2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Butcher is an evergreen, unpretentious shrub with flat branches in the form of plates, similar to the leaves of ordinary trees. When flowers bloom on the branches-plates, the plant takes on an unusual appearance, giving the impression that flowers grow from leaves. In fact, the leaves of the shrub are small subulate scales located along the edge or on the surface of the leaf-branches. In the axils of these thorny leaves, which gave the plant another name - "Mouse Thorn", flowers are born
Rod Iglitsa
The Latin name of the genus - Ruscus, has nothing to do with the word "Russian", but grows out of the Anglo-Saxon, which means "box" in translation, as Wikipedia says. I would suggest a different translation of the word, breaking it into two parts and getting, for example, "cunning tutelage." It characterizes the character of the plant much more clearly.
Other names of the genus, Butcher or Mouse Turn, are understandable without translation.
The genus consists of only four rhizome half-shrubs, the height of which does not exceed 80 cm. Butchers are hardy and unpretentious plants, except for the thornless butcher's broom.
The parts of the plant that many mistake for leaves are
cladodies, that is, leaf-shaped stems or, in other words, flat branches. This structure helps plants survive in the arid places of the planet. Such leafy stems are, for example, in prickly pear - a variety of cactus.
The true leaves of butcher's broom are small scales or sharp thorns that can appear in different places on the leaf-like stem. In the axils of true leaves, inconspicuous unisexual flowers are formed. In autumn, on female bushes, flowers turn into bright, elegant berries.
Varieties
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Butcher pontic or prickly (prickly) (Ruscus aculeatus) - an evergreen shrub with a height of 60 to 100 cm, a regular on the Black Sea coast (Crimea, Krasnodar Territory). Erect green branchy stems with small oval cladodes with spiny endings are called "spiny mice" by Italians. From greenish flowers that form on the surface of cladodia, fleshy large red berries appear in November-December.
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Butchery hypoglossum (Ruscus hypoglossum) - This type of butcher's broomstick can grow in the shade. Its cladodia are oblong-lanceolate or oblong in shape, devoid of thorns. The greenish yellow flowers that bloom in spring turn into small red berries.
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Butcher's leaf or hypophyllum (Ruscus hypophyllum) - its wide cladodes, devoid of thorns, are used for cutting.
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Butcher's broom (Ruscus racemosus) - its branches with curved short stems, green glossy little cladodia and orange-red berries are used for cutting into bouquets.
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Butchery microglossum (Ruscus x microglossum) - a hybrid obtained by crossing the butcher's broom, hypophyllum and hypoglossum. Root-sprouting plant, stems ascending or erect, cladodia from elliptical to obovate.
Growing
Butchery is unpretentious to the composition of the soil, but loves to keep the soil moist in the first period of life. Mature plants prefer dry soil.
It can grow in a lighted area and in a shady garden. It tolerates high temperatures, withstands low temperatures, up to minus 20 degrees, with the exception of the thermophilic butcher's broom, hypophyllum.
They are planted in a permanent place in the spring, adding organic fertilizer to the soil. Once a month in the spring, watering is combined with mineral fertilizing.
Butcher's roots can be attacked by fungi. A dangerous insect is the weevil weevil and its larvae.
Reproduction
In autumn it can be propagated by sowing seeds, in spring - by dividing the bush.
Usage
In the open field it is used as an ornamental garden shrub.
Cut branches are used to compose bouquets and decorate bouquets from other decorative flowers.
In cold climates, it is grown as a houseplant.
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Butcher
Butcher (Latin Ruscus) - a small genus of unpretentious dwarf shrubs, which has only six species. They attract attention with the unusual appearance of the branches, which are more like the usual plant leaves. While true leaves are represented by subulate small scales.
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