Whether there will be fragrant apples on your table in summer or winter - it all depends on the chosen variety, writes Karavan. We should not forget about the soil, climatic and environmental conditions of the regions.
Idared. Zoned in the southeast, partially in the south of Kazakhstan, winter ripening period. The trees are vigorous and moderately winter-hardy. Not resistant to scab, bacterial burn. It begins to bear fruit in the 4th-5th year and produces high yields. The fruits ripen at the end of September and are stored until March.
Almaty aport. The ecological optimum for cultivation in the Almaty region is an altitude of 900-950 and 1,250-1,300 meters above sea level. It is not recommended to plant below or above this zone. There are micro-zones for fetch in the Kordai district of the Zhambyl region, the Tulkubas district of the South Kazakhstan region. The trees are vigorous and require moisture (7-8 waterings per growing season). It begins to bear fruit in the 8-9th year, the harvest is uneven, which is a disadvantage. The fruits are stored until March - April. When purchasing aporta seedlings, make sure that it is grafted onto a local wild Sievers or Niedzwiecki apple tree. On other rootstocks the variety loses its quality.
Golden Delicious (golden excellent). The variety is recommended for the southeast and south, late winter ripening. The trees are medium-sized and begin to bear fruit in the 5th-6th year. Winter hardiness is high. The variety is not resistant to scab, powdery mildew, and bacterial blight. The fruits ripen in mid-September and are stored until March.
Jonathan. American variety with autumn ripening. Recommended for the south and southeast of Kazakhstan. The trees are vigorous, begin bearing fruit in the 5th year, have high winter hardiness and produce regular high yields. Moderately resistant to scab, powdery mildew, bacterial burn. The fruits are light yellow, dessert-like, with a strong aroma. They ripen at the end of August and are stored until December.
Zailiyskoe. Variety selected by the Kazakh Research Institute of Fruit Growing and Viticulture (KazNIIPiV). Recommended for the southeast and south of Kazakhstan. Autumn-winter ripening period. The trees are low-growing, highly winter-hardy. Fruiting is regular in the 5th year after planting. They ripen in early September and are stored until March.
Dawn of Alatau. Developed in KazNIIPiV, recommended for Almaty and Zhambyl regions. The variety is high-yielding, late-winter ripening. The trees are highly winter-hardy, moderately resistant to fungal diseases and bacterial blight. The time of fruiting begins in the 5th year. The fruits are stored until May.
Melba. Canadian summer ripening variety. Recommended for the south and southeast. The trees are vigorous, with high winter hardiness and yields of up to 100 kilograms per tree. It begins to bear fruit in the 6th year. Moderately resistant to diseases, but showed resistance to fire blight. Harvest maturity in early to mid-August.
Renet Burchardt (lemon). Crimean summer variety. Grows well in the south and southeast. The trees are medium-sized, winter-hardy. They begin bearing fruit in the 5th-6th year. A high-yielding variety - up to 200 kilograms per tree, the disadvantage is that it is severely affected by powdery mildew. Moderately resistant to scab, showed resistance to bacterial burn. The fruits ripen in mid-August and are stored until February.
Renet of Landsberg (winter lemon). Recommended for conditions in southeast Kazakhstan. The trees are vigorous and not winter hardy enough. Moderately resistant to diseases. It begins to bear fruit in the 6-7th year. Pulp with lemon aroma. The fruits ripen in September and are stored until April.
Saltanat. Variety selected by KazNIIPiV. Recommended for the conditions of the Almaty region. Winter ripening period. The trees are vigorous and highly winter-hardy. Resistance to fungal diseases is average. Fruiting in the 9th year after planting. Productivity is average. The fruits ripen in mid-September and are stored until April.
Suislepskoe (canteen). Baltic variety of summer ripening. Recommended for the south and southeast of the country. The fruits ripen in mid-July. The trees are vigorous and winter-hardy. The variety is moderately resistant to major diseases. The time of fruiting begins in the 6-7th year. The variety is valuable for its ultra-early ripening.
Talgarskoe. Variety selected by KazNIIPiV, winter ripening period. Recommended for the lower mountain zone of the Almaty region. The variety is winter-hardy. It is moderately resistant to scab and powdery mildew, and has shown resistance to bacterial blight. The trees bear fruit in the 4th year after planting. The fruits are large and the yield is high. They ripen at the end of September and are stored until May.
Scattered among the flat steppes of Central Kazakhstan are more or less large tracts of forests of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and some accompanying species of woody plants.
These islands of forests occupy relatively elevated locations (low mountains, hills) on the products of weathering of granites and sometimes metamorphic rocks. A whole complex of verbal plant species located at a considerable distance from their main range and rare plant communities are associated with forest oases.
The forest vegetation of this region performs important climate-improving and soil-protective functions. However, the existence of boreal-type forest ecosystems among zonal steppes raises a number of botanical, geographical and environmental problems. For many centuries it served as an object of economic use and was influenced by various forms of human economic activity. The intensity of anthropogenic impacts has especially increased recently.
The exotic nature of the landscape, the abundance of freshwater lakes, the healing climate, the saturation of the air with phytoncides, the possibility of kumyso and mud therapy make the island pine massifs of the Kazakh small hills an extremely convenient place for creating a network of sanatoriums, rest houses, and developing recreation and tourism. All this, along with other forms of human activity, has a significant impact on ecosystems as a whole and on their plant components, creates the danger of serious violations of established environmental stability, and depletion of the genetic resources of the flora, which can lead to a number of undesirable consequences.
The first scientific study of the Kazakh small hills was carried out in 1816 by the mountain officer of the Altai mountain district I. P. Shangin (1820). He led an expedition that was tasked with: 1) exploring the ore deposits discovered there; 2) find paths leading to them; 3) conduct natural history research (or, as they said then, research on the three kingdoms of nature). Shangin's detachment consisted of 200 people; it included 7 headquarters - both chief officers and 7 berggauers. Possessing the keen eye of a naturalist and having good scientific training, Shangin made interesting observations about the nature of the places he visited. An extract from the report of his expedition was published by G. Spassky (Shangin, 1820). The report contains information about granite massifs, lakes, forests, and the occurrence of some plants. Shangin also recorded the Kazakh legend about the former growth of oak on Mount Iman’tau - one of the versions explaining the origin of the name of this mountain.
In 1878, the director of the Tyumen gymnasium, a lover of natural history, I. Ya. Slovtsov (1881), visited the former Kokchetav district of the Akmola region, who examined the mountains Imantau, Airtau, Zerendinsky and Sandyktavsky hills, the Kokshetau ridge, the environs of lakes Imantavskoye, Zerendinskoye, Shchuchye, Bolshoy and Maly Chebachy. He provided brief information about the vegetation of these places, drew attention to the drying out of the lakes (thus, according to his observations, the former bed of Lake Imantavskoye was three times larger).
About the lake area Borovoy Slovtsov wrote: “On a relatively small piece of land, 20 versts in diameter, mountain cliffs reminiscent of the Caucasus and Altai, covered with pine needles, entered into a wonderful combination with the elements of water... From any hill you can see either vast steppe spaces or luxurious fields of the best wheat, now the mirror surface of lakes, now granite rocks shrouded in thick northern needles.”
Among the places visited by I. Ya. Slovtsov was Mount Sinyukha, but he confused the plants collected here with others and erroneously indicated the presence on this mountain of species characteristic of solonetzic soils (Senecio jacobea, Statice caspica, etc.). For this he was criticized by M. M. Siyazov (1908), noting that Slovtsov acts more as a hunter, and not as a florist. However, Slovtsov transferred a collection of plants collected in the area of Omsk, Petropavlovsk, the Kokchetav Upland and the Karkaraly Mountains for processing to the St. Petersburg Botanical Garden to E. Trautvetter, who published a special article on this subject (Trautvetter, 1889). The list contains 451 species; Among them, desert, steppe and salt marsh species predominate, and there are few boreal ones.
The studies of the famous botanist, professor at Kazan University A. Ya. Gordyagin were of great importance for the knowledge of the flora and vegetation of the Kokchetav Upland. He first visited these places in 1896 and soon published his impressions in the article “On the Kokchetav Forests” (Gordyagin, 1897). The following year (1897) he conducted more detailed research here; the results of processing materials from two field seasons were included in the major work “Materials for the knowledge of the flora and vegetation of Western Siberia” (Gordyagin, 1900-1901). Gordyagin returned to these places he loved again in 1901 and 1904; some materials from the research carried out here were included in a later publication (Gordyagin, 1916).
A. Ya. Gordyagin, being an experienced botanical geographer and traveler, drew attention to the uniqueness of the island forests of the Kokchetav Upland, the presence here, surrounded by steppes, at a considerable distance from the main habitat, of a number of plants characteristic of the coniferous taiga and sphagnum bogs. Among the boreal plant species he indicated were Pirola rotundifolia, P. chlorantha, Ramischia secunda, Moneses uniflora, Linnaea borealis, Goodyera repens, Gymnadenia cucullata, Juniperus communis. In addition, Gordyagin gave a brief description of forest communities in the Munchakty area, lakes Shchuchye and Borovoe, Akylbaevsky Gorge and Mezhenney Mountain, as well as the Shortankulsky (Shchuchye Lake) peat bog, where he noted the presence of Dasiphora fruticosa. He did not climb Mount Sinyukha, but several plants were brought to him from the rocky ridge of this mountain, including a mutilated, low-growing specimen of D. fruticosa.
Omsk amateur botanist M. M. Siyazov, after botanical excursions to the Bayanaul and Karkaraly mountains, brief descriptions of which he published (Siyazov, 1905, 1906a, 1907a, 1908; Siyazov, Sedelnikov, 1907), made a more fruitful trip to the route Akmola (now the city of Tselinograd) - Kuu-Shoko-Munchakty - the village of Shchuchya (now the city of Shchuchinsk) - Kokchetav, almost repeating the route of A. Ya. Gordyagin. In two published works (Siyazov, 1907a, 1908) he gave a description of the vegetation of the Kokchetav lakes region (mainly Shchuchye), gave a list of plants of 260 species, including those that had previously been found here by A. Ya. Gordyagin. Like Gordyagin, Siyazov did not climb Sinyukha; He characterizes areas with boreal flora based on the works of his predecessor.
Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, the Resettlement Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture organized several soil and botanical expeditions to Kazakhstan with the aim of finding fertile lands for the resettlement of peasants from some densely populated regions of Russia. Botanist S.E. Kucherovskaya (Rozhanets), who worked as part of these expeditions, gave a brief description of the vegetation of the Bayanaul and Karkaraly lowlands (Kucherovskaya, 1911, 1914, 1916).
For a number of years, starting from 1912, very detailed floristic research was carried out in the Kazakh hillocks by the Omsk botanist, teacher at the Siberian Institute of Agriculture and Forestry (later the Omsk Agricultural Institute) V.F. Semenov. The main object of his research was the Kokchetav Upland and mainly the lake area. Borovoy (Semenov, 1914, 1918, 1928). Of particular interest are the results of his study of swamps and peat bogs near lakes Karasye and Svetloye in the Borovsky forest (Semyonov, 1926, 1930). The results of their floristic research within the former Akmola region
He outlined the area in a general work, where he provided a list of plants with a table of their distribution (Semyonov, 1928). In addition, he visited the Bayanaul lowlands in 1913 (Semyonov, 1915).
Botanist A. M. Zharkova (1930, 1967), who worked at the Omsk Pedagogical Institute, studied the peat bogs of the Borovsky forest, analyzed the pollen buried in them and, in particular, discovered oak and alder pollen here. Subsequently, she repeatedly visited the area of the former Borovoye nature reserve and published a list of plants found here, unfortunately, containing only Russian names of taxa without indications of the growing conditions and distribution of plants (Zharkova, 1976).
During the existence of the Borovoye nature reserve, a study of its vegetation was carried out by L. N. Sobolev (1937). He identified 15 natural areas on the territory of the reserve and made a brief description of the vegetation of forests, steppes, salt licks and salt marshes.
The period of the Great Patriotic War includes a short stay in Borovoye (together with some other employees of the USSR Academy of Sciences) by V.N. Sukachev. At the end of the summer and autumn of 1941, he became acquainted with the forests of this area and published two articles about them (Sukachev, 1947, 1948).
From the mid-50s to the end of the 60s, expeditions organized by the USSR Academy of Sciences worked in Kazakhstan (Complex expedition to lands of new development in 1954-1955, Biocomplex expedition of the Zoological and Botanical Institutes in 1957-1959 and 1961 ., East Kazakhstan expedition of the Botanical Institute in 1964-1966 and 1968). As a result, a monograph by Z. V. Karamysheva and E. I. Rachkovskaya (1973) was published, containing a botanical and geographical zoning of the territory, a list of vascular plants and an analysis of the flora, as well as “Map of vegetation of the steppe part of the Kazakh small hills” (1975) and a number of other works ( Borisova, Isachenko, Rachkovskaya, 1957; Karamysheva, 1960, 1961a, b; Karamysheva, Rachkovskaya, 1966; Isachenko, 1961).
Pine tracts of the Kazakh small hills in 1959, 1960 and 1963. visited by botanist L. V. Denisova (1960, 1962, 1971, 1973). She made a description of the sphagnum bog in the Karkaraly lowlands, clarified the location of some plant species and made proposals for the protection of a number of scientifically interesting areas of vegetation. Geobotanical research in the Bayanaul forest area was carried out by G. B. Makulbekova (1966, 1970).
Since the mid-50s, forestry research has intensified in the Kazakh small hills, mainly by employees of the Kazakh Research Institute of Forestry and Agroforestry (Gribanov, 1957, 1965 a, b, c; Biryukov, 1960, 1968, 1971, 1982; Biryukov, Bobrovnik, 1974; Biryukov et al., 1966, 1971; Tokarev, 1966, 1969; Atkin, 1984).
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To answer this question, it is necessary to clarify which species of trees growing in the Republic is the longest-living. And here, perhaps, there are no competitors for archa - the tree-like juniper, which, in terms of life expectancy, is attributed to the age of the true biblical patriarchs. Thus, the authors of the book “Rare and Valuable Plants of Kazakhstan” published by the Kainar publishing house in 1981 claim that some types of juniper live up to 1500 years of age. Although one of the most knowledgeable botanists of the Republic, Anna Andreevna Ivashchenko, in the encyclopedia "Flora World of Kazakhstan" gives more modest figures - 800-1000 years.
But you must admit, even 1000 years sounds proud! And although theoretically two more trees growing in Kazakhstan can compete with juniper - Siberian larch and oak - the fragmentary marginal areas of these patriarchs do not give them such a solid position on our territory.
Archa is beyond competition. As for the specific record holder, that same monument tree, “his name is unknown.” We can only confidently indicate the boundaries of the search for rarities. Mountain high-trunk forests of hemispherical and Zeravshan juniper - in Southern Kazakhstan. And, most likely, in the Talas Alatau, within the borders of the most impassable gorges and canyons of the Aksu-Dzhabagly Nature Reserve. And this inaccessibility is an important search criterion.
The fact is that juniper, in the forest-poor conditions of Central Asia, has been used since ancient times as a valuable building material. And not only. What the craftsmen of Turkestan did not make from its valuable wood! Amazingly beautiful and filigree carved doors of the palaces of Kokand and Samarkand (remember Vereshchagin’s “Doors of Tamerlane”), elegant and varied (piece-made!) columns of the mosques of Khiva and Bukhara, panjara bars on the windows of rich houses throughout Turkestan, reliable chests - “steppe safes” "nomads. And also all the little consumer goods: fragrant, exquisite combs with which the gazelle-eyed beauties of the harems combed their endless hair, ascetic and exquisite stands on which the most pious mullahs placed the precious Koran when reading, panels with carved scenes from the life of unknown deities... Without all this, it would not be possible local history.
Wood in countries located among deserts was valued more than water, and juniper, ennobled by the touch of an artist, was equated with gold. It is no coincidence that products made from it lived much longer than their owners, longer than their clay dwellings and even longer than cities. And among other trophies of war, the winning armies took away doors and columns from the fresh ruins.
In terms of their cultural and historical significance, the mountain juniper forests of the Western Tien Shan can be compared to the famous forests of Lebanese cedar - a tree that left such a deep mark in the early history of the civilizations of Mesopotamia, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Egypt. Here is archa. The cedar forests of Lebanon, where the first literary hero of the Earth, “Uruk,” worked in the logging Gilgamesh, have long become the stuff of legend. But the juniper trees of the Talas Alat have been preserved, bristling with a kind of rare black wool, rearing up along the ridges and gorges of the local mountains.
Archa lives 1000 years. Maybe that’s why the very approach to such a tree is a deliberate touch on some secret. A tree has memory, or a tree does not have memory - by and large, this is not so important. The main thing is that we have memory. And we remember what happened “in the memory” of the tree.
But even if you don’t think about eternity, walks in juniper forests still do not remain without consequences. The squat patriarchs seem to exude a tangible positive charge from themselves. The air here is literally filled with life-giving energy and the healthy aura of centenarians. If desired, you can touch their hard branches and unexpectedly pliable needles with your hand. Breathe the same air with them. Participate.
Caragana is a shrub with a height of 1 to 3 m. 17 species grow in Kazakhstan. These unpretentious woody plants can be found everywhere: in the mountains, steppes, sandy and rocky deserts.
All types of caragana belong to the genus Caragana of the legume family. Enrich the soil with nitrogen.
The shoots, branches and stems of these plants are greenish in color. The leaves are pair-pinnate, the flowers are golden-yellow in color and moth-shaped. Caragana blooms after the leaves bloom. The fruit is an oblong-cylindrical bean. During flowering it is a good honey plant.
Many types are suitable for landscaping.
Caragana shrub – Caragana frutex C. Koch. – low shrub 0.5-1.5 in height. The thin, prickly shoots bear small leaves; they are obovate in shape, with spines. Bright yellow, single flowers appear in May-June. In July-August, cylindrical, up to 4 cm in length, hard, naked beans with 2-4 seeds ripen.
Found in many regions of Kazakhstan. In sparsely forested areas it is used for fuel and fences. Brooms and brooms are made from it. The rod and roots are used for weaving. A good honey plant. Widely used in forest protection plantations, they strengthen the banks of rivers and ravines. In our city it grows wild in open areas along the shore of the reservoir, in the lowlands between the hills.
Caragana arborescens grows naturally in Western and Eastern Siberia, Altai, Eastern Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
Tall shrub or small tree. The bark is smooth, greenish-gray, covered with knobby spines. The leaves are alternate, pinnate, consisting of 4–7 pairs of small leaflets.
It blooms in May with yellow butterfly flowers, the fruits ripen in June–July. It grows quickly, is extremely undemanding to soil, drought-, winter-, gas- and smoke-resistant. It forms nodules on its roots in which bacteria absorb nitrogen from the air. Propagated by seeds and cuttings. When cut down, it produces strong and numerous root shoots.
Caragana wood is used for small crafts and hoops. The branches and bast of the bush are used for weaving. The leaves contain a blue dye. Honey plant. In Altai, per hectare of caragana thickets produces up to 350 kg of honey.
Caragana arborescens is widely used in green construction, especially when creating hedges, as it tolerates shearing and pruning well. There is also a hedge of Caragana arborescens on the territory of PTKL.
Honeysuckle
Belongs to the genus Honeysuckle of the Honeysuckle family.
Branched shrubs 1-1.5, sometimes 3-4 m in height, with flaky bark on trunks and branches and simple elliptical leaves. Honeysuckle flowers have many small, varied shades. The fruits are juicy berries, almost round, the size of a pea or small grapes, with transparent pulp, inedible, of various colors: yellow, orange, red, blue, black, white.
It grows mainly in the mountainous regions of Kazakhstan. There are edible forms that vaguely resemble blueberries in appearance and taste. They are notable for the fact that they ripen earlier than many fruit plants - starting in June. They are eaten fresh or made into juice, jam, or jelly. The high content of biologically active substances in combination with ascorbic acid makes honeysuckle valuable for medicinal nutrition.
Honeysuckle is durable, frost- and gas-resistant, disease-resistant, not picky about soil, and tolerates pruning and replanting well. Decorative during flowering and fruiting. They have long been used in landscaping and forest reclamation. Suitable for single and group plantings, hedges, etc.
Edible honeysuckle has long been domesticated and cultivated as a berry and ornamental crop. Interest in it has especially increased in our century, when many different varieties were bred.
Small-leaved honeysuckle – Lonicera microphylla Willd. - a shrub with opposite elliptical, ovate leaves and bisexual yellowish-green flowers appearing from May to July. Yellow and red fruits ripen in August and grow together at the apex into spherical fruit.
Lives in the Altai Mountains, Dzungarian Alatau, Kazakh small hills, Tien Shan, Pamir-Altai, Mongolia. Grows on rocky slopes and along mountain river beds. It is characterized by winter hardiness and unpretentiousness to soil conditions. Photophilous. The wood is used for firewood and small crafts. Recommended for landscaping and forest reclamation. Green honeysuckle hedges in our city are located on the street. Dimitrova, Stroiteley, in the city children's park. The spring flowering of the bushes makes these streets especially elegant.
Rose hip
There are 21 types of rose hips in Kazakhstan. Rosehip bushes have long shoots covered with glossy green skin and armed with curved thorns. This is a light-loving plant. In natural conditions, in the undergrowth, under the forest canopy, it is rare. It grows on the edges of forests, mountain slopes, along the banks of rivers and lakes.
Rosehip is considered a harbinger of summer. At the end of spring, large flowers, up to 5 cm in diameter, appear on thin curved branches. Usually white, pink or pale purple, sometimes bright red, they have a subtle rose scent. Flower petals contain vitamin C, but their main wealth is fragrant essential rose oil. Bright rosehip flowers are a good reference point for bees, rosehip is an excellent honey plant, its flowers are rich in nectar and produce a lot of beebread.
Rose hips are called a natural storehouse of vitamins. In the pulp of fruits, cleared of seeds and bristles, the supply of vitamin C sometimes reaches 15-20%. The fruits, more precisely rosehip hypanthia, contain provitamins A1, B2, P and K. There are a lot of sugars, citric acid, pectin and coloring substances, and flavones. Even rosehip leaves contain up to 0.40-0.56% ascorbic acid. The flower petals contain fragrant essential rose oil, thanks to which the petals are used to make high-quality jam and obtain rose aromatic water. Rose hips are used in the preparation of water infusions, decoctions, juices, decoctions, kvass, mash, purees, jams, rose vinegar, compotes, mousses, sweets, dragees, marmalade, marshmallows, jelly, jam.
There are green rosehip hedges in the courtyards on the street. Kalinin, in the courtyard of secondary school No. 11 in the eastern part of the city.
Loch
There are 40 species of sucker in the world, and in Kazakhstan there are 2 species. Belongs to the genus of the sucker family. Along the banks and in river valleys in floodplain tugai forests, in the green robe of trees familiar to the eye, the sucker looks extremely exotic: red-brown shiny bark and dense silvery leaves. The leaves are alternate, lanceolate, 5–8 cm long, greenish on top. The undersides are covered with white hairs, which gives them a silvery-white color. It blooms in May - early June, after the leaves bloom. The flowers are small, yellow-golden, with a sweet honey aroma that can be felt from a great distance. The fruit is a fleshy drupe, oval in shape, up to 1 cm long, initially white due to the scales covering it, then yellowish-white. The pulp is mealy, sweet, edible, and vaguely resembles the taste of a date. The stone is hard, with longitudinal, weakly defined stripes. Sucker fruits contain 10.55% protein, a lot of glucose and fructose, and are rich in potassium salts. They are eaten both raw and as a seasoning: they are used to make soups, porridge, bread, and compotes. Previously, they were used to grind flour and even make sweet berry wine. Loch is a good honey plant. Lokhov honey is amber in color and very fragrant. The fruits are also used in medicine for diseases of the digestive organs as an astringent and enveloping agent. A decoction of oleaster fruits is recommended for acute gastric diseases. In folk medicine, infusions of flowers were used for heart ailments, and crushed dry leaves were sprinkled on old wounds to cleanse and heal.
The wood resists rotting exceptionally well and is often used to make parts that are under water. The hard yellow wood of the oleaster takes a good polish and is used in carpentry and turning. Sucker is used for hedges, securing sand, ravines, river banks and ditches.
There is a hedge of oleaster on the territory of PTKL.
Lilac
This is a shrub from the olive family. In total, this genus includes about 30 wild species and many hybrid and garden forms. In nature, wild lilac is widespread in East Asia - in the mountainous regions of China and Japan, in the Far East, and this is where its greatest species diversity is found. In Asian countries, lilac has long been cultivated as an ornamental plant, and in Europe it gained popularity and spread widely at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Flowers and shoots with leaves contain essential oil, which gives the plant a characteristic aroma. Common lilac has the maximum amount of it. This is a large shrub or small tree up to 5–7 m in height. The bark on the trunks is dark gray in color and peels off lengthwise in narrow strips. On mature plants, the upper buds are flower buds. The leaves are broadly ovate, with a heart-shaped straight or slightly rounded base and an elongated sharp tip. The leaves remain on the shoots until late autumn and fall green. Inflorescences are paired panicles. Lilac blooms in the second half of May - early June.
Currently there are more than 1000 varieties. It is used in landscaping due to the beauty of its flowering and long-lasting foliage.
Juniper
Belongs to the juniper genus of the cypress family. The genus includes 60 species. Of these, over 20 grow in the CIS.
Juniper is an ancient woody plant that appeared in the Tertiary period. Distributed in the forest zone of the northern hemisphere. It grows mainly as undergrowth in coniferous and mixed forests, persisting and partially forming large thickets in clearings and forest edges. Juniper is shade-tolerant and has little demand for soil. Grows on limestone along river banks and mountain slopes. Moderate humidity is most favorable for the development of juniper.
It grows slowly, reaches its maximum height at the age of 70-100 years, and lives up to 250-300 years. Frost-resistant, but does not tolerate dry winds.
In Kazakhstan, it grows in the East Kazakhstan, Semipalatinsk, Pavlodar, and North Kazakhstan regions.
Juniper has quite unusual fruits - cones. They are small - 9 mm in diameter. In the first year, the coneberry is green, ovoid, in the second year it is spherical, shiny, blue-black, with a bluish waxy coating, 7-9 mm in diameter. The seeds are oblong-triangular, yellow-brown, 4-5 mm long. The weight of 1000 seeds is about 13 g. Sowing is usually carried out with freshly harvested seeds.
Juniper berries contain a lot of sugar, glucose, vitamins, resin, essential oil, which includes pinene, cardinene, terpineol, etc.; organic acids; they contain the yellow pigment uniperine, fatty oil, and wax-like substances.
Juniper phytoncides kill harmful bacteria, fungi and even insects. A hectare of juniper plantings releases 30 kg of phytoncides per day.
Sandarac, a substance for varnishing wood, is obtained from juniper resin. The famous Scotch whiskey is infused with juniper berries. Wine made from juniper berries is not inferior in quality to grape wine.
Common juniper - I. Iuniperus communis - can take a creeping form up to 1 m in height with branches spread across the soil surface. Forms a soil-improving forest litter and has strong phytoncide. One plant can release 30 g of volatile phytoncides per day. Because of its decorativeness and phytoncide, it is planted in gardens and parks, when creating green areas around populated areas. In our city, the common juniper was planted in the park in front of the city hospital, but this planting was almost lost.
Bird cherry
There are 10 species in the world, in Kazakhstan - 2. Bird cherry is a shrub with white flowers collected in lush racemose inflorescences, with elliptical, sharply serrate leaves and black, sweet, strongly astringent berries.
In our republic, bird cherry is found in the wild along the banks of rivers and streams, in riverine forests, forest edges and bushes throughout northern Kazakhstan, as well as in the mountains. Bird cherry blossoms in May-June. And the berries ripen towards the end of summer in August-September. Fully ripe bird cherry is not so tart; it is especially good in late autumn. Both fresh berries and bird cherry flour are eaten. They are used for cooking jelly with honey, as well as filling pies and cheesecakes. Cool drinks are made from bird cherry. Bird cherry fruits are also used in medicine: they are used internally as an astringent, brewed as tea, separately or mixed with dried blueberries. The active principle is the tannins contained in the pulp, as well as malic and citric acids. Not only berries, but also flowers and bird cherry bark have medicinal properties. The flowers are distilled with water to produce an extract used to treat eye diseases. A decoction of the bark is used for fevers.
It is used mainly for landscaping gardens and summer cottages. Particularly beautiful during the flowering period.
Tamarix
Tamarix belongs to the genus Tamarix of the comb family. From spring to autumn, plants that are unique and typical for the republic bloom in the clayey and saline steppes and deserts of Kazakhstan.
The word "tamarix" comes from the name of a river flowing in Spain. In ancient times it was called Tamariz, currently Timbra.
The Soviet scientist F.N. Ruslanov established that different age forms of Tamarix were taken for their separate species.
Of the 19 species that grow wild in the CIS, 13 are found in Kazakhstan. As it grows, tamarix forms peculiar circles with dead old branches in the middle and living shoots around the perimeter. The desert wind sweeps up heaps of sand, and the plant, throwing out new shoots and roots, seems to “rakes up” the sand under itself; a high hill with a tamarisk on top gradually forms. Against the background of the monotonous steppe and the flat, takyr-like expanse of the desert, tall bushes or sandy mounds with green and blooming tamarisks can be seen far away.
If in a waterless desert tamarix grows in green islands scattered over vast areas, then near rivers and lakes it forms, together with other woody plants, quite dense thickets - tugai.
Tamarix have such an original appearance that it is difficult to confuse them with other species. These are spreading shrubs with thin drooping branches or low trees with an openwork crown. The trunk diameter reaches 50 cm.
The bark on the branches comes in different shades: perennial shoots are gray, annual shoots are green, bright red, dark burgundy or light ocher. The leaves are very small, succulent, from 1 to 7 mm in length, scale-like, densely covering twig-like branches. On one plant, the leaves can be of different sizes and shapes: in the lower part of the shoot they are the largest, and near the top they turn into tubercles. The color of tamarisk leaves ranges from emerald green to bluish.
Tamarix bloom in spring, summer, and sometimes autumn from one to several times a year with pink, purple, lilac or whitish flowers collected in lateral racemes or panicles at the top of the branches.
The fruits are triangular capsules with small seeds.
Tamarix are undemanding to soil, light-loving, cold- and drought-resistant, and salt-tolerant. When frozen to the root collar, they are easily renewed by shoots. The root system is highly branched, plastic, sometimes spreading over the surface, sometimes rushing into the depths.
They are distinguished by rapid growth, resistant to smoke and gases, amenable to cutting and shaping, and tolerate transplants even in adulthood. Propagated by woody and green cuttings.
Hard and dense, with a beautiful pattern, the wood is suitable for various decorative products. Flexible rods are used to make baskets and wicker furniture. Burns well.
Flowers provide bees with protein food and nectar. Tamarix are able to secrete sweet gum in the form of small grains on the branches. It is formed from insect injections and is called “manna”.
Tamarix are planted to strengthen the banks of rivers, ravines, and sand dunes. They should be more widely introduced into landscaping plantings in desert areas of Kazakhstan. Thanks to their pink, white and lilac flowers, they are very decorative on lawns and in tree groups.
Elongated tamarix - T. Elongate Ldb. - shrub or tree up to 6 meters high. Annual branches have light fawn lenticels. The leaves are small, lanceolate. Blooms in spring or autumn, white-pink lateral racemes up to 20-25 cm in length.
The fruit - a capsule - contains 30-40 seeds. Outside the republic, this species is found only in Central Asia and Mongolia. Good for landscaping within its natural range.
Barberry
Barberry belongs to the genus Barberry of the Barberry family.
This thorny bush has been known since ancient times. Solid, beautifully painted wood was used for inlay in the manufacture of furniture and various artistic crafts; the berries were eaten.
There are 12 species of barberry growing in the CIS, of which 7 species grow in Kazakhstan: Siberian, centipede, oblong, Bykovskiy, whole-edged, Iliskiy, Karkaralinskiy. All berries are edible. There are introduced species: common barberry, Amur barberry, Thunberga, etc.
Common barberry - Berberis vulgaris L. - is a branched thorny shrub up to 2-3 meters in height with thin ribbed yellowish-white shoots. The leaves are collected in bunches, obovate, blunt-topped, jagged at the edges, dark green above, lighter below, turning purple in autumn. Spines 3-, 5-parted, up to 2 cm long. Flowers appear in May-June. Yellow, shiny, they are collected in hanging clusters and emit a subtle honey smell. The fruits - red oblong berries - ripen in September - October and hang on the bushes for a long time.
Common barberry is winter-hardy, like all other species of this genus, drought-resistant, light-loving, and little demanding of soil. It grows best on light loams, prefers steep sunny slopes, and tolerates some shade. Propagated by seeds, divisions of bushes and summer cuttings.
Very resistant to air pollution. Tolerates haircuts well.
Naturally lives in Europe, the Caucasus. In Kazakhstan it is used in landscaping the south-eastern regions.
Barberry wood is very hard, does not split easily, is fine-grained, with wide lemon-yellow sapwood; this color is given to it by berberine, one of the few colored alkaloids. Used for small turnings and inlays, its roots and bark are used to dye leather and wool a beautiful lemon yellow color.
Barberry fruits have nutritional value; they contain glucose and fructose, malic, tartaric and citric acids. The refreshing, sour berries are consumed raw and used in confectionery production.
There are 11 alkaloids in the roots, bark and branches of barberry: berberine, berbamine, etc. The leaves contain berberine, vitamins C and E, carotene, malic and citric acids. It is no coincidence that many parts of plants are used in folk and scientific medicine.
Preparations and tinctures from the root and bark of barberry are useful for liver diseases, kidney stones, jaundice, inflammation of the kidneys and bladder, gout, rheumatism, etc.; tincture of leaves - for bleeding and liver diseases.
All types of barberry are decorative at any time of the year: in spring, when bright green foliage and yellow drooping flower clusters appear, and in autumn, when the leaves turn yellow or purple, and the bush is completely dotted with orange-red, purple or dark blue clusters of berries.
Common barberry is used to create hedges, borders, single and group plantings on lawns, gardens and parks. There are many decorative forms: with dark purple, white and yellow-edged leaves, there are varieties that differ in color and configuration of fruits, etc.
The garden form with berries without seeds is valuable. It should be remembered that barberry is an intermediate host of bread rust.
Willow
There are about 250 species in the willow family, which interbreed easily, making willows very difficult to identify. Plants of this family are divided into two groups: tree willows and shrubby willows. Willow is a light-loving plant, prefers moist or damp soils, and tolerates prolonged flooding, so its main habitats are the banks of rivers and reservoirs, and damp meadows. Some types of willows can grow on dry, poor soils and even loose sand, but with close groundwater. They are undemanding to soil fertility and tolerate some salinity. They reproduce by seeds, shoots from a stump and cuttings. In shrubby forms, the roots do not go very deep into the soil, but spread widely to the sides. The wood of many types of willows is characterized by elasticity, softness, lightness, viscosity, flexibility, and does not crack when dried. Used in construction, furniture and cooperage production. Baskets are woven from willow twigs. Willow bark juice has healing properties - it soothes rheumatic pain and reduces fever. A decoction of a mixture of willow bark and burdock, taken in equal parts, was used to wash your hair in case of dandruff and hair loss.
Willow is used in green construction of cities and villages, especially near water bodies. In the south of Kazakhstan and Central Asia, there is a centuries-old tradition of lining irrigation canals and special recreation areas with willows. Willow easily tolerates air pollution, even if it grows near industrial enterprises and highways with heavy traffic. In our city, willow is not used in street landscaping, but it is common near the beaches of the Samarkand reservoir, along the canals through which water is discharged from industrial enterprises within the city, along the banks of the Nura River.
Blood red hawthorn is a plant of the Rosaceae family. It is a shrub or small tree. Its young shoots are shiny, purple-brown, the spines on the shoots are 2-5 cm long, straight. The leaves are alternate, petiolate, and by autumn they turn golden and red. The flowers are about 1.5 cm in diameter, collected in dense corymbose inflorescences. The fruits are red, apple-shaped, about 1 cm in diameter, with mealy edible pulp.
Biological features of fruit and berry bushes grown in the city of Temirtau.
Raspberries
Raspberries. There are about 400 types of raspberries in the world, and in Kazakhstan – 4.
Raspberry bushes reach two meters, the shoots are erect, one to two years old, pubescent, covered with thorns. In May-July, racemose or brush-like inflorescences bloom on the branches.
Raspberries are an excellent honey plant. From one hectare of thickets, bees collect up to 100 kg of nectar, and due to the special structure of its flowers, bees visit them in cool weather, after sunset, and even in light rain.
Sweet and fragrant raspberries are very delicate, so you need to pick them carefully, preferably in a small container. The fruits are eaten fresh, jam is made from them, jellies, syrups, tinctures, liqueurs and many other quite tasty things are prepared.
The medicinal properties of raspberries are well known. It has been established that ripe raspberries contain various sugars, organic acids, 25-35 mg% vitamin C, and a number of other useful substances.
Cherry
There are about 150 species found around the globe; 21 species have been described in the CIS. In Kazakhstan, the most common cherries are steppe, common, red-fruited, and Tien Shan.
The fruits are spherical drupes of various colors: dark, wine-red to almost black, or lighter, yellow, with juicy pulp, bitterish. The fruits contain up to 9-14% sugars, citric and malic acids. The core of the seeds contains up to 30% fatty oil used in perfumery, and protein substances - amygdalin, emulsin.
For a long time, housewives have had no competition for cherry jam, which has a good taste and aroma. Juice, jelly, syrups, and jams are prepared from cherries. Cherries are consumed fresh and dried. The fruits of wild cherries contain vitamins A, B, C, protein, carbohydrates, fiber, and ash.
Valuable essential almond oil is obtained from cherry pits. Gum deposits often form on trunks and branches.
The bark contains tannins. The bark contains the coloring substance phloricin, the wood contains xylot. The wood of wild cherry is dense, fine in structure, and produces a beautiful furniture material that lends itself well to finishing and polishing.
In Kazakhstan, cherries can be found on dry rocky slopes, in the middle and subalpine mountain zones in Karatau, Western Tien Shan, Dzungarian, Trans-Ili and Kungei Alatau, Chu-Ili mountains.
Currant
Currant genus Grossulariaceae DS. gooseberry family. There are over 150 types of currants all over the world, and in Kazakhstan there are 11 types of currants. Currant is a shrub up to 2 meters high, surprisingly fragrant, especially the leaves with small amber sessile glands. When rubbed they give off a characteristic odor. Flowers with a hemispherical bell-shaped receptacle, collected in drooping clusters of yellowish-green color, appear in late April - early June. The berries are juicy, green at first, then black or dark purple, sour or sweet.
All currant products are rich in ascorbic acid; vitamin C preparations are obtained from it, concentrates of which are considered a powerful preventative against many infectious diseases and scurvy.
Young leaf buds of black currant are rich in essential oils, so they are used to prepare syrups, extracts and liqueurs.
The berries are equally tasty in fresh, dried and processed form: jams, jellies, canned food, marinades, syrups, wines, etc. The leaves are used for pickling vegetables, less often as a tea substitute. Leaves, flowers and buds contain valuable essential oil.
There are such species as aromatic currant, Meyer currant, bristly currant.
Gooseberry
Gooseberry. There are 52 types of gooseberries, 3 of which grow in the CIS, including 1, needle-shaped, in Kazakhstan.
Gooseberry is a medium-height shrub, usually covered with thorns with alternate entire leaves without stipules. The inflorescence is a raceme bearing a small number of flowers - from 1 to 3. The flowers are sessile, without pedicels, small, greenish or reddish. The fruit is also extremely characteristic of this genus - a false berry with numerous seeds.
Grows on open rocky slopes of the middle and lower mountain zones. Found in Kokshetau, Eastern small hills, Altai, Tarbagatai, Dzungarian Alatau.
Gooseberries contain a lot of vitamin C; Vitamins found: A1, B1, B2, PP. In terms of vitamin content, gooseberries are second only to black currants and are on a par with strawberries. The highest quality berry wines are made from gooseberries.
Ripe gooseberries are useful for diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, metabolic disorders, especially if you are overweight. It is recommended to eat it for kidney and bladder diseases, anemia, and to strengthen blood vessels. The berries are used to make syrups, jams and wine.
Grape
Grape. These are perennial vines or climbing shrubs. These include about 70 species distributed in the northern hemisphere and tropical latitudes of the northern hemisphere. There are 3 species found in the USSR, including 10 in Kazakhstan.
The berries are large, sweet, of different colors and tastes. The leaves are varied in shape, size, and autumn color; from bright green to bright yellow.
The mineral composition of grapes is dominated by calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, and there is some iron and manganese. Tannins, contained in large quantities in colored grapes and red wine, are important in the treatment of gastric diseases. The vitamin C content reaches 2.32%. According to research by V.N. Bukin, grapes contain vitamin A - from 0.02 to 0.12; C – from 0.43 to 12.3; B – 0.006.
Grapes are also important in ornamental gardening: trellises, trellises, arbors
Plum
Plum genus Prunus Mill., Rosaceae family. There are 32 species of plums grown throughout the world. There are 3 types of plums that grow in Kazakhstan.
Cherry plum or Sogdian plum is a tree or shrub 2-8 meters in height, with thorny thin branches. The flowers are white, about centimeters in diameter. Cherry plum fruits come in different colors: yellow, pink, light red, cherry red or blue.
Cherry plum fruits are widely used. Fruit sugar content – 3.6-1-3.5%; acidity -1, "- 4.6%, pectic substances 1.6-2.9%, vitamin C 2.7-19.25 mg%. The fruits have great gelling ability. The astringent taste of cherry plum is given by tannins. Fresh berries are good, but mostly they are processed for making jam, compote, marmalade, juice, tincture, and wine. Since cherry plum has high acidity, when making jam there is no need to add molasses, which protects it from sugaring. The kernel of the seeds contains a significant amount of fatty oil - up to 42%, which is distinguished by its high taste. From the kernel you can make a paste that resembles sterilized cream in taste and nutrition.
The fruits of the cherry plum are harvested as a medicine; colds, throat diseases, and stomach diseases are treated with infusion.
Sea buckthorn
This fruit plant grows in small spreading trees up to 5 - 6 m tall, but most often its height in garden plots does not exceed 2 - 2.5 m, which is why we classify it as a shrub form. Numerous thorny branches arch downward, creating a low, dense crown. The leaves are narrow, linear-lanceolate, green above, whitish-silver below due to thick felt pubescence.
Sea buckthorn fruits are a real storehouse of valuable substances. They are no larger in size than a cranberry; the juicy, fleshy pulp contains a small oblong dark seed. The fruits sit on very short stalks and fit tightly to the shoot. The pulp of ripe fruits tastes bitter, but, frozen by the first frosts, it loses its bitterness and becomes pleasantly sour-sweet. Sea buckthorn fruits are a highly valuable dietary food product. Jams, jams, and marshmallows are prepared from sea buckthorn berries. The seeds, bark and pulp of the plant's fruits contain sea buckthorn oil, which has special healing properties. It contains vitamins C, E, carotene, and multivitamins. It is successfully used for the treatment of external and especially internal non-healing ulcers, including stomach ulcers, as well as in gynecological practice, in the treatment of eyes, and radiation injuries.
Sea buckthorn is a winter-hardy plant, so it can be successfully grown in our climatic conditions.
Shrub plants belonging to fruit and berry crops are grown in garden plots and summer cottages to obtain their fruits. The fruits of cherries, raspberries, rose hips, currants, bird cherry, gooseberries, and sea buckthorn contain a number of useful substances. From these fruits they make preserves, jams, compotes, jelly, decoctions, marmalade; they are dried, pickled, frozen to preserve their beneficial properties.
In addition, the fruits of fruit and berry bushes are used in folk and official medicine. Thus, rose hips and black currants are included in vitamin teas, bird cherry fruits are included in stomach tea, and raspberries are included in diaphoretic tea.
Shrubs, as well as tree plantings, in addition to their decorative and aesthetic value, reduce the concentration of harmful gases in the atmospheric air. If the concentration of pollutants is not too high, that is, it does not threaten the existence of the plant itself, it deposits these substances in its tissues and absorbs them. Thus, trees and shrubs growing in an industrial area polluted by sulfur dioxide have many times more sulfur content than those growing in unpolluted areas.
Trees and shrubs capture dust well - up to 70% of dust particles from the air. The dust is then washed off the leaves by rain and carried into the soil. Wind and rain restore the dust-collecting properties of foliage.
Trees and shrubs reduce air dust during the growing season by 42%, and during the leafless period - by 37.5%. An important indicator is the size of the filtering surface of trees and shrubs in the plantation. The filtering surface is formed by leaves, branches, and trunks. For 1 hectare this area can reach 50,000 – 150,000 sq. m. According to calculations, the leaf surface area is 10-15 times larger than the crown projection area.
Roadside protective strips reduce the concentration of carbon monoxide contained in vehicle exhaust gases.
In the city of Temirtau, tree species predominate in the total mass of tree and shrub plantations. Shrubs are in second place in terms of numbers and biomass. Shrubs grow in the form of hedges on the central street of the city - Republic Avenue. Green caragana hedges are common in the eastern part of the city: children's park, PTKL territory, st. Dimitrova, st. Builders; in social city - pl. them. Gagarin, in the old city in the area of the right bank. There are green honeysuckle hedges on the street. Dimitrova, st. Builders, in the city children's park. Rosehip, lilac and cherry bushes are common in the courtyards of houses along the street. Kalinin, in the courtyard of secondary school No. 11.
The ability of shrubs to produce oxygen and purify the air from dust and harmful substances depends on the condition of the shrub plantings.
To determine the condition of shrub plantations in the eastern part of the city, we applied the method of V. A. Alekseev.
A significant part of the shrub plantings that we examined turned out to be in good, healthy condition, i.e. The crown of the bushes was dense, without damage, dry branches were rarely observed only in the lower part of the crown, and there were no pests. These are caragana and elm shrubs along Republic Ave., near the “Kazakhstan” store, the polytechnic college, in the park near the State House of Culture and the monument to the Metallurgists; honeysuckle and caragana bushes in the city children's park and on the street. Builders.
In the honeysuckle plantings along the street. Dimitrov in July, pest damage was noted, and severe damage - up to 60% of leaves - was observed in a row of bushes growing along the sidewalk. Plants of the second row, planted along the roadway, were less affected by pests. These shrubs are not trimmed. During the dry season, a significant amount of dust accumulates on their crowns, which protects the pedestrian part and windows of houses located on the street. Dimitrova.
Shrubs in our city are classified as artificial plantings. A characteristic feature is that these shrubs are already quite old, they are at least 25–30 years old. However, on the streets, in parks and squares of the city, not only is renovation not taking place, but also young shrubs are not being planted to replace dead or damaged ones. For example, in the city children's park "Vostok" on many alleys the distances between groups of bushes in the hedge are 1.5 - 2.0, and often 4 m.
In many houses in the city, the living spaces on the first floors have been converted into shops. Entrepreneurs arrange areas in front of stores, lay out tiles, sometimes plant flowers in flowerpots, but very rarely plant trees and shrubs. As a positive example, we can cite the planting of rosehip bushes near the ice cream cafe “Umka” on Respubliki Ave., and lilac bushes near the city bathhouse in the socialist city.
Meanwhile, many species of shrubs previously unknown in city landscaping are being imported into our city.
We studied the assortment of ornamental shrub plants sold for free sale in three stores in the city: “Yukka”, “Flora Design” and a store at the bus station. In 2004–2005, the following types of shrub plants were sold in city stores.
All shrubs are frost-resistant varieties. The store at the bus station has the largest sales volume; shrubs are brought here from Omsk. Plants are brought to the Yucca and Flora Design stores from Holland and Germany, so prices here are higher and sales volumes are correspondingly lower.
Shrubs are purchased mainly individually for cultivation in summer cottages and garden plots. Sellers note that regular customers have already appeared. These are people in whom one type of shrub has taken root, has given good growth, and they acquire new species or plants of the same species, but in larger quantities, and recommend them to their friends. Thus, the species and quantitative composition of shrub plants grown in our city is expanding.
Among the above-mentioned shrubs, cinquefoil or Kuril tea, honeysuckle, jasmine, chokeberry, mahonia holly, willow, white and pink spirea, serviceberry, tamarix, and mackerel are especially in great demand.
Cinquefoil bush or Kuril tea is a plant of the Rosaceae family. This is an abundantly branching shrub up to 1.5 m in height. There are various garden forms, differing mainly in the pubescence of the leaves and the color of the flowers. The flowers are 2–3 cm in diameter, regular, collected in terminal few-flowered corymbose or racemose inflorescences. The corolla is yellow, pale yellow or white. Used in row and group plantings, hedges. Prefers well-lit places.
Jasmine is a plant of the Hydrangeaceae family. This is a shrub up to 3 m in height, young shoots are yellowish or reddish brown. The leaves are opposite, petiolate, oval, sparsely toothed along the edges, glabrous above, pubescent along the veins below. Flowers are up to 4.5 cm in diameter, collected in terminal 5-7-flowered racemes. The petals of the corolla are white or cream. In landscaping there are a large number of varieties and garden forms with double flowers, yellow and white-edged leaves and other decorative features.
Chokeberry or chokeberry is a plant of the Rosaceae family. The homeland of chokeberry is the North American continent. The leaves of chokeberry resemble cherry leaves - simple, elliptical or reverse - ovoid in shape, hard to the touch and leathery. The leaf petiole and central vein are purple. By autumn, the purple color spreads to the entire leaf blade and then the chokeberry plantings burst into flames with a rich range of colors. White chokeberry flowers are collected in corymbose inflorescences of 15-25 flowers. It is pollinated by insects, but is also capable of self-pollination. The fruit of chokeberry is an apple. Inside each fruit there are 4-8 small, elongated light brown seeds. The Dakota and Delaware Indians have long treated burns with chokeberry juice and used flour from ground dry fruits for food, but the healing properties of this plant were unknown for a long time. Biochemical studies of chokeberry fruits have revealed that they contain a huge amount of vitamin P - 5 times more than an orange - a recognized record holder for rutin content. Rutin, together with ascorbic acid, ensures the strength and elasticity of the walls of blood vessels - capillaries, protecting them from fragility and excessive permeability, which can lead to interstitial hemorrhages. Aronia fruits also contain iodine, carotene, organic acids and pectin substances. Juice, preserves, jams, compotes, wines are obtained from chokeberry fruits; they are dried and frozen. The positive properties of this plant are also manifested in the fact that chokeberry produces phytoncides, i.e. substances that kill bacteria, and also practically does not suffer from diseases.
Mahonia holly is a plant of the Berberidaceae family. It is an evergreen shrub up to 1 m in height. The leaves are alternate, odd-pinnate, shiny, leathery, oblong-oval. The flowers are yellow, fragrant, collected in terminal multi-flowered erect racemes. The fruits are bluish-black, spherical, fleshy, berry-shaped, up to 0.8 cm in diameter. There are forms with variegated and golden leaves.
Spiraea is a plant of the Rosaceae family. This is a shrub up to 150 cm in height. The shoots are round in cross section, brown in maturity, with flaky bark. The leaves are elliptical, oval or oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, serrated only along the upper edge, glabrous or sparsely hairy. The flowers are white, 0.7 – 0.9 cm in diameter, collected in multi-flowered corymbose inflorescences on short leafy shoots of the current year. In the practice of landscaping, many garden hybrid forms of spirea are used, white-flowered and with large pink-lilac corymbose inflorescences. In many spireas, the foliage becomes colorful by autumn, complementing the overall decorative effect of the plants.
Irga is a plant of the Rosaceae family. It is a shrub or small tree up to 15 m in height. The bark is brownish or brownish-gray, scaly. The leaves are petiolate, oval or obovate, finely serrate along the edges. In autumn, the leaves turn beautiful orange-red tones. Flowers are up to 2.5 cm in diameter, collected in sparse, often drooping racemes. The corolla is white. The fruits are apple-shaped, black, slightly bluish, up to 1.2 cm in diameter. The fruits are edible. Used for single, group, edge plantings and for hedges.
Mackerel is a plant of the Sumacaceae family. This is a beautiful, tall, highly branched shrub with a dense spherical or umbrella-shaped crown. Green or reddish shoots have numerous light lenticels; milky juice is secreted at the break. The leaves are alternate, round, on long petioles, matte above, bluish-green, bluish below. In autumn, the crowns of the mackerel glow with all shades of red: they become orange-red, pink, scarlet, and dark purple. When rubbed, the leaves and shoots emit a tart odor reminiscent of lemon. Small greenish-yellow flowers are collected in loose panicles and appear in May–June. The plant is especially decorative after flowering, when the pedicels lengthen and become covered with pinkish-purple hairs. The panicles then look fluffy and turn into pink “clouds”. Mackerel is drought-resistant and not picky about soil. Photophilous, winter-hardy, tolerates air pollution well.
Elderberry is a plant of the honeysuckle family. This is a spreading shrub with gray or brownish-gray fissured bark, on which there are light brown lenticels. Young shoots are greenish in color. The core of the branches is white, soft, elastic. The leaves are dark green, odd-pinnate, up to 35 cm long. When rubbed they emit an unpleasant odor. The flowers are small, fragrant, collected in thyroid-paniculate inflorescences up to 20 cm in diameter. The fruits are juicy, shiny, black-purple drupes, taste sourish-sweet, ripen from August to September. It grows quickly, is shade-tolerant, prefers moist, fertile soils, is drought-resistant, and tolerates smoke and industrial gases well. All parts of the plant have medicinal value and contain various organic acids and tannins. An infusion of flowers is taken for colds as a diaphoretic, and for liver diseases as a choleretic agent. All types of elderberry have ash elements, phosphorus, calcium, and potassium in their leaves. When leaves fall, these substances enter the soil and enrich it.
Forest-steppe
The forest-steppe zone occupies a small part of the territory of the republic (about 2%) - the North Kazakhstan region, the northeast of Kustanay, and a small isolated island in the vicinity of the city of Kokshetau. The climate here is relatively warm and dry. On average, precipitation falls from 250 to 400 mm per year, most of all in the summer. The average temperature of the coldest month, January, is 19°C (absolute minimum – 40°C), the warmest month, July, is +18 – 19°C. The duration of the growing season is 160 – 170 days.
The soil cover of the zone consists of chernozems and gray forest soils. The vegetation cover is aspen-birch forests (in the southern part, island forests, so-called kolki) and rich forb grass steppes. The main tree species in the forest-steppe are aspen (trembling poplar) and birch, represented by 3 species (silver, downy, Kyrgyz). Typical shrubs are needle hips, steppe cherry, viburnum, Tatarian honeysuckle, black cotoneaster, etc. The lands are used for hayfields, pastures and arable land. Meadow and steppe areas are now 60–90% plowed. In addition, logging is carried out in this area. Let's move on to a description of the most typical and interesting plants of the forest-steppe.
Silver birch or warty birch(family birch)
The most common species of the 12 representatives of the birch genus found in Kazakhstan. It grows on plains and in mountains, on slopes and depressions; There are both pure stands and mixed ones (birch, other deciduous trees and coniferous trees). Birch bark is smooth, peeling off in thin strips. Slender trunks (up to 20 m tall) are visible from afar due to their white color. The white color is due to the presence of a special substance in the cells of the cortex - betulin. When the bark peels, it spills out and covers the tree trunk with a white coating, which is almost not washed off by rain. The inner, thicker yellowish layers of bark are called birch bark. The tree has thin branches, often hanging down, and young shoots are densely dotted with small resinous warts - hence the name of the species. The leaves are triangular-rhombic, pointed at the apex, serrated along the edges. Numerous flowers (small, inconspicuous, unisexual) are collected in characteristic inflorescences - catkins.
Birch is a monoecious plant: both staminate (male) and pistillate (female) catkins are located on the same tree. Inflorescences of different sexes differ in both appearance and developmental characteristics. Staminate catkins are laid in the summer; in winter they are ready to bloom, at this time of year the male catkins are long and brown. Pistillate catkins overwinter in the buds and bloom only in the spring. Female inflorescences are much shorter and look like small green cones. The birch tree blooms when the leaves begin to bloom; At that time, a huge amount of yellow pollen is carried by the wind over long distances. Light fruits (nuts equipped with membranous wings) are carried by the wind in autumn and winter, and melt water in the spring. Each mature tree produces countless seeds, some of which develop into new plants. Birch is light-loving, but unpretentious in terms of soil composition and moisture. Young trees grow quickly, often forming dense groves in the place of cut down coniferous trees. Under the canopy of birch trees in such places, pine or spruce trees appear again. They are gradually replacing the light-loving and relatively short-lived (no more than 100 - 150 years) birch.
Birch sap contains a lot of sugary substances, so it is widely used both fresh and for preparing various drinks. Birch is a good building material; it produces high quality firewood. Various crafts are made from the bark (from birch bark) and birch tar is obtained. Leaves and buds are a generally accepted remedy for kidney diseases, rheumatism and even skin cancer. Birch is planted in field and forest protection belts.
Trembling poplar, or aspen(family willow)
The most famous of 11 species of wild poplars in Kazakhstan. It is found in coniferous and mixed forests, in clearings and burnt areas, along the banks of rivers and swamps throughout the lowland part of the republic, as well as in the mountains, except for the Chu-Ili and Western Tien Shan.
Poplar is a tall (up to 25 m) tree with a spreading crown and a straight, smooth trunk. The bark is greenish-gray. The leaves are almost round, with uneven, blunt teeth. Unlike many other tree species, the veins on an aspen leaf are more visible on the upper side than on the underside. Leaf petioles are longer than the blade, widely flattened laterally. Due to this shape of the petiole, the hard leaves occupy an unstable position and sway left and right at the slightest breath of wind. That is why this type of poplar is called trembling. The root system is prostrate, develops near the soil surface, and often forms numerous root shoots. The latter happens especially often in places where aspen forests have been cut down, sometimes even long-standing ones. The flowers are numerous, small, inconspicuous, unisexual.
Aspen, unlike birch, is a dioecious plant: staminate and pistillate catkins are located on different trees and bloom in early spring, even before the leaves appear. The stamen catkin is very beautiful - fluffy, silky gray, flexible, with bright dark red anthers (the part of the stamen in which pollen is formed). They are pollinated by the wind, often by bees, which collect pollen and glue from buds that have not yet opened. The seeds are small, at the base they have a tuft of fine silver-white hairs. In summer, the two-leaf capsule fruits ripen, open, and the seeds fall out and are dispersed by the wind. Aspen is very light-loving, so it thins out in the thickets. Like birch, it is the first to populate areas of felling and fires, subsequently contributing to the restoration of other, more valuable and durable tree species. Aspen grows quickly.
Rosehip needle(family Rosaceae)
The most beautiful of the 25 species of rose hips found in Kazakhstan. It grows on the plains of the northern, central and south-eastern parts of the republic and in the mountains (Altai, Tarbagatai, Dzungarian Alatau) - in forests, along damp bush thickets, gorges, rocky slopes. This is a fairly moisture-loving species; it is sensitive to the humidity of both the soil and the atmosphere.
Rosehip is a typical shrub (up to 2 m tall) with grayish-brown bark and numerous thorns on stems and branches. Sharp spines and bark outgrowths are characteristic of all rose hips; they serve as a protective device to prevent animals from eating the plant. The leaves are complex, odd-pinnate, usually with 2-3 pairs of fairly large elliptical leaflets, the edge of each of which has deep teeth. The lower surface of the leaves is densely covered with soft hairs. The flowers are bisexual, regular in shape (actinomorphic), with narrow green sepals and bright pink or reddish petals. The number of sepals and petals is the same (5 each), there are an indefinite number of stamens and pistils. The flowers are large (up to 6 cm in diameter), most often solitary, less often collected 2–3 in loose corymbose inflorescences; pedicels are long. With their bright color and strong aroma, they attract insects - bees, bumblebees, large beetles, which eat pollen and, flying from flower to flower, promote cross-pollination. In the evening the petals close, so sometimes insects use the flowers as a shelter for the night. Rose hips bloom in June and bear fruit in August.
The fruits should be described in more detail. What is called rosehip berries is actually a false fruit - a complex formation of a pitcher or goblet shape with fleshy walls. It occurs as a result of the growth of the receptacle. Numerous small fruits are attached to the inner side - yellowish nuts separated by thick, hard hairs. Ripe “berries” are juicy, bright red, with dry, non-falling sepals at the top.
Some types of rose hips became the progenitors of cultivated roses. People have been growing these beautiful ornamental plants since ancient times. Images of garden roses, for example, are found on silver coins found in Altai in burials dating back to the 4th millennium BC. e. Until now, many “savages” are used in breeding. Rose hips are a real storehouse of vitamins. Infusions, decoctions, and preparations are prepared from the fruits, which are used to treat many diseases, in particular diseases of the stomach and liver. The flowers are used as a tea substitute, and the essential oil from the petals is used in the perfume industry.
Black currant(family gooseberry)
The most famous shrub of the forest-steppe zone and mountainous regions of Central and Eastern Kazakhstan. In the west it is distributed to the Ural River basin, in the southeast – to the Dzhungar Alatau. Like the needle hips, it prefers moist habitats - river banks, the edges of swamps, water meadows and damp forests.
Currant has numerous erect branches up to 1.5 m tall. Young shoots are fluffy and pale, but by the end of summer they acquire a brownish color. The leaves have long petioles and a palmately divided blade. A distinctive feature of black currant is the presence of yellow odorous glands on the underside of the leaves and young shoots, which give this plant a characteristic aroma. The flowers are inconspicuous, pinkish or greenish, five-membered, collected in drooping racemes. Currants bloom in May–June and are most often pollinated by flies that feed on the nectar released. Under unfavorable conditions, self-pollination often occurs (within one flower). The fruits are fragrant black or brown berries with numerous small seeds and ripen in July–August. The seeds are spread by birds that eat the juicy berries.
Cultivated varieties of black currant, the ancestor of which is our “savage,” are grown almost throughout Kazakhstan. But wild currants are more valuable. The fruits, rich in vitamins and sugars, are widely used as a food and medicinal product, while the leaves are used as a flavoring agent for canning vegetables.
Tatar Zhimalstvo(family honeysuckle)
The most common species of 22 Kazakhstani representatives of the honeysuckle genus. It is widespread: it grows in meadows, forest edges, in thickets of bushes, along river valleys, streams and on mountain slopes in almost all of Kazakhstan. Honeysuckle reaches a height of 1–3 m. Young shoots are yellowish-brown, the branches are covered with gray bark that cracks into longitudinal stripes. The leaves are opposite, oblong-ovate, with short petioles. The upper surface of the leaf blade is bright green, the lower surface is lighter, bluish. Bisexual flowers, collected in groups of 2 in the leaf axils of young shoots, are located on long thin peduncles; have bracts and bracts. The color of the flowers varies from white to reddish; the form is incorrect. Sepals, petals and stamens 5 each; the corolla is tubular, with a sac-like expansion at the base and a bilabial bend. Tatarian honeysuckle blooms in May–June and is pollinated by various insects with a long proboscis, including butterflies. The fruits - paired spherical juicy berries of red, orange and yellow color - ripen in June-August. They are poisonous, so birds do not eat them.
The value of this shrub lies in its decorative properties. Honeysuckle is beautiful both in flowering and fruiting states. Due to its high resistance to frost and drought, it has long been grown in gardens, parks, and especially often in forest shelter belts along railways and roads.
Viburnum common(family viburnum)
A relatively close relative of Tatarian honeysuckle, it was previously even classified as a member of the honeysuckle family. This is a typical forest moisture-loving shrub. It lives in tree and shrub thickets, along the banks of rivers and lakes, along the ravines of the plains of Northern Kazakhstan and in the mountains - from the Central Hills to Altai and the Northern Tien Shan.
The height of viburnum is from 1.5 to 4 m. The bark of old branches is grayish-brown in color, with characteristic small cracks. Leaves are opposite, with short petioles; the plate is three-lobed, with large teeth along the edges. At the base of the blade of each leaf there are 2–4 swollen glands that secrete sweet juice. This juice attracts ants, which protect the viburnum from caterpillars and other pests. Loose inflorescences consist of two types of flowers, differing both in appearance and purpose. The marginal flowers are asexual, have neither stamens nor pistils and have a flat corolla in the shape of a wheel - made of 5 rounded petals fused at the bases. The internal flowers are numerous, small, bell-shaped, bisexual, with 5 greenish petals, 5 stamens and a pistil with 3 stigmas. On the outer flowers, pollinating insects collect nectar secreted at the tops of the ovaries and pollen. Viburnum blooms in different places from May to July, bears fruit from August to September.
The fruits are spherical bright red drupes. Their color is very reminiscent of the color of hot metal, and this similarity, according to some botanists, explains the Russian name of the genus. The fruits are readily eaten by birds and thus carry the seeds far from the mother plants.
Tulip drooping(family lilies)
One of the northernmost among 34 species of wild tulips in Kazakhstan, reaching the forest-steppe zone. It grows throughout the northeastern part of the country (from the Kustanai to the East Kazakhstan regions, in the south to the Karaganda region). Prefers steppe, often saline habitats.
The morphological structure and appearance are typical of tulips, although due to the small flowers many residents call this species a snowdrop. The drooping tulip is a perennial plant. The annually renewed bulb is covered with thin leathery brown scales. The flexible stem (up to 25 cm in height) bears two or three narrow belt-like leaves and often the same number of flowers, although more often the flowers are solitary. The perianth, like other lilies, is simple: of 6 white or pinkish, often bright lilac-pink leaves, arranged in two circles. There are also 6 stamens; their filaments are yellow, awl-shaped, the anthers are very small - half as long as the filaments.
The flowers of all tulips have the original ability to move depending on changes in ambient temperature. When the temperature rises, they open: this occurs due to the expansion of cells on the inside of the tepals. When lowered, they close: in this case, the cells on the outside expand. That is why tulip flowers are wide open during the day, but closed in the evening or in rainy and cloudy weather. The flowers do not contain nectar, but the bright color and abundance of pollen attract insects (bees, flies, small beetles), which contribute to cross-pollination. The fact that tulips bloom in early spring (April - May) is explained by another of their features. Renewal buds, located in the center of the bulbs, and next year's shoots are formed in the summer-autumn of the year that precedes the flowering time. With some interruptions, they develop even in winter, so soon after the snow melts, stems, ready-made leaves and buds hatch from the ground. Tulips grow quickly, but the buds acquire their characteristic color only in the last days before flowering.
About a month after flowering, the fruits ripen - triangular, slightly pointed boxes. Inside they are divided by partitions into three nests, in each of which flat brownish seeds are tightly packed in two stacks. The ripe box of the small hazel grouse opens from the top along the valves, and the seeds spill out onto the ground. In the spring of next year, young individuals emerge from them, the journey of which to the first flowering in natural conditions lasts at least 10–15 years. Then, if the plant is not picked, the same individual can bloom for decades, with some interruptions. That is why the issue of preserving wild tulips is so urgent. Most of them reproduce only by seeds, vegetatively (with the formation of baby bulbs, like garden tulips) - very rarely. Mass collection of flowers (even if the bulbs are not dug up) ultimately leads to the complete destruction of tulips. This is especially noticeable in the vicinity of cities and large towns. Considering the great value of the drooping tulip as an ornamental plant, as well as the reduction in its numbers in recent years, scientists proposed including this species in the 2nd edition of the Red Book of Kazakhstan.
Small hazel grouse(family lilies)
A characteristic inhabitant of wet meadows, bushes and forest clearings. Distributed on the plains and low mountains of the northern half of Kazakhstan - from the western to eastern borders.
This is a close relative of tulips; it is similar to them both in appearance and in terms of structure and development. The hazel grouse bulb is spherical, white, without dry integumentary scales, up to 1.5 cm in diameter. The stem is tall (up to 50 cm), has 3 – 7 alternate narrow-linear leaves. One flower (rarely two), about 3 cm tall. The color is brownish-violet, with an unclear speckled pattern. Unlike the tulip, the flowers of the hazel grouse are drooping and bell-shaped. The fruits are oblong triangular capsules with a large number of flat brownish seeds. Flowering period is April-May, fruiting period is June. Reproduction is by seed, the development cycle of seedlings and life expectancy are the same as for tulips. The decorative properties of hazel grouse are not highly valued, but it is of interest for group plantings of flowers on lawns.
Iris (iris) Siberian(family iris)
One of 19 Kazakhstani species of irises, which is found only in the very north of the republic, in the forest-steppe zone. It grows in birch groves, on forest edges and wet damp meadows. The rhizome of this herbaceous perennial is thin, branching, and forms dense turf. The leaves are narrow (about 1 cm wide), linear, collected in flat fan-shaped bunches. The stem is straight, hollow inside, tall (up to 100 cm), with single leaves and 2 - 3 flowers, reaching a diameter of 5 - 7 cm. The color of the flowers can vary from deep purple, blue-blue to pale blue; Sometimes pure white is found.
The perianth consists of six lobes, fused at the bottom into a short tube and arranged in two circles (one inside the other). The outer leaves are slightly wider than the inner ones and are bent downwards, while the inner ones are directed almost vertically upward. The iris, like all members of this family, has three stamens. From above they are invisible, as they are covered with petal-shaped lobes of the pistillate style. Siberian iris usually blooms in June, the fruits (oblong dry capsules with many oval light brown seeds) ripen in August. It propagates both by seeds and vegetatively using rhizomes.
Almost all parts of the plant (flowers, fruits, rhizomes) are used in folk medicine for healing wounds, for headaches and toothaches, stomach diseases and anthrax. However, the Siberian iris is known mainly for its decorative properties. Its durability and ability to reproduce quickly are highly valued by flower growers and breeders. In England, the USA and Canada, many cultivated varieties have been created, the most beautiful of which are “Tropical Night” - with dark purple flowers and “Snow Scallop” - with dazzling white flowers.
| About the publication | |
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Flora of Kazakhstan Ivashchenko A.A. 2004, 240 pages, ill., Russian, format 245x330. A unique book that provides information about the most striking representatives of the flora growing in the main landscape areas of the republic. The illustrated encyclopedia contains information about more than 150 plants, some of which are listed in the Red Book of Kazakhstan. |
About the publishing house |
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"Almatykitap Baspas" publishes textbooks and teaching aids for preschool preparation of children, for schools and universities, books on local history, fiction and educational literature, dictionaries, reference books, encyclopedias in Kazakh, Russian and English. |
| Address: 050012, Kazakhstan, Almaty, St. Zhambyla, 111 | |
