2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The abundant flowering of the shrub involuntarily catches the eye and gives rise to the desire to pluck a magnificent twig to fill an empty vase. But do not rush to satisfy such a desire, because the toxicity of all parts of the Oleander is so high that even the water becomes poisonous when it comes into contact with the sap of the plant
The only kind
A genus of flowering shrubs with the name "Oleander" (Nerium) from the Kutrovye family is represented in nature by the only species with the Latin name "Nerium oleander", which in Russian sounds like "Oleander ordinary".
Plants with different shapes of flowers and variegated petals found in culture are just human-bred varieties (more than a hundred varieties) of the same Oleander ordinary, although people tend to give the varieties their own names, changing the adjective following the word "oleander". Therefore, you can meet, for example, "Fragrant Oleander", "Indian Oleander" …
Description
In favorable conditions of life, Oleander ordinary is a huge branched shrub, equally successfully growing in height and width. If you had to make a frame in which the entire bush should fit, then the frame would turn out to be almost square. The lifespan of one plant reaches 40 years.
The shrub has a short taproot, from which many creeping roots depart, which in turn are overgrown with additional thin roots in order to attract as much moisture as possible for the plant.
The thin trunk and soft twigs curving under the weight of the leaves and flowers are gray in color. Dark green lanceolate leaves hold on to the stems with short petioles. The leaves are tough, with an even edge and a light vein in the middle of the leaf. They write that one such leaf is so saturated with toxic substances that, if eaten, it can lead to a fatal result. There is a legend that the Arabs threw the leaves of Oleander into the wells of water so that Napoleon's soldiers could not quench their thirst during the Egyptian expedition. Thus, they contributed to the defense of the Egyptian land from invaders.
The ends of the shoots are crowned with corymbose inflorescences, collected from large and brightly colored flowers. Initially, the flowers were simple, with five petals, and bisexual. People bred varieties with sterile double flowers that do not leave seeds behind. Such varieties are propagated by cuttings, or by dropping branches low to the ground.
Nature has endowed the petals with white and pink, and man added yellow, blue, salmon, red.
Cultivars that can bear fruit acquire multi-seeded 10-centimeter leaflets, which, opening up, reveal to the world winged seeds, equipped with feathery crests.
Carefully! Oleander is life threatening
Oleander teaches a person another lesson that under the external beauty sometimes there is a great danger to his life. All parts of the plant are saturated with toxic substances that can cause irreversible cardiac arrest.
With such abilities, he resembles a "formidable sentry" standing "on a hot soil", that is, the plant "Anchar", about the sad fate of which Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin told his readers.
After all, Oleander, despite his addiction to moisture, grows, as a rule, in dry places. In Hurghada, for example, shrubs can often be seen along highways, where they are not often pampered with watering, and they do not complain about their fate, delighting passing tourists with abundant and bright flowering.
True, a person has adapted to use these toxic substances for his own good, making medicines from them.
It is strange that Oleander's toxicity does not scare some pests, including the gluttonous aphid, which is rapidly spread by numerous ants of various sizes and colors.
Heat-loving plant
Oleander loves warmth and bright sun. The more sun gets to its branches, the more abundantly the shrub blooms.
Although breeders have developed varieties that can withstand cold temperatures up to a thermometer mark equal to minus 10 degrees, in areas with frosty winters, Oleander is grown as an indoor or greenhouse plant.
Recommended:
Beauty And Order In The Garden
Every gardener dreams of creating a piece of paradise in his country house, where you can take a break from the hustle and bustle, admiring the luxurious flowering of beautiful plants. Create a shady seating area. Break up the flower beds. Take a break from worries in the cool atmosphere near the pond. The process of creating such a "paradise" requires a lot of investment, huge physical labor. And most importantly, you need to love your garden very much
Chlorophytum For Health And Beauty In The Home
Do you want to turn your home into a picturesque tropics in a short time? Then you need to get a houseplant like chlorophytum. This flower, which in its homeland, in South America, is also called the Flying Dutchman, will quickly take new pots with its children. The bushes grow strongly, and very soon your window sills and flower stands will resemble a real jungle
Crows On The Site: What's The Danger?
Ravens are not at all such harmless birds as they might seem at first glance. It turns out that they can harm both the garden and the vegetable garden, and even your beloved pets! And when the ripening period begins, these birds will definitely not miss their own! That is why every summer resident, who cares about both a good harvest and the safety of his domestic animals, seeks to find effective ways to drive the crows away from their site
Maroon Stock Rose, Beauty And Healer
Plants living in the wild have healing powers. Those wild plants, to which a person has had a hand, having ennobled their external data, in order to decorate their gardens with them, as a rule, lose their healing properties, spending nutritional forces to maintain beauty. But, in any generally accepted order, there are some exceptions. Such an exception in the world of plants is the Stock-rose, the man-made varieties of which with dark burgundy flowers are used to make healing preparations
Danger On The Windowsill. Part 1
It is no secret that the "green beauties" living in our houses on our windowsill can be poisonous. When acquiring another miracle of nature, not many people think about the fact that the chosen flower is poisonous and can harm both a person and a pet, and the worst thing is our children. Therefore, in order to protect yourself, your family and friends, you need to know the enemy by sight. Here, just about the poisonous plants that live on our "windows" and we will talk. I think many
