Common aspen: properties, use of wood

Biological description [edit | edit code ]

Aspen stands out with a columnar trunk reaching 35 m in height and 1 m in diameter.

Lives 80-90 years, rarely reaches 150 years. It grows very quickly, but is susceptible to wood diseases. Old, large, but healthy individuals are a rarity.

The root system is located deep underground. Produces root shoots abundantly.

The bark of young trees is smooth, light green or greenish-gray; closer to the butt, it cracks and darkens with age. The wood is white with a greenish tint.

The leaf arrangement is regular. The leaves are round or rhombic, 3-7 cm long, acute or obtuse at the apex, with a rounded base, crenate edges, pinnate venation. In coppice shoots, the leaves can be much larger (up to 15 cm) and almost heart-shaped. The leaf petioles are flattened laterally in the upper part and are long, so the leaves easily oscillate when air moves. In autumn, the leaves turn different colors - from golden to red.

Plants are dioecious. The flowers are small, inconspicuous, collected in dangling earrings. Men's earrings are reddish, up to 15 cm long, women's earrings are greenish and thinner. Aspen blooms before the leaves bloom.

The fruit is a very small capsule; the seeds are equipped with a tuft of hairs - a puff.

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Distribution[edit | edit code ]

It is found on the border of forest and tundra, growing in forest and forest-steppe zones. It can be found along the banks of reservoirs, in forests, along forest edges, occasionally on dry sands and clearings, in ravines, swamps and in the mountains; rises to the upper border of the forest.

It grows well on various soils, forms pure aspen forests and is part of mixed forests along with coniferous (pine, larch, spruce) and deciduous (birch, alder, oak). In the steppes, colonies are formed from them - aspen stakes, growing from separate seedlings and reproducing through shoots of the root system; new stems in the colony can appear at a distance of up to 30-40 m from the parent tree. Some colonies become very large over time, spreading at a rate of about a meter per year, eventually covering several hectares. They are able to survive forest fires because the root system is located deep underground.

Distributed in Europe, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, on the Korean Peninsula, throughout Russia.

Meaning and application[edit | edit code ]

It is used for landscaping populated areas as a fast-growing ornamental tree, notable for its bright autumn foliage color. There are decorative forms with weeping and pyramidal crowns.

The bark is used for tanning leather. It is used to produce yellow and green paint.

Bees collect pollen from aspen flowers in April, and glue from the blossoming buds, which is processed into propolis [3].

It is used for the construction of houses, buildings and garden furniture, and is used as roofing material. In Russian wooden architecture, church domes were covered with aspen planks. In the open air, after 2-3 years, an aspen product acquires a characteristic blue tint, and the planed surface becomes silky.

Widely used in the production of plywood, cellulose, matches and containers.

Young growth is winter food for moose, deer, hares and other mammals.

Aspen firewood is slightly lower in calorific value than birch and oak (1700 and 1800 kcal per 1 cubic meter of fuel, respectively), and is used for cleaning stove chimneys (burning out soot).

Medicinal properties [edit | edit code ]

The bark contains carbohydrates (glucose, fructose, sucrose, etc.), aromatic acids, phenol glycosides, tannins, higher fatty acids (capric, lauric, arachidic, behenic, etc.), bitter glycosides populin and salicin.

Carbohydrates (raffinose, fructose, etc.), aromatic acids, tannins and triglycerides of phenolcarboxylic acids are found in the kidneys.

The leaves contain carbohydrates, organic acids, carotenoids, vitamin C, carotene, flavonoids, phenol glycosides, anthocyanins and tannins.

Aspen has antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antitussive, choleretic and anthelmintic effects. An aqueous extract of aspen bark is used to treat opisthorchiasis [4] [5].

Who should not be treated with aspen

Taking folk remedies from aspen has virtually no contraindications, except:

• individual intolerance and allergies;
• dysbacteriosis;
• diseases of the gastrointestinal tract in acute form;
• tendency to constipation because tannins produce an astringent effect.

When starting treatment with aspen, you must first try the remedy in a small dosage and observe the body’s reaction.

Legends associated with aspen [edit | edit code ]

Different peoples had legends and beliefs associated with the amazing property of aspen leaves to move at the slightest breath of wind.

According to one version of the myth of Greco-Roman mythology, Phaeton’s sisters, the heliades Phoebus and Lampetia, turned into two aspens after an angry Zeus killed Phaeton with a lightning strike, and he fell into the Po River. The tears that they dropped into the fast waters of the Po River became amber [6].

In Christian mythology, aspen leaves still tremble in horror, remembering the Crucifixion

. It was believed that the Cross of the Lord was made of aspen, and “since then the branches of this tree have been gripped by fear and trembled incessantly.” However, aspen does not grow in Palestine in modern times and did not grow in the historical past. The trembling of aspen leaves in the Russian tradition is also associated with another episode of the New Testament - the suicide of Judas Iscariot [7]. People consider aspen a cursed tree because, according to legend, Judas the Traitor hanged himself on it.

A. S. Ermolov in the book “Folk Agricultural Wisdom in Proverbs, Sayings and Signs” (1905) writes: “The explanation of why the aspen is always trembling and whispering is somewhat different among the Little Russians than among the Great Russians: “Like the Savior, who looked like a Jew, Todi Vin pishov ta y siv pid osykoy (aspen), and that one rustled the Savior; for this Vin, cursing and saying: butt you sheshetil with vitr and without vitr.” There is also a variant of this belief: the Mother of God with the Eternal Child hid under an aspen tree during the flight to Egypt, and the aspen was cursed not by the Savior, but by the Mother of God” [8]. In Ukraine, there was also a belief according to which aspen trees are not placed in the walls of houses during construction, “otherwise the whole family will trample the whole day and not a single kind of sickness will be like trampling the aspen” [8].

In fact, a rather wide aspen leaf by nature has a very thin and flexible petiole, unable to hold it straight - therefore, aspen foliage is extremely sensitive to even the lightest wind. There is an assumption that this is due to the fact that aspen, due to its rapid growth, does not have time to increase the thickness and strength of the main trunk, while the total leaf area reaches a fairly large size. Therefore, in a strong wind, a plant with leaves tightly pressed to the stems would constantly lose them; and a rigid trunk would break (the aspen trunk is extremely flexible).

Aspen is credited with the ability to ward off evil spirits: the witch is afraid of aspen. If you stick aspen branches into the fence fence, then a witch cannot enter such a fence and will not spoil the cows [8].

Despite the widespread distribution of aspen in temperate latitudes, many people constantly confuse this species with others - especially with poplars. Even knowing the main differences between aspen and poplar, recognizing these plants can be difficult, especially for novice gardeners. Moreover, aspen trees are surprisingly tenacious, and it can be very difficult to exterminate such “unplanned plantings” on your site.

The aspen tree (Populus tremula) is the closest relative of poplars.
The Latin name of aspen translated into Russian means “trembling poplar.” The leaves of the aspen tree are indeed “trembling.”

What an aspen tree looks like and what leaves it has (with photo)

Aspen is a tree from the willow family, 15–20 m high. In good conditions, aspen reaches larger sizes. The crown of an aspen tree looks like a giant, openwork “egg.” The bark of the trunks is predominantly gray, but there are aspens with greenish bark, and in Eastern Siberia and Mongolia they are almost white-barked; from afar they can be mistaken for birch trees.

The bark is smooth, only in old trees with longitudinal cracks.

The plant has round leaves that are colored first bronze, then green, and with the onset of autumn, bright yellow.

The tree blooms in late April or early May - before the leaves bloom. The aspen root system is flat and demanding of soil.

Look what an aspen tree looks like in these photos:

The tree copes well with any frost and is also not afraid of winds. Perfect for park areas.

In the first years of life, it is characterized by vigorous growth: annual shoots can reach 3 meters. The growth rate of the tree is high only in the first years, approximately 60-80 cm, but then it drops and is about 20-40 cm per year. Aspen lives on average 80-100 years; individual specimens are known at the age of 150-180 years. Its trunk usually has rot inside at an early age; adult trees are almost all rotten in the middle. Such trees are easily broken by strong winds.

What kind of leaves does aspen have, and why do they “tremble”?

This is explained by the fact that the leaf blades are attached to the end of a long and thin petiole, which has an unusual shape - it is not cylindrical, but flat, strongly flattened laterally. Thanks to this shape, the petiole bends especially easily to the right and left. This is why the leaf blades are so mobile: they begin to oscillate in one direction and the other even with a very weak breeze.

Aspen leaves vary greatly in shape depending on the age of the plant. As you can see in the photo, the leaves of an adult aspen tree are round:

But look at the very young aspen trees that appear in the forest and do not exceed half a person’s height in height. Their leaves are completely different - elongated-oval with a gradually tapering sharp end. They are more like poplar leaves. Looking at the shoots with such leaves growing from the ground, not everyone will guess that these are young aspen trees.

These photos show what aspen leaves look like:

In winter, the thin branches of the tree do not stand out as anything special. Their buds have no special features, nor do the branches themselves. But you can unmistakably recognize young aspen branches if you lightly chew them. They have a rather strong bitter taste and a peculiar smell.

The following describes how poplar differs from aspen and how these trees are similar.

Aspen collection and preparation

For busy people who do not have time to collect and prepare medicinal raw materials, there are ready-made preparations that can be bought at a pharmacy or any store that sells organic products. But you can also prepare the required amount of raw materials yourself. The following parts of the plant are used for medicinal purposes: bark; earrings; twigs; leaves.

All this can be effectively used for preparing decoctions, infusions, ointments, and balms.

But you need to know the basic rules for procuring raw materials, which will help you get the most useful harvest.

• You need to choose an area where all plants are not exposed to toxic substances. Ecologically safe regions are located far from industrial facilities, plants, factories, wastewater treatment plants and highways. It is also important to have a normal background radiation in the area where the raw materials will be collected.
• The best time to collect bark is early spring, when the process of sap movement has just begun. During this period it contains the maximum amount of active substances.
• The bark must be cut carefully, in small strips. Vertical. You cannot make circular cuts. In order not to damage the tree during the period of sap flow, it is better to cut the bark from the branches, and not from the main trunk.
• Leaves can be collected throughout the season, except for the flowering period. It is also undesirable to collect immediately before the beginning of leaf fall. It's better to do this in the middle of summer.
• Leaves should only be dried on cloth or paper; do not use a dryer or oven.
• The twigs need to be collected in the spring - from April to the end of May. They need to be carefully cut and dried in the oven at 40 degrees.

To prevent the harvested raw materials from spoiling, you need to seal it tightly. For such purposes, it is convenient to use glass jars with plastic lids. Sometimes raw materials are stored in boxes and fabric bags. But this method has a disadvantage - the raw materials can become damp or absorb foreign odors. In such situations it will become unusable.

How to recognize aspen: how does this tree differ from poplar

What makes aspen classified as close relatives of poplars? Let us recall that botanists consider plants to be related if their flowers and fruits are similar in structure. This is precisely what is evident from the description of aspen and poplar. The flowers of all these trees are small, inconspicuous, collected in dense cylindrical earrings, which hang from the branches of the tree during flowering.

Look at the aspen in the spring when it begins to bloom.

On some trees you will see bright red catkins, on others - green. The former consist of many male, staminate, flowers, the latter - of female, pistillate flowers. The same can be seen with poplars.

The fruits of aspen and poplar are very similar in description: in both trees they are small, about the size of a grain of wheat, elongated oval boxes. When ripe, the capsule cracks into two longitudinal halves and releases the seeds inside it.

The seed is so small that it is barely visible to the naked eye. It is surrounded by many fine hairs. Spilling out of the boxes, the seeds fly through the air for a long time, like white fluff. Poplars also produce the same “fluff” in abundance in our cities.

Aspen is a tree in which you can observe the interesting phenomenon of autumn branch fall. Come to the forest in late autumn, look at the ground under some old aspen. If you take a closer look, you will see that here and there under the tree there are thin branches of different lengths lying around - both short, as long as a pencil, and longer. These twigs are alive, not withered, the leaves have just fallen from them. At the end of each there is a pointed bud. If you break it, you can see the green rudiments of future leaves inside. Next spring this bud could bloom normally.

Why did living aspen branches end up on the ground, and how did they break away from the tree?

To answer this question, you need to look at the end of the branch where it broke off. The fracture surface is smooth, rounded, similar to the head of a nail. There was no damage here. The branch separated from the tree by itself and in a very specific place. Just like a yellowed leaf in autumn. This means that the tree is deliberately getting rid of some branches.

Below you will find out where the aspen tree grows and how it reproduces.

Where does the aspen tree grow: distribution area (with photo)

The distribution area of ​​aspen is the temperate zone of Eurasia and the mountains of North Africa. A significant part of the range is in our country. In Russia, aspen is distributed almost everywhere. In the north it reaches the border of the forest with the tundra, in the south it reaches the dry steppes. In the forest-steppe it forms island groves, the so-called “aspen groves”. In saline areas it takes on a bush-like form. In the Alps it rises to mountains up to 2,000 m above sea level. Almost everywhere, aspen forms, as a rule, pure forests, with only a small admixture of other species in the upper layer. It is very light-loving, so where other species shade the aspen, it dies. Aspen itself often acts as an admixture in birch forests or in cleared areas of other forests.

These photos show where aspen grows in temperate latitudes:

Aspen forests most often appear on the site of oak and spruce forests destroyed by humans or destroyed by fire. Such aspen trees live relatively short - 80-100 years. They are light, which allows undergrowth of native species (oak, spruce, etc.) to grow successfully under their canopy, even if it is not shade-tolerant. Over time, the native tree species grown under the aspen canopy overtake the aspen in growth, shade it, and it dies, giving way to its stronger competitors. Thus, aspen plays an important biological role - preserving the forest area. Where aspens grow, oak and spruce forests are quickly restored.

Aspen propagation

The breeding features of aspen are interesting. Its seeds quickly lose their viability after falling out of the fruit, within a few days. Therefore, seedlings can only appear if the seeds immediately fall on moist soil. It is on the soil, and not on the layer of fallen leaves, since the weak roots of the seedlings will not be able to break through it. For seedlings to emerge, bare soil and sufficient moisture are needed. But this does not happen everywhere in nature and not at any time. Therefore, young aspen trees emerging from seeds are not very common. They can be seen, for example, on abandoned arable lands, exposed slopes near roads, etc. They are almost never found in the forest.

But how does aspen reproduce in the forest?

If you go into any forest where there are mature specimens of this tree species, here and there you can see young aspen trees with the “poplar” leaves that are already familiar to us. Their height is small - barely knee-high for a person. Where did they come from? To answer this question, you should dig up the ground around the stem of some aspen tree. An interesting detail will emerge: the plant sits on a rather thick (pencil or larger) root, which extends horizontally and runs near the surface of the soil.

This root stretches a long distance in both one and the other direction. If you take the time to dig up the root, you can make sure that it starts from a mature tree. So, young aspens in the forest are nothing more than shoots that grow from the root of an adult tree. These are the so-called root suckers.

Up to a dozen or more root shoots can form on one root. They are located on the root, like beads on a string, but are separated from each other by a considerable distance. Some of them move 30-35 m away from the parent plant. At such a distance in a dense forest, you cannot always see the mother aspen behind other trees. Sometimes you don’t immediately understand where this or that offspring came from, or where the tree that gave it its beginning is located.

What is aspen - botanical information

Sometimes someone gets confused whether a coniferous tree is aspen or deciduous. We answer: this is a fast-growing deciduous tree up to 35 m tall from the Willow family of the Poplar genus. The Latin name is Pópulus trémula. The diameter of an adult tree is 1 m. How many years does aspen live? Botanical encyclopedias answer this way: its average life expectancy is 80 years, although there are specimens that “celebrated” their 150th anniversary. Usually, in old age, this representative of the Poplar genus is susceptible to tree diseases.

Numerous root shoots can be seen around the common aspen. The roots go deep into the ground, but there are many shoots.

In the photo below, notice the smooth greenish bark of the young aspen. The wood inside is a pleasant white-green shade. The leaves resemble a diamond, up to 7 cm in size; the top of the leaf can be either sharp or blunt, but the base is always rounded. Interestingly, the leaves of the shoots are always larger and look like a heart.

Young aspen bark

Aspen is dioecious; both sexes have dangling catkins. In male aspen they are red in color, and in female aspen they are greenish. Flowering occurs in early spring before the leaves emerge.

Application of aspen

Aspen forest is the favorite food of elk. Beavers, the most valuable fur-bearing animals, also feed on aspen. Birds, especially woodpeckers, also need aspen. The fact is that with age this tree often develops heart-shaped rot. That's why foresters cut it down. However, in this same rotten misfortune lies the dignity of aspen as an indispensable component in the forest biocenosis. The affected tree is easily chiseled. Woodpeckers use such trunks to make hollows. Every year they make homes for themselves - this is their character. The old ones are inhabited by other inhabitants of the forest: owls, clints, starlings, mynas, hoopoes, whirligigs, tits, flycatchers, redstarts and bats. Bees also visit the aspen: it gives them a lot of pollen and glue.

Although aspen had a bad reputation, it was constantly used in everyday life in Russia. “Aspen stake” means the worst. But it was precisely this stake that peasants often used on their farms. From time immemorial, well log houses and cellars in the countryside were made not from pine, oak, or birch, but from aspen, the wood of which is not afraid of dampness. And how many ancient monuments have survived to this day thanks to the same aspen!

Aspen wood is widely used in carpentry, turning, and paper making. Especially prized is “aspen chock” - a material for making match straws. Tar, vinegar and tannins are extracted from aspen wood and bark. Ash is prepared from the bark, which is used to finish canvas, and yellow paint is extracted for the textile industry.

And who doesn’t know Khokhloma products - jugs, cups, ladles, spoons, dishes. All this is made from aspen. Artificial flowers are also made from aspen shavings. Viscose silk, plastic, methyl alcohol, acetone and many other products are obtained from aspen.

Aspen is completely unsuitable for firewood: it produces little heat. Aspen wood is used primarily for matches. Chips are also made from aspen to cover roofs.

Aspen is also used to produce feed yeast, which is added to the diet of farm animals. This contributes to their productivity and accelerated development. As a honey plant, aspen is considered a secondary plant.

Aspen has not found application in scientific medicine. People use it quite widely for medicinal purposes. Buds, leaves, and bark are used for medicine. Aspen also heals from various ailments.

The bitterness, essential oils, organic acids, glycosides, and tannins found in its buds, leaves and bark have anti-inflammatory, analgesic, wound-healing, diuretic, diaphoretic and other properties.

Alcohol extract of aspen buds has a bactericidal effect on some dangerous microbes (Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, enteric typhoid bacteria). It is better to harvest buds from young trees in the spring - in April-May.

In more southern regions, aspen causes significant damage to forestry. After cutting down a valuable oak forest, it quickly seizes the vacated area and no longer “allows” the oak there.

This often happens, for example, in the Tula abatis and in some forest-steppe oak groves. So aspen in forestry sometimes turns out to be a real weed and has to be fought hard.

The video below shows what this tree looks like and how it is used:

Use of aspen in industry

The main consumers of aspen are the construction industry. Various lumber is produced from it: round timber, timber, boards, particle board, fiberboard, peeled veneer. Bathroom equipment is made from timber, for example, benches, ladders, shelves, grates and pallets. Aspen slats are used to produce packaging boxes and containers for storing and transporting goods. Until recently, before the advent of computer technology, drawing drawing boards were made from dense white aspen.

The shavings are a by-product of production and are used as fuel for thermal power plants, as well as insulation in rural and country construction. Wood shavings used for combustion at thermal power plants are considered an environmentally friendly material, and wood is a renewable natural resource. For heating private houses, chopped wood, scraps from production, and fuel pellets are used.

Aspen wood is a raw material for the production of cardboard and paper. In the shoe industry, crushed aspen shavings are used as a material that absorbs moisture well. Peeled aspen veneer is used to make plain and laminated plywood, matches, and toothpicks. It is used to make caskets, baskets, gift boxes and packaging. Sliced ​​veneer is used for the manufacture of various household items. Bent, shaped parts of furniture and decorative boxes are made from thin aspen plywood.

When burned without access to air, aspen produces charcoal of good quality. It is used in the chemical industry and for artistic works.

Fighting aspen

In some places we have to fight with aspen: it causes harm, drowning out more valuable tree species. But it is difficult to fight it. The aspen tenaciously clings to the territory it occupies. When an adult tree is cut down, young aspens begin to grow rapidly and grow from the roots. They seem to replace the dead mother plant. All these offspring occupy a fairly large area, significantly larger than the one originally occupied by the tree. In a word, by destroying one mature tree, we bring to life many young aspens and increase the area occupied by aspen. Consequently, cutting down large aspens is a completely ineffective way to control this tree species.

Does this mean that there is no way to fight aspen? Of course not! An inventive person figured out how to destroy this tenacious tree. True, the method of dealing with aspen is very labor-intensive. It consists in the following.

From an adult aspen tree, a wide ring of bark is cut along the entire circumference of the trunk, i.e. living outer tissue, right down to the wood. As a result, the paths along which food goes from the leaves to the roots are cut. Without receiving the substances necessary for life, the roots weaken and gradually die. In this case, all root shoots die. The tree itself also gradually dries out. In short, by removing a ring of bark, you can immediately destroy both the mother tree and its offspring.

Look at the photo of the aspen tree, a detailed description of which is presented on this page:

Aspen is a tree about which there are many legends

Why is it believed that aspen is a cursed tree?

They talk about this for a reason, because any belief cannot arise out of nowhere. There are several Christian legends in which aspen behaved treacherously. For example, when the Virgin Mary and Child fled for safety in the forest, all the green inhabitants fell silent and only the cursed tree gave her away and showed her the way. And also, when Judas wanted to hang himself, not a single tree allowed him to do this: the birch lowered its branches, the pear scared away with its thorns, and the oak with its power. But the aspen did not contradict him and joyfully rustled its leaves. That's why people cursed her. It is also believed that aspen forest is an excellent means of protection against witchcraft. It absorbs and de-energizes all energy. It’s not for nothing that vampires have an aspen stake stuck in their hearts.

Aspen, a tree whose photographs you see in the article, is capable of absorbing negative energy. People usually go to her when they want to free themselves from problems and get rid of troubles. They say that if you touch her with a sore spot, she will take over the entire illness and the person will feel better. But at the same time, too much contact with aspen can cause headaches, nausea, depression and drowsiness. Therefore, contact with her should not exceed 15 minutes. In the old days, aspen wood was used to build thresholds. It was believed that they absorbed all the negative energy of guests entering the house, thereby protecting the owners of the home. Aspen trees cut down and stuck at the four ends of the village protected residents from various diseases, for example, a cholera epidemic.

Application in medicine

Aspen is a tree that is valued for its bark, leaves, buds and young shoots. Preparations made from this raw material have antimicrobial, antitussive and anti-inflammatory effects. They are widely used in the treatment of smallpox, tuberculosis, diarrhea, cystitis, syphilis and many other diseases. They are used externally to heal wounds, burns and ulcers.

Well, now you know what an aspen tree is, where it grows and what unusual properties it has.

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Larch #8212; is it a coniferous or deciduous tree

Biological types of trees are divided according to the type of leaves into coniferous and deciduous. which are also commonly called broad-leaved.

Types of trees

Deciduous trees have flat leaves that fall off in the fall. These trees bloom and can bear fruit. Coniferous trees have hard, needle-shaped leaves called needles. They grow cones or juniper berries. Based on the lifespan of leaves, evergreen and deciduous trees are distinguished.

Deciduous trees lose their leaves in the fall, have no leaves on the trees in the winter, and new leaves emerge from the buds in the spring. Evergreen trees do not have a specific time for changing leaves. Old leaves are replaced by new ones gradually throughout the life of the tree.

Deciduous trees: names, description

Deciduous plants appeared on our planet after coniferous plants. Deciduous trees have leaves of different shapes and sizes, the color of which changes in the fall. Gradually, towards winter, the leaves fall from the trees. There are many types of deciduous trees, for example:

A quarter of European forests are made up of deciduous trees.

There are more deciduous trees in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere. In our country, the most common deciduous trees are oak and beech. Common oak: diameter – up to 1.5 m, height – up to 40 m, life expectancy – up to one and a half centuries.

Oak leaves are wider at the top than at the bottom. Beech: trunk diameter – 2 m, height – up to 30 m, lifespan exceeds the threshold of 400 years. Beech leaves have a more strict shape (oval), unlike oak leaves.

Coniferous trees: names

Some will be surprised to learn that the needle (the same “needle”) is a leaf, simply modified. Let us note the main types of coniferous trees:

Spruce (evergreen tree): trunk diameter reaches 1.5 m, height – up to 40 m, life expectancy – up to 500 (less often up to 600) years.

Needles: length – up to 3 cm, width – up to 1.5 mm. Norway spruce grows in Siberia, central and northern Europe.

Larch is a coniferous or deciduous tree

Larch is very common in our country, as well as throughout the world.

Despite the name, larch is a conifer. but not an evergreen tree. Larch needles (soft to the touch) fall off once a year before winter.

Our tree grows in the Far East and Siberia.

• Larch trunk diameter – up to 1 m,
• height – up to 50 m,
• The duration of growth is more than 400 years (there are larches that are slightly less than 800 years old).

Use of larch

A special dye for hides and fabrics is made from larch bark. Larch wood has the following qualities:

• durability;
• high strength of the material (only slightly inferior to oak wood).

If it is impossible to hammer a nail into dried larch wood, then removing a nail hammered into the material before it has had time to dry will also not work. Thanks to these qualities, larch is widely used in both the chemical and construction industries. But this applies mostly to American larch species.

In our country, due to the very high density of most types of larches, processing and use in construction are extremely difficult.

Larch at the dacha

Polish larch and Japanese larch are plant species cultivated in our country. Japanese larch has been grown in Russia since the end of the 19th century. In Europe, the tree can often be found in parks and gardens. Since the plant is resistant to diseases and pests, it is grown as an ornamental, and in Japan (the plant’s homeland) it is used as a bonsai.

Polish larch, except in the forest, can be observed in botanical gardens and parks (height - 30 m, lifespan exceeds half a century). The tree grows quickly, loves light and is resistant to low temperatures. In general, it is very difficult to grow larch in the countryside on your own, even more difficult than pine or spruce. The plant survives transplantation with great difficulty. Therefore, seeds are mainly used for propagation. We recommend reading on this topic: Coniferous trees photos and names for children

Advantages of planting aspen in a summer cottage

In villages, aspen trees outside the yard are a frequent visitor. It is not particularly bothered by shade and also grows well in the sun. People's beliefs speak of the ability of this tree next to the house to protect residents from evil spirits and negative energy. This belief is based on diseases affecting the tree trunk. If a tree is sick, it means it attracts all the bad things to itself - such conclusions were drawn in the villages.

Aspen forest on the canvas of I.I. Levitan

Today, the importance of aspen is consigned to history, and this tree is planted in the countryside for beauty and to improve soil fertility.

Soil improvement

All the leaves that this tree sheds in the fall decompose very quickly, increasing the looseness of the soil and turning into humus. Experienced gardeners know that aspen trees should be planted on clay infertile soils, because with its strong, deep roots the tree helps other plants and trees subsequently develop such soil.

Landscape design opportunities

Aspen trees are actively planted within the city as landscaping. These trees hold back gusts of wind well and strengthen the banks near reservoirs. Even representatives of the fauna of the steppe zone are not particularly willing to penetrate the forest if an aspen tree grows on its border. If aspen is used as a material for landscape design of a holiday village, it is done not only because of the decorative qualities of the tree, but also because a number of aspens are fire-resistant plantings: the tree does not burn well.

Decorative features boil down to the rapid leafing of the tree after pruning and beautiful autumn foliage. Breeders have developed several hybrids that have a pyramidal shape or weeping tiers.

Autumn alley of aspens