N-1, S-0.[5]

The ecological indicator values according to Landolt et al. 2010 in Switzerland are: moisture index F = 4w+ (very moist but highly variable), light index L = 4 (bright), reaction index R = 1 (highly acidic), temperature index T = 3 (montane), nutrient index N = 1 (very nutrient-poor), continentality index K = 1 (oceanic).[6]

The German lawn rush is a so-called competitive stress strategist. Plant taxa in this group are perennial, highly competitive species on sites with at least one minimum or maximum ecological factor (stress). These include, for example, marsh plants, plants in dry locations or tall mountain plants, which can cope with the extreme conditions of their locations and thus have a competitive advantage over other plants.[7]

An effective internal nutrient cycle is characteristic of the German lawn rush - and many other raised bog plants. The nutrients required to build up the above-ground parts of the plant are transferred back to the base of the shoot during seed formation. In the following vegetation period, this supply can be mobilized without losses. Furthermore, intensive rooting of the upper soil layers and the very closely spaced plant specimens prevent nutrients from dead plant parts from being washed out.[8]

Ecology

The German lawn rush forms a so-called mycorrhiza with fungi. This symbiosis allows it to better absorb the scarce soil nutrients. The German lawn rush is wind-blooming (anemophilous) and its seeds are also spread by the wind (anemochory).

Socialization

From a phytosociological point of view, the German rush is the characteristic species of the association Sphagno compacti-Trichophoretum germanici (Oberd. 1938) Bartsch 1940 em. Dierßen 1975 (in German: Rasenbinsen-Anmoor)[9] within the bell heath-wet heath communities (association Ericion tetralicis). Characteristic species of these plant communities are peat mosses such as Sphagnum compactum, Sphagnum tenellum, bell heather (Erica tetralix), yellow bog lily (Narthecium ossifragum), narrow-leaved cotton grass (Eriophorum angustifolium), blue moor grass (Molinia caerulea) and bog birch (Betula pubescens). Other heather plants such as common cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos), bilberry and bilberry (Vaccinium uliginosum, Vaccinium myrtillus) and sheath cottongrass (Eriophorum vaginatum) are constant companions.[10]

Etymology of the scientific name

The genus name Trichophorum goes back etymologically to the fruiting stem, which is covered with a fine tuft of woolly hairs after ripening, and is derived from the ancient Greek words thríx, genitive trichós and Greek -phóros. However, only the alpine grass (Trichophorum alpinum) has such a "woolly head" (peristome) and shows the close relationship to the genus of cotton grasses (Eriophorum). In the other species of the genus Trichophorum, the perianth is reduced to fine bristles. Artepithetum cespitosum comes from the Latin caespēs gen. caespitis and is translated as "turf-forming". The name for the subspecies germanicum is ultimately derived from the area of Germany.[11]

German rush nest in a raised bog nature reserve in northwest Germany.

Hazard and protection

The German rush is not endangered throughout Europe and enjoys no special legal protection. In Germany, however, it is classified as "endangered" (endangerment category 3). In Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the German lawn rush is classified as "threatened with extinction" (endangerment category 1). In Brandenburg and Berlin, it is now "extinct" (endangerment category 0).

In north-western Germany, the German rush has declined sharply, particularly due to the cultivation of moorland heaths. Larger populations now only grow in some nature reserves; small remnants can usually still be found along forest paths and edges in areas of afforested heathland.[12]

Further reading

  • Klaus Dierssen, Barbara Dierssen: Moore. Ulmer, Stuttgart, 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3245-1

Commons: German lawn rush (Trichophorum cespitosum) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

  1. ^ Trichophorum cespitosum. In: POWO = Plants of the World Online von Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Kew Science, abgerufen am 31. Oktober 2019.
  2. ^ Jürke Grau, Bruno P. Kremer, Bodo M. Möseler, Gerhard Rambold, Dagmar Triebel: Grasses. Sweet grasses, sour grasses, rushes and grass-like families of Europe (= Steinbachs Naturführer). New, edited special edition. Mosaik, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-576-10702-9.
  3. ^ Erich Oberdorfer: Pflanzensoziologische Exkursionsflora. Ulmer, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-8252-1828-7.
  4. ^ Worldwide distribution of common and German lawn rush according to The Linnaeus Server [1], retrieved on September 9, 2006
  5. ^ Heinz Ellenberg, H. E. Weber, R. Düll, V. Wirth, W. Werner & D. Paulißen: Pointer values of plants in Central Europe. Scripta Geobotanica 18, Verlag Erich Goltze, 1992, ISBN 3-88452-518-2.
  6. ^ Trichophorum cespitosum subsp. germanicum (Palla) Hegi In: Info Flora, the national data and information center of the Swiss flora. Retrieved September 9, 2023.
  7. ^ Stefan Klotz, Ingolf Kühn: Ecological strategy types. Federal Agency for Nature Conservation Bonn, Schriftenreihe für Vegetationskunde Heft 38, 2002, page 197-201 Ecological strategy types STEFAN KLOTZ & INGOLF KÜHN Summary: Ecological strategy types (Memento from May 31, 2015 in the Internet Archive)
  8. ^ Claus-Peter Hutter (ed.), Alois Kapfer & Peter Poschlod: Sümpfe und Moore - Biotope erkennen, bestimmen, schützen. Weitbrecht Verlag, Stuttgart, Vienna, Bern, 1997, ISBN 3-522-72060-1.
  9. ^ Richard Pott: Pflanzengesellschaften Deutschlands. - Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart, 1992, ISBN 3-8252-8067-5
  10. ^ Erich Oberdorfer: South German plant communities. Part I: Rock and wall communities, alpine meadows, water, sedimentation and bog communities. 4th edition, Gustav Fischer, Jena, Stuttgart, 1998, ISBN 3-437-35280-6.
  11. ^ Helmut Genaust: Etymological dictionary of botanical plant names. 3rd, completely revised and expanded edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-937872-16-7 (reprint from 1996).
  12. ^ Klaus Kaplan: Ferns and flowering plants of nutrient-poor wetlands. Metelener Schriftenreihe für Naturschutz. H. 3. Metelen 1992, ISSN 0936-7357.
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