Lemongrass Chinese. Plant Of The XXI Century - 1

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

It will soon be twenty-five years since the day when Chinese magnolia vine settled in my garden, and I began to master the intricacies of its cultivation. Now I consider it to be my favorite plant of all that grow in the open field in my area. At one time I was lucky to buy this vine in the form of a small twig in the Botanical Garden in the city of Minsk. Then, not knowing most of its characteristic features, I planted lemongrass almost as soon as I got it, as a result of which I avoided the mistake that many gardeners make: its roots did not have time to dry out.

The plant relatively quickly formed many shoots and immediately began to actively bear fruit; now every year I get a good harvest of berries. During such a solid period of time, mastering the agricultural technology of Schisandra chinensis, he made many mistakes and at the same time made quite interesting discoveries for himself, found out a lot of interesting things about the biology of Schisandra and collected a lot of information useful for the reproduction of this unique plant.

Chinese schisandra (Schizandra chinensis (Turzz.) Daill), or schizandra, belongs to one of the most interesting plants in our country, if only for the reason that it is a relic plant: in natural conditions it has survived only in the Far East, where among few representatives of the subtropical flora survived the advance of the glacier after the warm Tertiary period (25 million years ago). Lemongrass survived in the Primorsky Territory, apparently for the reason that after the retreat of the glacier, a humid and at the same time quite warm climate remained there.

On the territory of our country, out of 14 species of Schisandra chinensis, only one is found - the most valuable in its medicinal qualities and the least whimsical when cultivated in culture. Its natural habitat is the Khabarovsk and Primorsky Territories, the Amur and Sakhalin Regions. This relict vine prefers well-aerated fertile soils of mixed coniferous-deciduous and deciduous forests.

There she densely wraps around bushes, easily climbs tall trees. But in shady forests, lemongrass is much less common than in illuminated ones, and actively bears fruit only along river valleys and along streams, roadsides, on forest edges, glades, old clearings and fires, where there is enough light and there are insects necessary for pollination of flowers.

Schizandra has many names: "lemon tree", "red Maksimovich vineyard" and others. The Chinese name for liana - "wu-wei-tzu" - means in translation - "fruit of five tastes" - the berries have five tastes (sour, bitter, salty, acrid and sweet), which corresponds to the truth (the shell of the berries has a sweet taste, the pulp is sour, seeds are bitter and astringent, dosage form or whole berry salted). Until relatively recently, in a number of European and American countries, lemongrass was cultivated as an ornamental plant called "climbing magnolia" and for a long time its significance as an active tonic was not thought of, although the stimulating property of liana berries was known to Chinese doctors many centuries ago and was highly valued. Schizandra was described as a medicine in the first Chinese book on pharmacopoeia, 250 BC. In ancient China, court healers used lemongrass as the main ingredient in the preparation of medicinal preparations to restore sexual potency. It was included in the list of items delivered in the form of tribute to the imperial palace.

The outstanding scientist Cheni-Chian (VII century) wrote: "Schisandra restores strength when tired, contributes to the fact that the human body experiences vigor and dexterity." In a later pharmacopoeia, compiled in 1596 by Li-Shi-Chen, it is proposed to use lemongrass as a gastric remedy. In China, for example, lemongrass was used in such quantities that the export of its dried fruits from Russia in the 19th century amounted to several tens of tons annually.

There are many legends about the wonderful properties of liana fruits. Its miraculous qualities have long been used by the Golds (Far Eastern residents), who hunted for hunting: setting off on a long journey, they stocked up with fresh and dry lemongrass berries. A handful of its fruits helped them maintain and restore physical strength, relieve fatigue, improve visual acuity, even at night, and move tirelessly all day long, without even taking food. The juice of lemongrass helped fishermen who suffered from seasickness and scurvy during a long voyage. During the Great Patriotic War (since 1942), our pilots during night combat missions were given lemongrass preparations to sharpen their eyesight. Schisandra and preparations based on it are very popular among athletes, climbers, tourists, etc., as they increase endurance,vigilance, hearing, sharpness of thought, stimulate the central nervous system and, which is very important, do not drain it.

The action of Schisandra is interesting for gastritis: it is able to lower and increase acidity, depending on which parts of the plant are used at the same time. So, with low acidity, juice (1 tablespoon) is prescribed three times a day before meals, and with increased acidity, seed powder (1 g). The maximum norm for a healthy person is, in my opinion, only 4-6 seeds of this berry. An hour after taking it gently (imperceptibly), an action takes place that lasts 5-6 hours. looking for fish or prey, a driver can spend many hours driving a car or an airplane, a student can spend a whole day preparing for an exam, etc. I will add:sometimes it is enough (I constantly practice on myself) to eat 10-12 fresh leaves of lemongrass, how quickly you feel a rise in physical strength.

Schisandra is a perennial woody deciduous liana (8-10 m long and more, 2-3 cm thick at the base), which uses perennial plants close to it to support itself in an upright position as a support. Twisting around thin trees and shrubs in a spiral manner, the liana cuts into their trunks and can sometimes suffocate them, as well as, forming a vast cap of foliage over the branches of these living "supports" and taking away sunlight from them, cause the death of individual, even powerful branches, by the way, it happened on my site with an apple and a pear growing next to lemongrass plants.

The underground organ of the vine is a rhizome of stem origin, its white top looks like a bud with leaf buds: it emerges on the soil surface, forms a shoot and gives rise to a young plant. In addition, a large number of dormant buds are located on the rhizome itself, giving, when germinating around the mother plant, abundant growth, which rises to the surface sometimes near the mother plant, sometimes at a decent distance (0.5 or more meters) from the latter. It is especially abundant where the land is covered with a thick layer of loose fertile soil.

The root system is located at a depth of 30 cm, it is very branched, small fibrous roots grow throughout the entire length, very delicate, not withstanding prolonged exposure to the open air, because of this, they can quickly dry out and die. For example, at the end of the 80s, I happened to visit the Ussuriysky nature reserve. Wanting to endow my friends with lemongrass bushes, I simply pulled on more than fifty plants (20-25 cm in size) and brought them to Moscow and Leningrad. But neither Moscow nor Leningrad friends took root in these plants, so painful for them was the move with an almost bare root system. Annual shoots of lemongrass are yellowish-brown in color, smooth, resilient, firm to break, later they develop a wrinkled, flaky bark.

Lemongrass flowers are waxy, creamy white, fragrant, almost bell-shaped, 1-2 cm in diameter, formed on long drooping pink pedicels (2-4 cm long) on shortened last year's shoots; collected in 1-5 pieces in each axil of the leaf. They are always dioecious - staminate males and pistillate females (males usually begin to bloom 2-3 days earlier than females, after flowering they dry up and fall off along with the peduncle).

Female flowers are larger than male flowers and are distinguished by anthocyanin coloration inside the corolla, a large number of petals. The inner petals of female flowers at the base have an intense pink color (this phenomenon is rarely observed in male flowers). It is very interesting to watch how the berries develop in lemongrass. After pollination, the ovary of the pistil begins to grow and rapidly increase in size (it stretches into the axis, elongating 20-30 times or more) up to 5-8 cm, even before the flower itself blooms. The fact is that lemongrass flowers do not have nectar and nectaries and are pollinated by nonspecific insects - small bugs that often penetrate between the petals and carry pollen from one flower to another even before they open. Each carpel turns into a berry and it turns out that a whole drooping brush is formed from one small flower (it is more correct to say:polyberry), usually consisting of 20-25 fruits. The berries are light green at first, then white, pink and then turn bright red. Outwardly, the berries on this cluster resemble a sprig of red currants (in the last berry, we note, they are formed on a real flower cluster), but lemongrass berries sit on this "fruit-stem", like a sea buckthorn, without stalks (as if in bulk).

Usually, the beginning of lemongrass flowering is noted at 10% of blossoming buds. The flowers open uncommonly, on one liana you can often see buds and already faded flowers. Weather conditions have a significant impact on flower opening. On days with clear and sunny weather, more flowers bloom than during overcast and changeable clouds. Rainy and cold weather can prevent insects from flying and pollination of flowers. As a result of this phenomenon, due to under-pollination, 1-2 berries can form on the brush, which often leads to the drying and falling off of the latter. For this reason, experts recommend artificial pollination: a male flower is placed in a female flower for 15-20 minutes. Then there is a complete set and the formation of a brush of 30-40 berries. It is interesting to notethat in 2005 on my plants (without additional pollination) there were many brushes with 35-37 berries. The flowering duration is 1-2 weeks. The critical temperature for flowers is 0 … 1 ° C.