2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Chinese aralia (lat. Aralia chinensis) - decorative and healing culture; a representative of the Aralia clan of the Araliev family. In the wild, plants are found in forest clearings and forest edges in the southeastern and southern parts of China. The species has similarities with the prickly aralia (lat. Aralia spinosa), both representatives of the genus grow bushy or in the form of small trees. Unlike other species, the Chinese aralia is equipped with fewer thorns.
Characteristics of culture
Chinese Aralia is a deciduous tree or shrub up to 8 m high with a thin trunk covered with fissured dark brown bark and studded with thorns. Young shoots are gray-green, also covered with thorns. The leaves are very large, complex, petiolate, up to 80 cm long, with few or no thorns.
Leaves broadly ovate or ovate, green, pointed, appressed-serrate, almost sessile or sessile, up to 10 cm long. On the outside, the leaves are pubescent. The flowers are small, inconspicuous, numerous, collected in umbellate inflorescences, which, in turn, form large panicles up to 40 cm long. Fruits are small, berry-like, black, up to 3 mm in diameter.
Chinese aralia blooms in July - August (exact dates depend on the climatic zone). Flowering lasts about 14 days. The fruits ripen in late August - early September. The fruits are unsuitable for food. The species in question cannot boast of a fast growth rate, if at a young age the plants have an average rate, then growth slows down greatly with age.
Like other species, the Chinese aralia is winter-hardy; during long frosts, immature and weak shoots are damaged. The culture is suitable for garden landscaping, as it has decorative properties. True, in Russia this type is rarely used. The Chinese aralia won the greatest popularity in folk medicine, as it has a number of medicinal properties.
The subtleties of reproduction and care
Chinese Aralia is propagated by seeds, root suckers, shoots and root cuttings. The seed method is not particularly popular among gardeners, since the seeds germinate only in the third year. This is due to the underdevelopment of the embryo, which matures already in the soil. It is important to remember that only fresh seeds or seeds that have been stored for a year are suitable for sowing. Seeds that have lain for more than 1 year or improperly stored seeds are unsuitable for sowing, they will not sprout.
Sowing seeds is preferable in autumn (late August - early September). Planting depth - 1, 5-2 cm. Sowing beds are prepared in advance. The soil is carefully dug up and filled with humus and nitroammophos. The crops are sprinkled with a thin layer of humus and watered with warm, settled water. By the way, before sowing, it is recommended to treat the seeds with a solution of gibberellic acid (at the rate of 0.5 g per 1000 ml of water).
If the sowing was postponed to spring, the seeds are pre-stratified. This difficult process lasts 3-4 months with a change in temperature. The first stage assumes a temperature of 15-20C, the second - 2-5C. After stratification, the seeds are placed in a gibberellic acid solution for 48 hours. Such operations will speed up the germination process.
Seedlings of Chinese aralia are delicate creatures, therefore they need careful and careful care. It is important to provide them with watering and weeding, but you should be very careful with loosening the soil, it is better to exclude this procedure. When aralia propagates by root cuttings, the material is harvested in early spring. Then they land. Cuttings are planted to a depth of 5-6 cm. The soil should be nutritious, loose and moist.
Caring for Chinese aralia is not difficult even for novice gardeners. In the early years, care consists in watering, rare and shallow loosening, weeding and top dressing. The last procedure is divided into two periods: in the spring the plants are fed with nitroammophos (20 g per plant), in the middle of summer - with slurry. At a young age, Chinese aralia needs protection from frost. In autumn, the trunk circle is insulated with humus and fallen leaves.
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