Stork

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Stork (lat. Erodium) - a numerous genus of plants, which are more often represented by herbaceous species, but can also be semi-shrubs. Unpretentiousness to living conditions made them ubiquitous, and therefore the Stork can be found on any continent of our planet. True, in different countries it can have popular names that are completely different from what is written above, and a different shape of the leaves. But the genetic basis of the plant unites all this many-sided picturesque creation of nature.

What's in your name

The Latin name of the plant comes from the word "erodios", which in translation into the language we understand means "heron". This large bird chooses wetlands for residence, where it is easier for it to get food (frogs, fish) with its long nose. The genus Heron belongs to the order Storks (or Ankles, which is not important in this case). Hence the "Aistnik" came out. Although it would be more reasonable to call the Stork Pelargonium, a relative of the Geranium family, since the word “pelargos” in translation means “stork”.

But this name was given to the plant not at all because newborns are found in its low compact bushes, similar to cabbage or good storks bringing ready-made babies, but for the shape of the plant's fruit, which looks like the long beak of birds from the Stork order. After all, people who study the life of plants, along the way, are interested in various animals.

Our plant is also called "Grabel", with an accent on the letter "a", or "Grabel". Apparently, the tough hairs covering, for example, the stems and fruit of the Common Stork, are associated in humans with the rake, an important gardening tool.

Description

As already noted, the leaves of different Stork species can be whole or pinnately dissected.

The whole leaves, adorned with coquettish teeth along the edge, resemble in their shape the leaves of Geranium, a relative in the family.

Cirro-dissected openwork leaves are formed by leaflets, which, in turn, also differ in shape on different plant species. Such leaves are very decorative, and therefore the plant is popular with flower growers who prefer rockeries and alpine hills. After all, the Stork bushes, with their decorativeness, are very compact and undersized.

As for the flowers of the plant, there is not much variety. These are very cute simple 5-petal creatures, painted in white-pink-purple colors of different shades.

The shape of the Stork fruit is similar to the shape of the fruits of Geranium and Pelargonium, for which botanists combined them into one Geranium family, and is similar to the long beaks of birds of the Stork order.

Growing

The stork is not picky when choosing a place to live. It can be found in forest glades, garden beds, weedy places and wastelands abandoned by people, where the sun reaches the plant without hindrance, and the soil is fertile and loose.

When grown in a flower garden, it likes regular watering with good soil drainage and pinching the top for greater bushiness.

Under favorable conditions, it is not affected by diseases and pests.

In nature, it propagates by seeds, and in culture, so that varietal characteristics are preserved, it is more often propagated by apical cuttings in the spring. Well-rooted and grown seedlings in the fall are determined for a permanent place in the open field.

Usage

The varieties bred by breeders with larger and brighter flowers have been recognized by flower growers and are actively used in summer cottages, saving time and effort with their unpretentiousness.

In addition, the herb of the plant collected during the flowering period is used in the treatment of some ailments, although the healing abilities of the Stork are not very popular.