Red-colored Plants In The Garden - Beauty And Benefits

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

… The crimson color instills joy in the heart

Apple tree is a beauty, grade Pionerochka

The nature near St. Petersburg does not make us very happy with an abundance of colors. Therefore, the eye immediately snatches out of the harsh northern monochromatic plants, painted in bright colors: red, purple, orange, yellow. And the soul becomes joyful.

Gardeners especially like the fact that the bright colors of the plants persist for a long time during the growing season. These are red-colored woody plants that do not lose their decorative effect for most of the year and even in winter, for example, red-brown specimens.

Bird cherry, hazel, bubble, maple, hawthorn, barberry - this is an incomplete list of woody ornamental plants that are popular with gardeners and landscape designers for a wide range of shades of red.

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The red color in our minds is perceived as positive, joyful, festive, exciting: "… Dawn with a red prayer book prophesies the good news." (S. Yesenin), "… The crimson color instills joy in the heart." (A. Dehlevi), "… I only notice a bright crimson - I flare up …" (A. Fet). According to Dahl, in the old days the word “red” was used not only for the concept of beautiful, but also excellent, the best. Physiologists have shown that the color red causes positive emotional arousal, accompanied by increased heart rate and increased blood pressure.

It is believed that red is capable of revealing the depth of space if it protrudes forward against a dark background. And the lighter and cleaner it is, the stronger this visual effect. And although professional landscape designers are careful with red in the garden, the excess of which is considered bad taste, through the efforts of breeders, the number of red-colored plants in the garden has increased many times in recent years.

Such well-known companies on the horticultural market as the Dutch Darwin Plants, the German Lappen Baumsehulen and Bruns Tflanzen present in their catalogs from tens to hundreds of plants with red foliage, flowers, fruits and bark. And all this variety finds its buyer.

In our country, traditionally focused on plants used in nutrition, fruit and berry crops occupy a special place. In the gardens of the Leningrad Region, you can find amazingly beautiful fruit trees. In most cases, the progenitors of decorative red-colored apple trees are the Nedzvetsky apple tree.

Such domestic derivatives as Komsomolets, Babushkino, Pionerochka varieties can be successfully grown in the North-West due to their high resistance to low temperatures. Also very decorative and winter-hardy varieties of foreign origin - Makomik, General Grant, Minnesota. The Helena variety is an amazing apple tree from Canada with three-lobed burgundy leaves that resemble viburnum leaves.

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Russian plum, variety Spring Flame

Red-leaved plums are also noteworthy. Domestic forms and varieties of Russian plum Spring Flame and Red Ribbon are quite frost-resistant in our area and are decorative throughout the season: their young bright pink shoots contrast sharply with the rest of the dark part of the plant, creating the effect of a light source. And the varieties Scarlet Sail and Krasnolistnaya TSKHA - from the same group, among other things, can give a bountiful harvest of fruits of high taste quality.

Several red-colored Pionerochka apple trees grow in my garden. And for several years in a row I never cease to be amazed at their decorativeness and resistance to unfavorable climatic conditions of growth. Thinking about the nature of coloring, I found out interesting facts. It turns out that the entire range of color tones - from orange-pink to blue-violet, is determined by pigments called anthocyanins.

These dyes of phenolic nature from the flavonoid group belong to the chemical class of glycosides. At present, 70 species have been isolated from plants. The qualitative composition of anthocyanins is specific for a particular plant species and is quite stable. The bright color of flowers and fruits in nature attracts pollinating insects and promotes the spread of fruits by birds.

But is the presence of anthocyanin pigments in plant tissues connected only with the function of pollination? And why does the amount of these pigments in a plant change depending on the season and habitat? Indeed, even plants that are constantly and completely painted in red tones change the color intensity during spring, summer and autumn.

And most of all anthocyanins are accumulated by plants in areas with harsh climatic conditions and excessive insolation (Arctic, alpine meadows). Why has nature, in the process of evolutionary changes, selected this ability to paint even traditionally green plants in red tones at certain periods of life?

The relationship between coloration and plant resistance in nature has long been noticed. But only in recent decades have there been convincing data on the role of pigments in the life of plants. A group of Russian breeders from the Agricultural University of Michurinsk - S. V. Parshikova and M. V. Romanov, in the process of selecting apple trees promising for improving their properties, conducted a comparative study of red-leaved and green-leaved forms.

It was shown that red-colored forms of apple rootstocks are more frost-resistant (the number of undamaged buds after experimental freezing was significantly higher) compared to green ones. Their growth processes begin and end earlier, the wood ripens better, the water-holding capacity of the leaves is more pronounced, and the drought resistance is higher. Other studies have shown that plants containing large amounts of anthocyanin have increased resistance to air pollution from acid gases from industrial plants.

Apple tree, variety Helena

Taking into account all the accumulated facts, a theory arose about the role of anthocyanins in the physiology of red-colored plants. It is assumed that under optimal conditions for a plant, carbohydrates for nutrition are obtained by them through photosynthesis - the process of using solar energy thanks to the green pigment, chlorophyll. But the solar spectrum contains ultraviolet rays, the excess of which is harmful to plants.

Anthocyanins absorb light in the ultraviolet and green regions of the spectrum. The energy absorbed in excess for the plant is partially converted into heat, increasing the temperature of leaves, pistils, stamens by 1-4 degrees. This creates more favorable conditions both for photosynthesis and for fertilization and pollen germination in low temperatures, as well as for the survival of plants during unfavorable periods of life (cold, heat, drought).

Another valuable property of anthocyanins is known. They are powerful natural antioxidants, that is, substances that protect the human body from harmful oxidation products and inhibit aging. Food supplement E163 (a mixture of anthocyanins) is obtained in industry from red cabbage, grapes, currants.

It is used as a means of preventing capillary fragility, improves the condition of connective tissue, helps in the treatment of cataracts, diabetes mellitus, serves to prevent vascular atherosclerosis and generally has a beneficial effect on the whole body, increasing the activity of the immune system. Recent studies in the United States have shown that eating anthocyanins can help reduce the risk of cancer of the esophagus and rectum. There is evidence of a decrease in inflammation in the body with the regular consumption of vegetables and fruits of bright color.

I think that the facts I have cited are enough for breeders and gardeners-researchers to think about what an important mechanism in the form of the formation of pigments nature gives us in our hands. In the conditions of the risky farming zone, it is worth continuing to adapt beautiful and valuable breeds from more favorable climatic regions in our unfriendly climate and thus improve our gardens. It is possible that pigmented plants will be more resistant in the climate of northern latitudes. In addition, these plants can be a highlight in your garden landscape.

And "red" teas from plants grown on their backyard will be an indispensable delicacy for lovers of herbal crops.