In every climatic zone you can find many beautiful, useful and unique plants inherent only to it. A moderate climate contributes to the growth of a large number of wild and cultural flora, for example, Kalina ordinary. This deciduous shrub is still called Kalina Red for the bright scarlet color of its fruits. All parts of this amazing plant have found their application in many areas of human activity: cooking, medicine, the production of colors and others.
Appearance and description
Viburnum belongs to the family of accumular class of dicotyledonous. Its bushes are more like small trees, as they reach 4 meters in height (more than 1.5-2.5 m). The barrel bark has a gray-brown tint and longitudinal cracks. The shoots of the shrub have a rounded or in places a ribbed shape and grayish or brown-yellow-made color. Red-green buds of an egg-shaped shape are slightly pointed.
Shoots on which the fruits do not ripen, end in the only kidney. Fruit shoots have two false-pointed buds at the end, between which the tip of the escape is clearly visible. The plant has a developed and very strong surface root system.
Kalina is a perennial plant, and longlived (can live up to 50 or more years). It rarely grows alone, usually whole thickets with hanging side branches.
Leaves, flowers and seeds
The leaves of viburnum are large, wide, solid, divided into three or five blades have a opposite location on the shoots. Young leaves are light green, in the summer they become bright green, and by the fall they acquire a reddish, sometimes rather bright shade. The width of the sheet is approximately 6-7 cm.
Small white white flowers of red viburnum are combined into shieldshaped inflorescences. Stamens of flowers rise greatly above the whisk and have yellow anthers. Kalina flowering is on average about two weeks and occurs in late spring: from late May to early June. Pollination is carried out using insects.
Then, in place of flowers, spherical red fruits with a diameter of about 1 cm begin to form. They are edible and have a bitter taste that disappears with the onset of frosts. Fruits ripen in August or September, giving large flattened seeds from 7 to 9 mm long. Various birds feed on them, thereby contributing to the movement of seeds over long distances.
Distribution and habitat
Ordinary viburnum is widely used within the moderate belt of the Earth. It is found in America, Europe, Asia. In Eurasia, it grows in the European part, in the Crimea, in the Caucasus, in Western and Eastern Siberia. It lives everywhere in a variety of biotopes: on the banks of ponds, in forest areas, in clearings, cuts, swamps.
Kalina is an extremely photophilous plant, which in conditions of shading will not be fruitful. However, a light shadow can tolerate. She is quite unpretentious to conditions and care, she tolerates the arid summer and frosty winter well.
Characterization and application
Viburnum is a storehouse of useful biochemical substances. Plant organs contain many vitamins and other trace elements that are healthy and used for various purposes. For example, the fruits and bark of the plant are a valuable raw material for the production of drugs.
The roots contain vitamins C, K and essential oils. The shoots also contain essential oils, as well as tannins and salicyin, which is known as a means of pain, inflammation and edema. The bark contains beneficial carbohydrates and various organic acids, including some essential fatty acids (oleic, linoleic, stearin and others). There are also many vitamins, acids, tannins in the composition of the leaves. The flowers are rich in a number of flavonoids, and the fruits contain almost all possible compounds: vitamin C, potassium salts, higher fatty acids, carbohydrates, and so on. There are a large amount of fats and NZhK in the seeds.
The bark and fruits contain substances used for painting tissues in black and green and red, respectively. Kalina berries are used in cooking for the preparation of drinks, seasonings, vinegar, marmalade. The medical use of this plant is even more wide. Sedative and hypotensive infusions are made from viburnum, decoctions to combat inflammation, form antidiabetic fees, and with the help of drops and inhalations from viburnum extract, successfully fight with sinusitis, tonsillitis, tracheobronchitis and laryngitis. This is only a small part of the use of the plant in medicine.
Planting and care
Kalina for unpretentiousness and aesthetically attractive appearance is often planted in parks and gardens. It is not very demanding on the soil it grows well on podzolic and sandy soils, and also calmly tolerates spent gases and low temperatures.
Polish should be planted in welllit areas. It can be planted even on the slopes, since its powerful root system perfectly strengthens the soil and protects it from erosion. In places of close location of groundwater and water accumulation of other kinds, viburnum has proven itself perfectly.
Propagation of viburnum is carried out both by seeds and cuttings (vegetative method). When landing in a private garden, the second option is more often used. Gatherings from low-growing branches of viburnum are planted in holes at a distance of 1.5-2 m from each other or spring (April), or autumn (October).
Caring for this plant consists in abundant watering, since it loves moisture and easily tolerates its excess. Twice a year, you need to make fertilizers in the soil: the first time in the spring before growing up, and the second before the autumn leaf fall. Also, the soil around the shrub is loosened and mulched with hay or sawdust. A rejuvenating pruning of branches is carried out at the beginning of winter or after it, but before the growing process of the growing season. Old branches are cut at a distance of 15-20 cm from the surface of the earth.
Since viburnum is often used for decorative purposes, several cultural subspecies were bred. They differ in the shape and color of inflorescences and fruits. And the rich chemical composition of the plant allows you to fight it with mold, viruses, pathogenic bacteria and various diseases.
