2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Bukharnik (Latin Holcus) - an ornamental-leaved plant representing the Cereals family. Popularly, this plant is often called honey or velvet grass.
Description
Bukharnik is a herbaceous pubescent rhizome perennial or annual, endowed with flat thin leaves and uncomplicated straw stalks. And the flower spikelets of this plant are collected in rather dense and large panicle inflorescences. In fact, its inflorescences are complex ears, consisting of simple spikelets arranged in tiers. Bukharnik height often reaches half a meter.
In total, the genus of bukharniks has eleven species, while woolly bukharnik and soft bukharnik are considered to be the most common.
Where grows
Bukharnik is not difficult to meet almost everywhere, from South-West Asia and North Africa to Europe. This plant is found even in the UK! It grows especially well in young forest growth and in picturesque forest glades. And quite often it can be seen in combination with ferns.
Usage
Since the bukharnik is positioned mainly as a forest and meadow plant, a slightly shaded or sunny exposure will be most preferable for it. And in landscape design, mainly cultivated forms and varieties of this plant are used - they can boast of greater decorativeness and much less aggressiveness.
Quite often, bukharnik is planted along the curbs, in addition, magnificent living curbs are obtained from it, allowing you to limit the space for subsequent growth in different directions. And the bukharnik growing on the slopes plays the role of a soil-strengthening plant. As for the stunted bukharniks, they are unmatched ground cover plants, ideal for decorating coastal areas and overly humid corners.
In the wild, some varieties of bukharnik are malicious weeds - they produce a huge amount of seeds and very quickly populate almost the entire surrounding area.
Growing and caring
Bukharnik will grow well both in the open sun and when planted in partial shade. In cool regions, this plant thrives best in well-lit places, and in hot areas it is advisable to plant it in partial shade. It will feel especially good on well-drained, rich in various nutrient compounds and fairly moist fertile soils, which are characterized by an acidic reaction. On poorly drained and poor soils, only woolly bukharnik grows well, moreover, it is an excellent indicator of such soils. It is also important to take into account the fact that bukharnik is a calcephobe, that is, it grows extremely poorly on lime-rich soils. In addition, he tries to avoid alkaline soils.
Bukharnik does not need any special care, however, if it grows in dry places, it will need systematic and fairly abundant watering.
Bukharnik also boasts a fairly good winter hardiness, and it is usually propagated in the fall - both by dividing the rhizomes and by seeds. However, only vegetative reproduction is characteristic of sterile forms.
As for pests, slugs with snails can harm the bukharnik. To prevent their invasion, it will not hurt to place special traps on the site. And sometimes this plant is eaten with pleasure by caterpillars of some butterflies.
Recommended:
Woolly Bukharnik
Woolly Bukharnik (Latin Holcus lanatus) - a representative of the Bukharnik clan. Belongs to the Cereals family. It got its name "woolly" due to its botanical features, namely the presence of pubescence. In nature, the species is found in European countries, in northern Africa, in some countries in Asia.
