Vitex

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

Vitex (lat. Vitex) - a genus of evergreen or deciduous shrubs or trees of the Lamiaceae family. Previously, the genus was reckoned to the Verbenov family. Another name is prutnyak. The Mediterranean is considered to be the birthplace of Vitex. In nature, plants are found mainly in tropical, subtropical and temperate climates. The most common type is sacred vitex (or wild pepper, or Abraham's tree, or common twig). There are legends about the miraculous power of this species, it is not so much fruit as spicy-aromatic and medicinal. Vitex has been known since ancient times, but it has been cultivated relatively recently.

Characteristic culture

Vitex are shrubs or trees up to 10 m high with a spherical openwork crown. The branches are resilient, flexible. Leaves are grayish-green, compound, pubescent, finger-like, opposite, sitting on long petioles. The flowers are rather small, fragrant, white, red, yellow, lilac, lilac or blue, collected in large paniculate or cluster-like inflorescences, located at the tips of the shoots. The corolla is two-lipped.

The fruit is a dry, four-celled drupe of a spherical shape. Fruits are black, with a bluish bloom, up to 3-4 mm in diameter, surrounded by a calyx. Vitex blooms from June to October, bears fruit until December (depending on climatic conditions). All parts of plants have a specific, sharp, but quite pleasant aroma. Vitexes do not differ in increased cold-resistant properties; in severe winters, shoots can freeze up to the soil surface. However, the plants recover quickly and bloom in the same year.

Growing conditions

Vitexes are light-requiring and undemanding to soil fertility. Although heavy clay, compacted, saline, waterlogged and acidic soils are unsuitable for growing crops. Poor soils, loams, stone areas and sandy loam (loose rocks) are optimal. The location is preferably sunny, light shade is not forbidden. Complete shading can adversely affect plant growth and flowering.

Reproduction and planting

Vitex is propagated by seeds and green cuttings. Seeds can be sown both in spring and autumn. In the second method, the seeds undergo natural stratification. Seeds stored for more than two months are pretreated. For three months, the seeds are kept in wet sand in a room with a temperature not exceeding 5C. Vitex is sown to a depth of 1-2 cm, after which it is abundantly watered and mulched with sawdust or peat. With spring sowing, you can do without mulch.

Seedlings, as a rule, are friendly, even thickened crops do not in any way affect the development of young plants. Vitex, grown by sowing seeds in the ground, bloom in the second year. Propagation by cuttings of culture has no pronounced features. When planting vitex with seedlings, there are no clear patterns, it is important to observe only the required interval, which is 4-4.5 m. You can grow plants as a room culture.

Care

Vitex is not a whimsical culture. Care consists in the standard procedures for all ornamental shrubs and trees, or rather weeding, loosening the near-trunk zone, rare watering. The culture needs annual sanitary pruning, forming - at will and need. Vitex is practically not affected by diseases and pests, so preventive treatments can be dispensed with.

Application

Vitex leaves and fruits are used in cooking and traditional medicine. They are used as a spice in the preparation of meat and fish dishes, and various soups. Often the fruits of vitex are added to canned food, semi-smoked sausages, etc. In Arab countries, the leaves are brewed and drunk as tea. Vitex is useful for chronic diseases of the spleen and liver, as well as for gynecological diseases. Some scientists claim that Vitex has anti-malarial and anti-febrile effects.