2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Today, only a person who is very lazy or indifferent to nature does not have a suburban area. Everyone wants to make it as comfortable as possible and make the garden as attractive as possible. But not everyone thinks that a garden can be not only picturesque, but also healthy, if plants with medicinal properties are planted in it. One of these plants is Robinia False Acacia, often mistakenly called "White Acacia"
Most gardeners prefer to see fruit trees in their summer cottages, forgetting about the small group of woody plants that create not a dense, but an openwork shade that allows them to grow light-loving ornamental plants under their light crown. Robinia pseudoacacia belongs to such woody plants. Moreover, its roots are very attractive for bacteria that can fix atmospheric nitrogen and enrich the soil with useful substances.
Habit
Most often, the height of the tree reaches 20-25 meters, but there are trees and higher. The trunk, reaching a diameter of 1 meter, is covered with gray-brown thick bark, which is dotted with longitudinal deep grooves.
Thorny shoots are brilliant reddish brown or olive green, covered with light green leaves that have a silvery tint. Modified stipules at their base in the form of paired thorns, up to two centimeters long, and turn shoots into prickly touch-me-nots.
Elliptical leaves on millimeter petioles have a bluish-light green color below the leaf and light green on top.
Fragrant white or pinkish cream flowers form loose drooping racemes, turning into brown flat beans hanging on branches all winter long in October. The beans contain 3 to 15 seeds. Seed germination lasts for three years.
Growing
It is practically not picky about soils, it grows on any soil. Despite its "warm" origin, it is quite winter-hardy, withstands minus 30 degrees. Extremely drought tolerant. Sometimes it blooms a second time after a severe summer drought.
Acacia is propagated by seeds and root suckers. Seeds are harvested in winter or early spring. Before planting, for their better germination, the seeds are poured with boiling water for 15 minutes, and then immediately planted in prepared containers.
For the first two or three years, Robinia grows slowly, but then the growth rate increases, bringing the annual growth to 70 centimeters. Flowers pleases for 4 or 5 years.
White acacia lives much longer than a person. In France, for example, in the royal garden of Paris there is a tree planted at the beginning of the 17th century.
Use in the garden
White acacia is decorative all year round.
In summer, it is attractive with its openwork crown. During the flowering period, the garden is filled with an aroma that awakens in a person pleasant memories of a naive youth that cannot be returned. But to plant white acacia in your garden is quite accessible to everyone.
In winter, numerous hanging beans give the tree a decorative effect.
White acacia is an excellent background plant. Loves sunlit, warm places. Due to the openwork of the leaves and the transparency of the crown, it does not interfere with flowering ornamental plants under the tree.
Healing properties
White acacia is a universal donor of bioenergy for humans. It gives freshness and vigor to the human body, tired of the bustle of the city and the rapid running of time.
Acacia flower infusions help with flu, cough, inflammatory processes of the urinary tract, stomach bleeding, paralysis and varicose veins.
The flowers are harvested at the beginning of flowering when they are half full. Having spread them out in a thin layer on a cloth or paper, they are dried in the shade of the attic. When properly dried, flowers give off a honey aroma and a sweet-slimy taste.
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Acacia
Acacia (Latin Acacia) - a genus of shrubs and trees of the legume family. Under natural conditions, representatives of the genus are found in Asia, South America, Africa and Australia. Typical habitats are dry desert, rocky areas, lowlands, river valleys, mountainous areas.
Robinia Or White Acacia
How often can we admire the beautiful and fragrant white flowers of robinia, which is often called white acacia, in parks and squares. North America is considered the birthplace of this tree; at the beginning of the 19th century, robinia seeds were brought to Russia. Cultivated as an ornamental plant with medicinal properties
Silver Acacia
Silver acacia (Latin Acacia dealbata) - a representative of the genus Acacia of the Legume family. Another name is Acacia whitewashed. In Russia and the countries of the former USSR, the culture is often called mimosa. In natural conditions, it grows on the southeast coast of Australia, the island of Tasmania, Madagascar, South Africa and southern Europe.
Robinia False Acacia
Robinia pseudoacacia (lat.Robinia pseudoacacia) - ornamental shrub; a representative of the genus Robinia of the legume family. Other names are robinia pseudoacacia, robinia pseudoacacia. One of the fastest growing species actively used to strengthen railway embankments and form a windbreak.
The Ubiquitous Acacia False Shield
Acacia pseudoscale lives almost everywhere and develops on various tree and shrub species. Most often it can be found on white acacia, plum, apple and hazel trees. As a result of feeding of females and harmful larvae, the number of leaves and their size are noticeably reduced, yellowed leaves quickly fall off, and shoots and twigs gradually dry out. The quality of the crop, as well as its quantity, also decreases markedly. And if the damage is very significant and repetitive in the flow
