2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Do you know what an "ephemeroid" is? Ephemeroid is a perennial plant with a very short life span on the earth's surface. It goes through all stages of development very quickly: the appearance of leaves, flowers, fruits. After its fruit-seeds fall to the ground, the ground part of the plant dies. Only the underground part remains. So, Siberian kandyk is a spring ephemeroid
Siberian Kandyk blooms in April, as soon as the snowy carpet melts under the rays of the hot spring sun. He is not afraid of the low temperatures of winter, which does not want to give up its positions and still dominates at night with a minus of 10 degrees. Kandyk does not argue or resist the stubbornness of winter, but simply closes his flowers at night. In the morning, the rising sun raises the temperature above zero degrees, and the kandyk opens its purple flowers again.
Habit
Kandyk does not take off high from the ground, rising above its surface by a maximum of 30 centimeters. The underground part of the plant is represented by medium-sized narrow-conical bulbs, the height of which ranges from 3 to 8 centimeters with a diameter of 1 centimeter. The bulbs are edible. People dig them up for food, and animals also like to feast on them.
Two grayish-green leaves on short petioles are opposite and have an elongated-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate shape. With a width of 3-6 centimeters, they grow in length up to 15 centimeters.
The stalk of the peduncle ends with a large single perianth. Six drooping lilac leaves resemble a miniature lily flower, surrounding a pistil with six yellow stamens. Kandyk is a spring honey plant pollinated by bumblebees and bees.
The fruit is a capsule with several seeds inside.
Kandyk cultivars
In the wild, the Siberian Kandyk is a highly variable plant. Its leaves can be monochromatic and variegated, as in the top photo. The flower petals take on different shades. The most decorative representatives of the family were introduced into the culture by Altai breeders. For example:
• White canine - pure white flowers with yellow stamens and pistil delight gardeners in the last decade of April. The flowers are quite large, reaching 6 centimeters in diameter, located on a green peduncle surrounded by two green leaves.
• White king - pure white flowers with a pistil and lemon-colored stamens adorn a flower bed or alpine hill in the second decade of April. By the end of flowering, the shape of the flowers becomes similar to the turban of some Turkish sultan, and the bright green leaves on his elegant dress.
• Olga - lilac-pink flowers seem to be showered with dark pink dots and edged in white. Brownish green leaves have a green strip along the edge. All together creates a joyful and funny composition against the background of the black spring earth. It pleases with flowering from the end of April, capturing a week in May.
Usage
The plant is listed in the "Red Book" of Russia, which does not prevent people from picking flowers for the spring sale of bouquets and digging out the bulbs for food.
The cold resistance of the kandyk made it attractive for decorating summer cottages in early spring, when there are still very few flowering plants. Varieties have been bred that differ in flowering period and decorative qualities.
Kandyk is an early honey plant. Its bulbs contain glucose, starch, protein, antiseptic mucus and dextrins (polysaccharides) and were harvested earlier for the local population to eat. The Tatars prepared an intoxicating drink from kandyk, similar to beer. Wild animals also love to feast on bulbs.
In folk medicine, bulbs were used for epilepsy, abdominal colic, worms, and as an aphrodisiac.
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