2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Loch (lat. Elaeagnus) - a light-loving woody plant belonging to the Lokhovye family.
Description
Loch is a small dioecious or bisexual tree, most often in the form of a bush and can be both evergreen and deciduous. Shoots of some varieties of this plant are generously covered with numerous thorns. And the leaves of the sucker are simple, short-peaked and alternate. They are either felted due to their stellate hairs, or silvery due to their small scales.
The small flowers of this plant exude a rather pleasant aroma. All of them are bisexual, axillary and can be either single or collected in spectacular bunches. These flowers have no petals, and their cups boast a very interesting four-lobed tubular-bell-shaped shape. And the fruits of the sucker look like drupes with rather bizarre elliptical bones, and in some varieties of the sucker the fruits are edible - their pulp is mealy and sweet in taste.
In total, this genus includes from forty - forty-five to one hundred species.
Where grows
Loch is quite widespread in North America, Asia and Europe. Moreover, in Russia you can see only one single species of it - narrow-leaved oak, and it grows mainly in the Siberian expanses or in the southeastern regions of the European part of the country.
Usage
Loch is very actively and very successfully used both in ornamental gardening and in such an important industry as agriculture, and all this is due to its incredible showiness and unpretentiousness.
The bright silvery shades of the amazing sucker leaves make this plant an excellent base for creating very effective color compositions and combinations. The sucker will look especially great when planted next to golden varieties of deren or bladderwort, as well as with red-leaved varieties of maple, scumpia or bladderwort. Silvery oak and narrow-leaved oak are excellent options for landscaping parks with gardens, and oak sucker is often used to create excellent single-row hedges, and for this it is quite enough to plant a couple of plants for each linear meter of the area!
Among other things, the fruits of the narrow-leaved oak tree are edible and are often eaten.
Growing and caring
Since the sucker is a very light-loving plant, it is recommended to plant it only in areas well-lit by the sun. This plant will grow well on absolutely any garden soils, even on poor ones, however, areas subject to stagnant moisture for planting it are definitely not suitable. If the sucker is planned to be planted on clay and rather heavy soils, then at first it is advisable to add at least a small amount of sand under its planting. In addition, any substrate must be well drained. At the same time, the sucker is usually referred to as soil-improving plants, since it is endowed with the ability to accumulate nitrogen and enrich the soil with it!
Taking care of the sucker is as easy as shelling pears: it needs moderate watering, and in the spring it is advisable to pamper a beautiful plant with dressings in the form of complete mineral fertilizers.
The sucker tolerates pruning very well, and when pruning "on a stump" it gives a fairly abundant root growth, allowing this plant to form in the form of a very dense and spectacular hedge. Also, after every fourteen to fifteen years, it is recommended to carry out anti-aging pruning.
Loch can be propagated by cuttings, sowing before winter, or by separating root suckers in the spring.
Recommended:
Loch Narrow-leaved
Loch narrow-leaved is one of the plants of the family called Lochidae, in Latin the name of this plant will sound as follows: Elaeagnus angustifolia L. As for the name of the narrow-leaved loch family itself, in Latin it will be: Elaeagnaceae Juss.
Loch Multiflorous
Among the variety of fruit crops, there is one that still remains an exotic plant for Russian gardeners. A shrub with an unusual name multiflora (Elaeagnus multiflora), or gum (gumi) was brought to Sakhalin Island from Japan, and China is considered its homeland
