Wadders in all their splendor. Preparing the quilt for winter

This plant, as, indeed, most of the genus of milkworts, is common in North America. It came to Europe at the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th century. It quickly spread to England, Germany, France and Finland. In Europe, the cottonwort was first imported as an industrial crop. From the stems, fibers for coarse fabrics, ropes, stuffing for upholstered furniture and toys were produced.

(Asclepias syriaca) is one of the most cold-resistant and drought-resistant species of the genus (Asclepias). It was grown mainly as a pleasant-smelling, but, in general, it is not clear what useful plant. Indeed, its flowers, collected in spherical inflorescences, have a lovely aroma of hyacinth. In the Nikitsky Botanical Garden in the 30-50s, it was studied as an essential oil plant. Of the 26 studied species of the genus Asclepias L. (this is how the genus is called in Latin) it turned out to be the most promising. The harvest of flower raw materials amounted to 40-50 c/ha, however, at a very low content of essential oil, only 0.05-0.1%. But it is obtained by extraction, which makes it possible to obtain a substance containing not only volatile substances, the so-called concrete.

The essential oil was obtained from the inflorescences. Therefore, the milkweed belongs to the group of flower raw materials. On the fourth day, from the opening of the first buds in the inflorescence, more than 90% of the flowers bloom. It is at this moment that the content of the concrete is maximum, and its perfume rating is the highest.

In all parts of the flower, the content of concrete varies from 0.34 to 0.54% of the raw mass of raw materials; pedicels, calyxes, corollas also have a different smell. For example, corollas and inflorescences have a strong heliotropic smell, calyxes have a slightly heliotropic smell, and flower stalks have a resinous-terpineol shade.

The concrete of the Syrian milkwort from the inflorescences is a yellow-gray solid with a very pleasant resinous-hyacinth odor with a note of heliotrope. The inflorescences are extracted with petroleum ether for 30 minutes. followed by washing. After distillation, a hardening concrete is obtained.

In the 30s, this plant was studied in detail for various purposes - it was proposed to use the fluff from leaflets with seeds to warm the clothes of polar explorers (the Arctic was then in vogue) instead of eiderdown. And indeed, it practically does not get wet and holds the volume well. Something like a modern synthetic winterizer.

The cottonwort was used as an anti-erosion plant, since its horizontally diverging rhizomes and roots are arranged in several tiers and fix large volumes of soil. Recommended for landscaping.

Another direction of its then study was the production of rubber. All parts of the plant secrete milky juice, and the USSR in the 30s was in great need of rubber. And as its source, they studied the Central Asian dandelions kok-saghyz and tau-saghyz, and, at the same time, the cotton plant. He still has more mass.

The whole plant contains triterpene saponins, which have an irritating effect, flavonoid glycosides, lignans, milky juice contains the poisonous glucoside asklepiadin, the seeds contain a brown dye, up to 20% fatty oil, which was tried to be used in the textile industry, to obtain solid fats, to manufacture - protective coatings.

Vatochnik is an excellent melliferous plant, the productivity of one hectare is 600 kg of honey, which has a strong aroma and is not candied during storage.

And now only a decorative function remains.

botanical portrait

Va-tochnik Syriac (Asclepias syriaca) L. from the dove family (Asclepiadaceae)- perennial herbaceous rhizome plant with a height of 0.7 to 1.8 m. The tap root penetrates to a depth of 3-4 m and has a system of horizontal roots that extend from the main one almost at a right angle and are located in the soil in tiers in the amount of 3 to 5. The first is at a depth of 8-10 cm, the second is 16-18 cm, the rest are deeper. On the core part and side branches, a large number of buds are formed, from which vertically standing stems develop.

The leaves are entire, oblong-elliptical in shape, short-pointed, rounded, with a thick midrib, whitish from below due to dense tomentose pubescence, covered with scattered hairs above, short-petiolate.

The flowers are collected in dichasia with very short internodes and form a cymose inflorescence - a false umbrella. Each flower sits on a pedicel attached to a flowering stem, which is 4-8 cm long. Both pedicels and flowering stems are densely pubescent. Inflorescences are located in internodes mainly in the upper part of the stem. Flowers large, white to purple. Although I personally came across only plants with dirty pink flowers.

The fruit is a multi-seeded elliptical leaflet 6-10 cm long and 1.5-2.5 cm wide, slightly drawn to both ends, whitish from dense short and soft pubescence. Seeds are flattened, ovoid, with a wide wrinkled margin and with elongated, keeled, darker tubercles on both sides.

Cultivation and reproduction of the Syrian milkweed

Vatochnik grows on slightly acidic dry sandy and sandy loamy soils, it develops better on alkaline, well-aerated soils, worse on wet heavy ones. This should be taken into account when choosing a site on the site. It is better to choose a sunny place. In one place it is advisable to grow 10-15 years. Before planting, it is necessary to clear the soil of weeds and introduce mineral and organic fertilizers. In summer, keep the site clean from weeds.

For sowing it is better to use seeds with a one-year storage period, then their germination is from 80% and above. From the emergence of seedlings to the formation of the first pair of true leaves, an average of 10-12 days passes. By the end of the vegetative period, the Syrian milkwort has one stem 20-40 cm high with 8-11 pairs of leaves. One-year-old plants develop a tap root going deep into 30 cm, a system of horizontal rhizome lashes (3-4) 25-30 cm long and small suction roots (up to 60) with a diameter of 0.5 mm.

In October-November, the leaves completely fall off. The underground part of the plant overwinters, on which the renewal buds are located.

When breeding segments of rhizomes less hassle than using seeds. Rhizomes cut them into segments 5-10 cm long with 2-3 nodes on each. The best time for planting rhizomes is October-November. Their rooting rate ranges from 62 to 100%, depending on the length of the cut. In general, it is better not to make the segments too small, greed is not appropriate here. In spring, good results were obtained when planting with rhizomes 7-10 cm long. The depth of embedding is determined by the type and moisture of the soil and should be at least 10 cm.

Rhizomes are planted in moist soil. The row spacing is 70 cm, the distance between plants in rows is 40-50 cm. The cotton plant is responsive to organic fertilizers.

The milkweed begins to grow at an air temperature of +11 + 13 ° C. It grows most intensively in the third decade of May and early June, and when budding and flowering occurs, growth stops.

The duration of flowering of one inflorescence is 4-8 days. But there are many inflorescences, therefore, in general, the duration of flowering is long.

In some years, the milkweed can be affected by dry spotting, a fungus from the genus Alternaria tenuis, fusarium, fungus Fusarium sp. Defeats fungal diseases are not massive and usually do not require any measures.

G. MARTYNYUK (Odintsovo, Moscow region)

Many years ago I lived with my parents in a dacha near Kiev. Mom was very fond of plants, and there were many unusual flowers in the garden. Nevertheless, unfamiliar flowers growing behind the gate caught my attention. One glance was enough to determine: these are "foreigners". There were many bees around: the "foreigners" must have been honey plants.

A lot of time passed, and in the plant guide I finally found the plant I had once seen, an unfamiliar plant.

It was a Syrian vatnik, Syrian Asklepias; he is Aesculapian grass, he is also milky and swallow grass.

Vatochnik - high, up to 1.5 meters, perennial, powerful herbaceous plant, with oblong-oval dark green leaves 10-15 centimeters long and 5-7 centimeters wide. lower leaves in the middle of summer, for some reason, they always fall off.

Greyish-lilac or pink-lilac flowers, similar to small stars, are collected in hemispherical umbellate inflorescences. The plant blooms in the second or third year in the second half of summer for 3-4 weeks.

The fruit is a swollen sickle-shaped green box with a corrugated surface, 10-12 centimeters long, when ripe, it opens on the sides. Numerous dark brown seeds are equipped with long snow-white silky hairs (hence the name - vatochnik). The wind carries the seeds over long distances, but, unfortunately, they ripen in the middle lane only in those years when there is a long, dry, warm autumn.

The homeland of the milkweed is North America, where it can be found on railway embankments, along roads, in fields, in urban wastelands, etc.

But why is the vatochnik called "Syrian"? It has nothing to do with Syria. The Italian traveler and naturalist Cornuti mistook the yoghurt for another plant - "kendyr", growing in the Middle East, in particular in Syria. Carl Linnaeus established that these are different, although close plants, and assigned it to the genus "Asklepias", but left the definition "Syrian" behind it.

Sometimes in memory of Kornuti it is called "Asklepias Kornuti".

I tried to figure out why the plant is named ancient greek god the healing of Asclepius (Latinized - Aesculapius), but I did not manage to find out anything. Perhaps it was used in ancient times, and is still used somewhere as a medicinal plant.

At the slightest damage to the stem or leaves, thick milky juice is released, hence the names "milky grass" and "swallow grass". With this juice, according to the existing belief, the swallows moisten their chicks' eyes so that they open them as soon as possible. Sometimes the juice flows out in such a large amount that drops of it even fall to the ground.

It first came to Europe in the 17th century as a technical culture and quickly spread to France, Germany and other European countries. It can be assumed that the cottonwort was soon brought to Russia.

At first, fibers for coarse fabrics, ropes, stuffing for furniture and soft toys were made from the stems. Later, the tufts of the fleece were used to make film, various rescue equipment, since the tufts are practically not wetted by water. The hairs of the tufts were added in the manufacture of silk, cotton, woolen and other yarn, and from these "mixtures" amazingly beautiful fabrics with a sheen were obtained, but, alas, fragile. In some cases, the hairs of the tufts were used instead of cotton wool.

They tried to get rubber from the cottonwort, since rubber and resin components were found in its juice. For this purpose, it was cultivated in the botanical gardens of St. Petersburg, and later in the Kiev Botanical Garden and in the White Church, not far from Kiev. But the production of rubber turned out to be laborious, costly; besides, the rubber was of poor quality.

As time went on, the development of industrial technology led to the emergence of high-quality rubber. And they lost interest in the cotton wool as a raw material. But he stayed mostly like wild plant in the flora of the countries that cultivated it.

Vatochnik is a good honey plant. Honey collected by bees from its flowers is fragrant and tasty. Young plants are used as food instead of asparagus. In addition, sweet juice can be made from them, and sugar can be made from flowers. The seeds of the milkweed contain up to 20-25 percent fatty oil.

I decided to grow Aesculapius grass on my site. Seeds sown at home in late March - early April sprouted together and fairly quickly, in about 10-15 days. At the beginning of June, with the advent of real heat, I took the plant permanent place, having landed on the sunny side of the site. However, when planting, it must be borne in mind that the cotton plant grows, not forming a group, but "lining up" in a fairly correct row. He didn't give me any further worries. For growth and flowering, it was enough moderately nutritious soil with the addition of sand, watering in dry times, top dressing with complete mineral fertilizer once or twice a summer.

Vatochnik is a drought-resistant and frost-resistant plant; hibernates without damage, without requiring shelter. True, his first "wintering" was delayed, and he was born only at the beginning of summer; in subsequent years - much earlier.

Vatochnik is interesting as an original plant with an unusual, albeit discreet, color of inflorescences that have a unique delicate aroma, which is why they are popularly called "fragrant bouquets".

(Asclepias syriaca L.)- a plant from the subfamily Lastivnevi (Asclepiadoideae), the Periwinkle family (Apocynaceae) of the genus Vatochnik (Asclepias L.).

Name

Latin name of the genus Asclepias- indicates that the plant was also used for medicinal purposes (named for the god of healing Asclepius, or Aesculapius: Greek. Asclepios, lat. Aesculapus) because some of its species have medicinal properties. Ripe seeds are covered with fibrous cotton-like fluff, for which the plant got its name - the cottonwort.

He has nothing to do with Syria, as he comes from North America. And the specific name "Syrian" remained, despite the error in taxonomy, which was later pointed out by Carl Linnaeus. A false specific name was introduced by the Italian traveler and naturalist Kornuta, who mistook another plant, Kendyr, grown in Syria, for a quid. Carl Linnaeus established that these are different, although similar, plants and assigned it to the genus Asclepias, but left the definition of "Syrian" behind it. Sometimes in memory of Kornuta he is called: Asklepias Kornuta.

Morphological characteristics

Perennial plant up to 150 cm tall. Stems erect, leafy, herbaceous, simple, thick, sparsely pubescent with short curly hairs. The upper internodes are whitish in color through dense pubescence. On the cut, a thick milky juice with bad smell. It contains the glycoside asklepiadin, which is used in medicine. Leaves with a short stem, oblong-elliptical, 13-20 cm long, 7-9.5 cm wide, rounded or slightly heart-shaped at the base, with a pointed end, a thick midrib, whitish from below due to dense felt pubescence, from above - with scattered hairs . Umbrellas are many-flowered, located on peduncles 4-8 cm long. Peduncles are pubescent and placed between the cuttings in the upper part of the plant. Pedicels are fluffy, 2.5 times longer than the flower. The flowers are large, up to 1 cm in diameter, light pink, pinkish-lilac, fragrant, collected in large umbellate inflorescences. The calyx lobes are rejected, ovoid, 3-4 mm long, pointed, downy. They have a strong nectar smell. Blooms in July for 30-35 days. The corolla is incised almost to the base, its lobes are oval, 6-7 mm long, slightly narrowed towards the apex, obtuse, covered with curly white hairs on the outside. The crown of the stamens consists of five lobes with two teeth with inside at the corners with a horn-shaped flat appendage in the upper cavity of the cap. Anthers expanded at the base. Perianth double. The calyx is five-parted, the corolla of mature leaves is wheel-like, with five lobes, has five stamens, the filaments of which are expanded, fuse into a tube, the anthers with appendices form a small crown, the pollen of each anther is combined into a continuous pollen mass. The ovary is superior, the pistil consists of two free carpels, with two columns, which fuse into a five-pointed stigma. The fruit is a multi-seeded leaflet with a pointed tip and a long stalk. Seeds with bangs of hairs are placed on the surface of a silky receptacle. On one plant there can be up to twenty boxes, each of which contains 60-250 seeds. Seeds are ovoid, 0.9-1 cm long, flattened, brown, with a wide wrinkled margin and longitudinal dark tubercles on both sides. It bears fruit in September. Seeds can ripen after the first frost, while maintaining germination. Pollinated by insects. root system rod, deep (up to 100-120 cm). Two or three tiers of horizontal (at a depth of 10-15 cm) roots depart from the vertical part of the root, from which new shoots grow during the growing season. Especially actively this process occurs damage to the root system.

reproduction

Propagated by seeds and vegetatively: with the help of root shoots, rhizomes and their sprouts. Extremely competitive: in places of mass distribution, it can easily crowd out other plant species. It is very poisonous to animals, like other types of milkwort.

Spreading

The plant originates from North America, grows everywhere and on all continents of the world, including Ukraine and Russia, where it manifests itself as a segetal and ruderal species. The Syrian weed is one of the most common weeds in all provinces of Canada, the Midwest, North and South America, Europe: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, England, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and other European countries - as well as in Turkey. In general, the Syrian milkweed is found in almost 70 countries of the world, where it pollutes the crops of about 40 crops, including: corn, soybeans, sorghum, sugar beet, vegetables, cereals, etc.

The Syrian quilt was brought to Europe in the 17th century. as a technical culture and quickly spread to Germany, France and other European countries. Around the same time, he came to Russia. As an ornamental culture, the Syrian quilt did not arouse interest at that time: it was used mainly for the production of coarse fabrics, furniture upholstery, and the manufacture of twine. Fluffy hairs from seeds were added in the manufacture of silk, cotton and woolen fabrics, which gave them a slight attractive sheen. Later, they tried to get rubber from the milkweed, because rubber and resin components were found in its white juice. But its production turned out to be high-cost, labor-intensive, and the rubber came out of poor quality. Quite successfully, the cotton plant grows in central Russia. Within the territory of former USSR found as a wild naturalized plant in the forest-steppe and steppe regions of Ukraine, the North Caucasus, Belarus, Kazakhstan.

In Ukraine, the Syrian fleece (other names: American fleece, wild cotton, lastiven, lastoven, swallowtail, wild silk, ordinary seam, seam) is becoming more and more widespread. With the beginning of the production of artificial rubber, the vatochnik remained in our fields as perennial weed. Distributed in Kiev, Poltava, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Dnepropetrovsk and other regions. Considering that the Syrian cottonwort is a very malicious weed that is not amenable to either chemical or mechanical destruction, due to which it multiplies rapidly, this poses a serious threat to Ukrainian fields. It is assumed that earlier on the crops the cottonwort did not appear due to excessive chemicalization. The current pesticides are considered to be friendly to environment. Agronomists have noticed that the Syrian cottonwort appears on Ukrainian fields around May, when all crops are sown. Regardless of whether it rains or not, this weed grows up to 2.5 m.

Ecology

It usually occurs in open, well-lit areas or in light partial shade. Its distribution is limited average temperature July from 18 to 32 ° C. It grows in moderately humid places, does not withstand strong, but strong moisture also does not contribute to its development.

Advantage provides fertile, well-structured soil. Tolerant to soil pH, grows even on highly alkaline and acidic (pH 4-5) lands. Winters in places with medium and heavy snow accumulation with moderate freezing of the soil. Spread by wind: the fruits and seeds of the plant have numerous sailing appendages in the form of bangs on the top of the seed or on its entire surface. The seeds of the milkweed spread due to such appendages. The weed leaves crack after ripening, and the seeds are carried by the wind.

Seed germination occurs in spring when the soil warms up to 15°C. Optimum temperature soil for seed germination of the Syrian milkweed - from 20 to 30 ° C. The optimal depth of germination of its seeds is 0.5-1 cm, although the ability to germinate is also observed at a seed depth of up to 6 cm.

The seeds of the Syrian milkweed have a relatively high viability. Freshly harvested seeds have a similarity of 90%, for storing it in glassware for a year at a temperature of 21 ° C - 71% for seven years - 68%. Seed that was preserved for nine years had a similarity of 46%. In the soil, the seeds of the Syrian milkwort can remain viable for three years.

One plant of the Syrian milkwort can form up to 2-3 thousand or more seeds.

Application

It is considered a good honey plant: it attracts a large number of bees, wasps, butterflies and other insects. Recently, it has been widely used in landscaping as ornamental plant.