Eremurus - Cleopatra's Needle

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

The tall and straight peduncle of Eremurus rushed into the blue sky. Apricot flowers climb it, like rock climbers along sheer cliffs, racing upward, closer to the light, to the sun

Herbaceous perennial

A herbaceous perennial from Central Asia has long conquered European lawns in spacious landscape parks. He got to the parks of Europe in transit through the botanical gardens of Russia.

Unaccustomed to our ear, the name was born from two ancient Greek words, which in translation sound like "desert" and "tail". To those traveling through deserts and steppes, its long and lush inflorescence, indeed, resembles the tail of a red cheat living in such places.

In Central Asia, the plant is called "shiryash" (translated as "glue"). From its fleshy roots, rich in polysaccharide

"eremuran" *People make a powder used in the manufacture of glue. It is with this glue that the bricks of mosques and mausoleums, which have stood indestructible for centuries, are held together.

Plant habit **

From a dense rosette of basal long linear leaves, a stem-needle stretches to the sky. By the end of May - beginning of June, star-shaped flowers begin to open up on it gradually, forming a luxurious inflorescence-brush. They look like huge candles or obelisks, reaching a height of 2.5 meters. That is why they are sometimes called "Cleopatra's needles", compared with the obelisks built by the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III in the 15th century BC.

When the bottom of the inflorescence already forms fruit pods, white, cream, pink, orange or yellow flowers still open at the top, delighting the summer resident until mid-summer. Ripe seeds fall out of the capsules in August and fall to the ground. Even not quite ripe winged seeds are distinguished by good germination and continue the life of a plant the next year, which dies off after fruiting.

Eremurus rhizome grows like flowers from bottom to top. Its lower part dies off every year, and a new layer grows from above, taking out new roots. The shape of the rhizome is similar to a thickened disc, around the circumference of which fleshy roots grow.

Types of eremurus

Eremurus narrow-leaved and powerful Eremurus are popular with gardeners.

There are hybrid varieties that attract gardeners with a variety and brightness of colors, multi-flowered dense brush, and aroma. They are great and durable cut, good for dry bouquets.

Unpretentious Eremurus Himalayan, Milky-flowered Eremurus.

Olga's Eremurus, Echison's Eremurus and many others are unusually decorative.

Eremurus powerful

The powerful eremurus looks impressive as a separate small group. A rosette of bluish leaves up to 55 centimeters long, 2.5 meter peduncles with inflorescences of large (up to 4 cm in diameter) flowers of a warm pale pink or white tone with bright orange anthers attract the eye from afar.

Eremurus tops with fruits can become the center of composition and bouquets of immortelles and other dried flowers.

Eremurus narrow-leaved

In growth, it is inferior to the powerful eremurus (up to 1, 7 m), but amazes with its bright beauty, abundance of flowering and aroma of flowers. Excellent honey plant and perganos. Its cylindrical raceme of inflorescence consists of shiny yellow or orange-golden flowers with thin and long filaments. At the ends of the threads are bright orange delicate anthers, creating a semblance of a festive halo around the petals.

Pleases gardeners with their inflorescences in June-July. Stores for a long time in cut, will decorate a winter bouquet of dried flowers.

Growing conditions

Loves sunny, sheltered from the wind, well-warmed ridges with good drainage. The soils are fertile, loose, with an acidity level of pH 6, 5-7, 0.

Watering in dry weather. Warming for the winter with peat or spruce branches.

Seed propagation before winter. Bloom for 4-6 years. When propagated, they bloom vegetatively in the second year. It can be propagated vegetatively in the summer, when the flowers have already faded, that is, during dormancy, or the roots are planted from late August to October.

Harmonious neighbors for Eremurus are daylilies, irises, carnations, cornflowers, poppies, phloxes, kniphofia, camassia, monarda, solidago.

Food use

Young shoots and roots of the plant have been used in human nutrition since ancient times. Boiled roots resemble potatoes.

Medicinal properties

The presence of the polysaccharide "eremuran" in the roots of eremurus allows traditional medicine to use the powder from the dried roots as a bactericidal patch.

Note:

* Polysaccharide "eremuran" plays the same role in plants as starch. That is, it is a reserve stock of energy for growth.

** Habitus - the appearance of the plant.