Forest Herbs Of North Ossetia. Part 3

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

The most common forest plants are kupenes: whorled, Caucasian and smooth. They have a rhizome with scars from dead stems. Decorative and melliferous, used in folk medicine for rheumatism

Grows in beech forests

peony Caucasian with dark green leaves and large bright red flowers. It was found in the Suadag Gorge and on Mount Fethuz.

It always turns green in the forest

scalp hairy, which was named so because of the pubescence of the leaves. She hibernates in green. In the spring, to replace the old overwintered leaves, new ones grow, distinguished by a lighter color. Gradually, over time, young leaves darken, and old ones dry out. It blooms, like most forest grasses in spring, with light yellow spikelets.

A rare species of lowland forests blooms in early spring

European clefthoof with characteristic kidney-shaped leaves hibernating under the snow. Fresh leaves have a specific smell of black pepper. The stem is spread over the ground; flowers located near the ground have only three petals and a reddish-brown color, which is quite unusual for flowers.

One of the most common forest plants -

large-cup primrose … Grows in light forests along the edges. Young leaves are used for food.

The marsh core also grows in the forests. When it blooms, forest swamps and damp places where it usually lives are covered with white. In North Ossetia, an ordinary large-leaved thick-walled with round wintering leaves is considered an ancient species that has survived from the Tertiary period. In spring it decorates beech and riverine forests. How is forest grass used for seasoning?

medicinal garlic with a stem up to a meter high.

Dwellers of the shadow

In summer, under the canopy, even in the clarified forests, there are few flowering plants, since most of them fade in the spring. But the life and development of herbs does not stop nevertheless. Let's get acquainted with the herbs that vegetate and bloom in summer and autumn and hide green under the snow.

Ivy budra - a common plant throughout the forest zone. Rises to the middle mountains. It grows in glades, in alder forests. Creeping shoots. This long-term vegetative plant forms two generations of leaves per season; by autumn, inflorescences are formed in the buds, which bloom early. Overwinters with green leaves. It is used in folk medicine. Good honey plant.

Overwinters with green leaves

creeping tenacious and

common blackhead … They climb the mountains to the mid-mountain zone. In mixed floodplain forests, there are

zyuznik, field mint, forest cleaver, purple and white whitewash, or deaf nettle … Used in folk medicine. They are also honey plants.

In the forests of North Ossetia, a large

ferruginous sage with cordate-spear-like leaves. This is a plant with an extended growing season. It cannot be confused with other plants. The upper part of the stem and calyx are sticky from glandular hairs. It is found in shady deciduous and other forests, on rich in humos and moist soils.

Unpretentious unsightly forest grass

oxalis ordinary … She has no stems, the leaves depart immediately from the roots. Together with sorrel and nettles, she was the first spring wild-growing greens for our ancestors - a source of health. It blooms in late spring, when it becomes noticeable along the forest ravines, near the trunks. The behavior of her flowers tells about the nature of the upcoming weather. They roll up to rain, in bad weather and cold they do not open at all.

On the damp beams by the streams you can see

cymbal saxifrage

with yellowish flowers. It practically does not bear fruit and reproduces only vegetatively, due to the ability to form specialized decaying buds in the leaf axils. In the forests of the upper zone, there is an endemic of the North Caucasus - whorled saxifrage, characterized by an accelerated rhythm of development.