Forest Herbs Of North Ossetia. Part 4

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

Unusual touch-me-not from the balsam family, common mainly in the tropics. Delicate plant with translucent stems, hanging flowers and “shooting” fruits

The adox family, which includes

adoxa musky, includes one genus with a single species. This is a small herb up to 15 cm high growing in birch forests, also found in birch-bird cherry forests. Its yellowish-green small flowers are collected in 5-7 capitate inflorescences. It has 1-2 flowering shoots, 2-3 leaves and a musky smell. Fruits with a strawberry aroma and a pleasant sour taste. The growing season is short. In August, the aboveground parts die off. This species, considered rare for the Caucasus, is abundant in some places in our forests. It usually grows on rich soils, being an indicator of a significant nitrogen content in them.

Unusually beautiful

Volzhanka vulgarisblooming in the deep shade of forest beams.

Small flowers in her hands, collected in long panicles. Plants are dioecious. The brushes of the male flowers are dense, spike-shaped, and the female ones are loose. Blooms from July to August. Rises to subalpine forests. Numerous forest cereals:

spreading pine forest, reed grass, bluegrass upland … Many are common, widespread forest species.

Forest weed can be called

reed reed-like. It grows on old burnt-out areas. It grows along river banks, where it huddles on pebbles, cliffs, sandy soils. The thickets resemble a rye field taller than a person. A mass of panicle-crowned stems rustle in the wind. The stem is rough under the inflorescence. His enviable ability to grow and expel other plants from the ground with the help of powerful rhizomes. In the meadows and along the rivers, we will also meet Caucasian reed grass, pseudo-reed grass, terrestrial and others.

Good fodder and green in winter

giant fescue, or greenback. It is a common plant in beech forests, especially fescue beech trees. Interesting night flowering.

Blooms from May to August

celandine

You cannot confuse him with another plant - only he releases droplets of thick orange juice at a break. Celandine has a branched stem, at the top it is crowned with bright inflorescences. Stems are straight, ribbed, glabrous. Celandine belongs to the poppy family. In the old days, alchemists tried to get gold from base metals with the help of its root. However, he did not meet their expectations.

In the forest, our attention will be attracted by a large

broadleaf bell - a characteristic forest view.

Its stem, more than 1 m in height, contains milky sap. Its gigantism emphasizes long (up to 12 cm) leaves and large flowers. Prefers shady areas. Occurs in deciduous and mixed forests, along river banks. Enters the subalpine tall grass. Ornamental plant.

It is common in forest glades

milky bell with wide multi-flowered panicles of pale blue flowers. Many forest herbs from the umbrella family -

edible: forest cupar and Tatyana's angelica, common dimple;

giant: Sosnovsky and hard hogweed;

poisonous: winged ligusticum, intoxicating butene, dog parsley; original: three-bladed azure, large astrantia, European undergrowth and others.

In oak and floodplain forests, one comes across a runny. Due to the rhizomes, it rapidly reproduces vegetatively. Its thickets usually consist of only one leaf. Although it belongs to a typical forest plant, it almost never blooms under the canopy of trees. Its flowering can be observed in a light forest or in an open place. Inflorescences of small flowers resemble carrots. Sneak is edible, but has a peculiar flavor.