2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
An attractive herb with large leaves and a snow-white inflorescence that looks like a Christmas candle, I first saw on the unkempt lawn near my entrance. Among the disorderly grasses of the lawn, he looked like a foreign alien, solid, noble and imposing. I watched him for several summer seasons, but somehow it did not come to a closer acquaintance. The name of the Handsome, who has firmly taken his place on the lawn, I learned quite recently
How this picturesque bush appeared on our lawn is unknown to me. Our house, the Khrushchev five-story building, is already sixty years old. Initially, there were twenty apartments in the entrance, twenty families with their own life history. Today there are seventeen apartments left, since three apartments on the first floor have been re-qualified as "non-residential fund". Sometimes a shop, a bank branch, or someone's office is settled in them. Of the old residents, only two apartments remained. Many who were engaged in landscaping the yard, planted flower beds and looked after them at the behest of the heart, and not for wages, have gone into another world. Today the lawns are ownerless, so plants with special vitality, and the bushes of Rosehip and Lilac, survive on them. After all, from time to time the grass on the lawn is ruthlessly mowed by paid workers who have neither the time nor the desire to mow the weeds, while leaving the flowering plants that managed to grow here.
Therefore, when I saw on the lawn three or four years ago a lonely, but strong bush, decorated with a snow-white inflorescence-candle, I was very surprised. The bush avoided "acquaintance" with the buzzing scythe, as it grew inside the tire. A picturesque plant is captured in the main photo. When the frost came, the leaves drooped, but the sturdy stem continued to rise from its "rubber fortress."
Imagine my surprise when the next summer there were already several bushes in this place. In September last year, instead of white candles, I discovered bright seed fruits, the shape and color of which resembled Blackberries. I even collected some fruits, dreaming of planting such a plant in the country this summer. But, fate again called on the road, and therefore the dream was not realized.
But, being far from home, I found time for a closer acquaintance with the mysterious "alien". I was not mistaken, the plant really prefers to live in warm regions, where it often turns into a weed. Although they write that it is growing in Russia.
The official name "Phytolacca acinosa" was given to the plant by a Scottish botanist named William Roxburgh (1751-29-06 - 1815-10-04), who managed to combine the work of a doctor in the East India Company with the work of director of a botanical garden in the Indian city of Calcutta. Many plants in India owe their names to William Roxburgh. In Russia, the plant has many different names, including, Drupe Lakonos (or, Phytolacca drupe); Berry lakonos.
Berry lakonos is a perennial plant. A round, fleshy, thick rhizome, which, as can be seen from the experience of my acquaintance, calmly withstands Siberian frosts, in order to revive its above-ground beauty in the spring, serves as the guarantor of many years.
On an erect, strong herbaceous stem, there are large, whole, elliptical leaves with short petioles. Their simplicity is not devoid of charm: the white central vein is clearly visible on the leaf plate, and the lateral veins give the leaf surface a slightly "dented" elegant look.
Small numerous white flowers bloom on a strong erect peduncle from bottom to top. Flowers are hermaphrodite. Each flower has eight to ten stamens with pink anthers. The stamens playfully stick out in different directions from the center of the flower corolla.
Flowers pollinated by insects "repaint" the peduncle, first in pink, and when the fruits are fully ripe, in purple-black. Especially fertile inflorescences do not withstand the weight of "pomegranate" berries and incline their tops to the surface of the earth. By the way, for a long time I tried to understand the meaning of the Latin name "Phytolacca" with the help of a Google translator, but did not get any result. However, in one English-language article I read that "Phytolacca" is a compound word. "Phyto" is a Greek word that is equivalent to the Russian word for "plant", and "lacca" is a Latin word meaning "crimson (or, bright red) lake", which reflects the bright color of the plant's fruits.
In addition to its attractive appearance, nature has awarded berry Lakonos and other advantages. Young stems and leaves in India are used as a vegetable. The older the plant becomes, the more toxic substances accumulate in all its parts, and therefore Berry Lakonos is no longer suitable for food. In addition, roots, stems and leaves have healing powers.
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