2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Pochuynik (lat. Polygonum) - light-loving and moisture-loving plant from the Buckwheat family. Other names are highlander, highlander pochechuyny.
Description
The perennial plant is a very interesting plant, which can be either an annual or perennial, or a semi-shrub plant. There are even aquatic forms of the creeper - the length of the stems in these varieties often reaches a whole meter. The leaves of this plant are almost always sessile, long-pointed, completely devoid of chiseled glands on the lower surfaces.
The flowers of the podchuynik are small and rather inconspicuous. As a rule, they are either pinkish or whitish with a subtle greenish tint. And the fruits of this plant are achenes or nuts. Most often they turn out to be trihedral, a little less often - flat-convex. Fruit ripening covers the period from July to autumn.
In total, the genus of the creeper includes about two hundred species.
Where grows
The homeland of the potato beetle is the Himalayas, but at present this plant is quite widespread in almost all parts of the world. In nature, it grows mainly on damp forest paths, on the boundaries, along the banks of various reservoirs or rivers, as well as on damp meadows.
Usage
The bud is used in ornamental gardening, and the shoots of the wide-spread bud are an excellent material for arranging large bouquets. In order to achieve a special decorative effect, all leaves are removed from them, thereby revealing intricately curved reddish stems with incomparable openwork inflorescences.
Also, this plant is considered an excellent melliferous plant, and its young shoots and leaves are edible - you can feast on them both raw or boiled, and in fermented or dried form.
In industry, the plant is used for dyeing wool and tanning leather, in addition, this plant has found its use in alcoholic beverage production.
It is also used in folk medicine, and in this case, the entire aerial part of this plant is used, which is very rich in flavonoids, carotene, vitamin E, ascorbic acid, coumarins, essential oils, tannins and phenol carboxylic acids. The kidney has long been considered a highly effective anti-inflammatory, diuretic, astringent, hemostatic and antipyretic agent. And this plant also boasts a rather gentle laxative effect, which makes it an excellent assistant for hemorrhoids and chronic constipation.
Infusion of poultry grass helps to improve lung function and lower blood pressure, in addition, infusions, decoctions, and teas from this plant are used to treat kidney stones and a wide variety of respiratory ailments. And with tuberculosis or nervous exhaustion, this plant will have a pronounced tonic and restorative effect. It is also used externally - for bruises, ulcers and bleeding wounds.
As a medicinal raw material, the aerial parts of the plant are usually harvested during the period of its flowering.
Growing and caring
The plant will grow well both in well-lit and poorly shaded areas, but this plant is completely undemanding to soils (nevertheless, the plant will always be glad to be enriched with all kinds of nutrients and well-moistened garden soils).
Reproduction of the bush is carried out either by cuttings in the spring or summer, or by dividing the bushes in the fall. Also, when planting it, you must try to maintain a distance between plants from twenty to sixty centimeters.
