Airy Scumpia Hairstyle

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

Looking for the first time at this amazingly beautiful bush, it seems that in its branches there are small pinkish clouds floating by. Scumpia literally catches the eye with its unusual decorative appearance. Its beauty can be preserved in winter by composing original and durable compositions from its branches

Guest from warm lands

The ancient Greeks were well aware of the unearthly beauty of a plant called scumpia. Today, it can often be found in the Mediterranean region, in Eurasia, East Asia or North America. On the territory of our country, it mostly grows in the Crimea, the Caucasus and in some European parts of the Russian Federation. Skumpia is a deciduous shrub or tree of the Sumakhov family. Two types of it are cultivated: obovate skumpia and tanning skumpia. A huge number of varieties have been bred by breeders.

In our country, it is the tanning skumpia, or, as it is also called, yellowish, is most common. This plant normally tolerates temperature changes, it is unpretentious and frost-resistant. Scumpia American is distinguished by a bright purple shade of leaves, small stature and a very capricious disposition. It is these two types that are very widely used in landscape design. They look great until the first frost, and with good care they will delight the eye for many years. Skumpia looks great in single and group plantings. Most often it is combined with evergreen and coniferous shrubs.

Smoke tree

In some countries, this plant is called the wig or smoky tree because of its fluffy flowering panicles, often reaching up to 30 centimeters in length. The plant itself grows up to 3 meters in length and branches well. Although it will be useful to note that there are among its species and trees up to 12 meters high. The trunk of the scumpia is covered with a scaly bark of a grayish brown color. Greenish or reddish shoots protrude from it. If they are broken, milky juice appears from them.

Oval, whole-edged leaves of the plant with denticles and thin petioles are arranged alternately. When rubbed, the smell of carrots is felt. In the autumn, they turn from green to bluish, yellow-orange or red-purple. At this time, the shrub strongly resembles a burning flame, but the largest decoration of this plant is considered to be small, numerous green or yellow-white flowers. They are covered with brown or greenish, rather long hairs and are collected in lush panicles. Thanks to this, the shrub looks like a cloud. Flowering takes place mostly in early summer, and in the southern regions several times a year. Drupes ripen at the end of summer, and then spread along the ground or air with inflorescences.

Demanding on the sun

Scumpia thrives on windless, sunny places with drained calcareous or sandy soil. On acidic lands, its color will not be too intense. In dark places, it becomes frost-resistant and bears less fruit. Scumpia does not like a lot of moisture, so it is important to save the plant from moisture stagnation.

At first, the young need regular mulching of the soil and daily watering. Young plants are vulnerable to cold, so it is advisable to build a winter shelter for them. If your region has mild winters, skumpia can be planted in autumn, but if severe, then only in spring. Pests and diseases hardly touch the plant. Occasionally it is struck by verticillary wilting caused by fungi. Frozen or diseased shoots must be removed in a timely manner.

Seeds are safer, and layering is easier

The plant propagates by seeds, layering, dividing the bush, cuttings. When propagated by seed, the skumpia is best adapted to the environmental conditions. From fully ripe fruits, dry seeds must be removed and stratified. They are sown in the spring. If planting is planned in the fall, then the seeds themselves will be stratified. After three years, the seedlings will reach a meter in height, and after another three years, they will bloom for the first time.

Layers are taken from the lower branches. A small incision is made on them, gently bent to the ground, sprinkled with soil. After rooting, the new plant is separated from the mother plant. Cuttings are harvested in early summer. Immediately before landing in a cold greenhouse, they need to be soaked in a heteroauxin solution for about 12 hours. Rooting will take place within three weeks and is not an easy process. Young plants need to be watered frequently. Already next spring, the layers with the formed root system are transferred to a permanent place.

Some interesting facts:

- The ancient Romans learned to extract a dye (fizegin) from scumpia for dyeing leather, silk and woolen fabrics in orange and yellow shades.

- The people call the skumpia differently: the miracle tree, the dyeing tree, the smoking shrub, the tanning tree, the fizet tree, the alizarin tree, the sparkling tree, the Svyatogorsk leaf, the morocco leaf, the Venitsian sumac.

- Scumpia leaves are used in the chemical-textile industry to obtain tannins from them.

- Various souvenirs and crafts are made from bush wood.

- Infusions of skumpia leather leaves are drunk for ulcers, inflammation of the oral cavity, food poisoning, indigestion, etc. They also help with burns, bedsores, sweating of the legs.

- For the durability of winter skumpia bouquets, they are sprayed with hairspray.