The plant myricaria (Myricaria) is a representative of the Tamarisk family, which includes shrubs and shrubs. Most often, myrikaria are found in Asian countries - they are considered the birthplace of the bush. Only one plant species grows in Europe. Myrikarii can grow near water bodies, as well as in mountains and forests, sometimes meeting at a fairly high (6.5 km above sea level) altitude. In this case, tall bushes acquire a creeping shape and a more compact size. In total, about 10-13 species are included in the genus, but it is still being studied, and unambiguous data on this account are not given.
The name of myrikaria is associated with its medium-sized foliage, similar to scales. According to one version, it came from the Latin designation for heather because of the external similarity of plants. At the same time, another plant is also called "mirika" - the waxweed. Due to the fluffy fruits that ripen in the place of long inflorescences, one type of myrikaria is also known as "fox tail".
Description of myrikaria
These plants are perennials. In nature, the size of the shoots of myrikaria can reach 4 meters, but the average height of the bushes is about 2 m. In temperate climates, the plants become even more compact - up to 1.5 m with the same width of the bush. Myricaria stems can be erect or creeping. Up to 20 shoots can form on one bush. They are covered with brownish-yellow or reddish bark, but the surface of the branches is almost completely hidden by small scaly leaves. They are arranged alternately and are also sedentary. By themselves, the leaf blades have a simple shape without stipules. Their color ranges from gray-green to bluish.
During the flowering period, buds with long bracts appear on the bushes. They are collected in apical or lateral inflorescences: brushes, panicles or spikelets. Such inflorescences are kept on peduncles up to 40 cm long. The color of the petals is lilac or pink. Each flower stays on the plant for up to 5 days. Flowering begins in the second half of May and can last a couple of months due to the gradual blooming of the buds. Flowers begin to appear from the bottom of the branches, and towards the end of summer, the upper shoots bloom.
After flowering on myrikaria, fruit-boxes are formed, resembling pyramids. They contain many small seeds. Each such seed at the top has a light awn with pronounced pubescence, which is why by autumn, when the fruits with seeds crack, myrikaria takes on a fluffy appearance.
In nature, some types of myrikaria are already included in the list of protected plants, but gardeners are gradually beginning to feel more and more interest in unpretentious bushes.Growing myrikaria in the garden will not be difficult. This humble but charming plant looks more like an ephedra than a common deciduous shrub, and will blend in perfectly with any garden landscape.
Planting myricaria in open ground
Seat selection
Mirikaria prefers bright, sunny locations. In partial shade, such bushes can also develop well, but a lack of lighting can affect the duration and abundance of their flowering. Too bright scorching rays, however, should be avoided. Young seedlings are able to burn under such light, so it is recommended to place them in the shaded corners of the garden in the afternoon.
The place for planting myrikaria should also be sheltered from drafts and strong winds. At the same time, adult specimens are considered so hardy that they are not afraid of either strong summer heat or frost down to -40 degrees.
The soil
For planting myrikaria, nutritious and loose enough soil is suitable. It can be ordinary garden soil or not too heavy loam, supplemented with peat. The reaction of the soil can vary from neutral to slightly acidic. To improve the quality of the soil, organic compounds can be added to the planting bed. Both nitroammophoska (about 50 g) and wood ash (300 g per 1 sq. M) are suitable. In nature, myrikarii prefer rocky or sandy soil, so sufficient drainage of the soil will be an important condition.
Landing rules
They start planting myricaria in open ground either at the beginning of the season - in the spring, before the start of the active growth of plantings, or at its end - in the fall, in October. A hole is prepared for the bush about half a meter in depth and in breadth. A good (up to 20 cm thick) drainage layer must be laid on the bottom of it. It can include rubble, brick debris, or expanded clay. A little earth is poured on top, and then a bucket of water is poured into the hole. When it is absorbed, you can place the plant there along with a soil clod. The depth of the seedling must be preserved: the root collar of the bush is placed flush with the ground. The voids in the hole are filled with the remaining soil, tamped and watered the seedling well.
Immediately after watering, it is recommended to close the root area of the plant with a layer of mulch of about 10 cm. For this, peat, humus or tree bark are used. Such measures will help protect the seedling from weeds, as well as from excessively rapid evaporation of moisture.
For planting, it is advised to choose myrikaria seedlings no older than 2 years. They are moved to a new place, gently rolling into a hole along with a soil clod. If several bushes grow in the garden at once, a distance of at least 1 m is left between them, depending on how sprawling an adult plant can become. Otherwise, the growing myrikarii will be too crowded.
Myricaria care
Watering
It is necessary to water myrikaria infrequently - only in those cases when it has not rained for more than two weeks. For each bush of such a plant, you will need to pour a bucket of water. Myrikaria are quite drought-resistant, but at the same time they are able to endure persistently and short-term waterlogging of the soil. A long lack of moisture can negatively affect the abundance of flowering and slow down the growth of shoots, but frequent waterlogging can also end in root rot, so it is important to water the plants only if necessary.
Top dressing
The bushes should be fed only a couple of times during the summer. For this, specialized formulations for heather are well suited - myrikaria has the same type of foliage. Top dressing can also be the annual introduction of organic matter for planting - humus or peat. Such measures stimulate more active foliage growth and an increase in the brightness of its color. This top dressing is applied until mid-May. For the same purposes, you can use a solution of mullein diluted 1:10. Plants are watered with it about a couple of times over the summer.
Sometimes in the spring, myrikaria is fertilized with universal mineral compositions, including a complex of all the elements necessary for planting.The amount of top dressing applied should be correlated with the fertility of the soil.
Loosening
In addition to watering and feeding myrikaria bushes, periodic loosening and weeding will be required. They are usually carried out after each watering. But if the root area has been mulched, these actions will have to be carried out much less often.
Pruning
As the shoots of myrikaria develop, they begin to grow stiff, gradually losing their former decorativeness. By the age of 7-8, such bushes are already considered old. To keep the plantings attractive longer, they should be trimmed periodically. This procedure will help rejuvenate the bushes. It is performed in two stages. By autumn, the crown is given a more accurate shape, and in the spring they carry out sanitary pruning, removing all dry or broken branches after wintering. It is carried out at the stage of foliage blooming, when it becomes clear which shoots are frozen. Such branches are cut to a healthy tissue or guided by the desired crown shape.
With formative pruning, most often the bushes are given a spherical shape. You can trim myrikaria during the entire growth period: even young bushes can withstand a haircut well. Due to the fact that adult wild-growing species can acquire rather uneven outlines, they begin to resort to formation as early as possible, gradually pinching the shoots during the summer season. Usually they try to bring their length closer to half a meter. But such procedures should be completed before the beginning of September, so that the plant has time to recover before the cold weather. Repeating the procedure annually will turn the myricaria into a neat hemisphere.
Support
The sprawling stems of myrikaria sometimes suffer from strong winds. So that they do not lie down and break, you need to choose in advance for the bushes a place that is reliably sheltered from wind gusts, or provide them with good support. Systematic cutting will also help to regulate the size of the shoots. This will make the plants more bushy and less sensitive to wind gusts.
Bushes need especially strong support in winter: wind and snow thickness during this period often lead to breakage of myrikaria branches. At this time, the branches of the bushes are trying to tie together. Young, more flexible shoots can be gently bent to the ground, fixing them in this position and covering them with spruce branches or a layer of non-woven material. Although the bushes are able to withstand even severe frosts, the tops of their branches, uncovered with snow, can still freeze slightly. That is why the timely tying or bending of the shoots can get rid of many problems when recovering after wintering.
When caring for the bushes, it is important to remember that some types of flowers are considered poisonous, so all work with plantings should be carried out without forgetting about safety measures.
Reproduction of myrikaria
Mirikaria can be propagated in a variety of ways, from seeds to dividing or using parts of bushes.
Growing from seeds
Fluffy myrikaria seeds remain viable for only a short time, so it is important to take care of the preservation of the seed in advance until the moment of sowing. After collection, it should be placed in a hermetically sealed bag and kept in moderate heat - 18-20 degrees. Usually, such seeds are sown on seedlings in spring, after having stratified them in the refrigerator (on a vegetable shelf) for about a week. Such measures can significantly increase the percentage of germination: without them, only a third of the sown seeds germinate.
The prepared seeds are placed in seedling boxes filled with fertile and loose soil. Both universal seedling substrates and a mixture of sand and peat are suitable. The seeds of myrikaria are small, so they are distributed over the surface of the soil, without deepening or sprinkling. In order not to wash out crops, they should be watered very carefully, drip, or using bottom watering. The first shoots appear very quickly - in a couple of days. First of all, the seeds form small roots, and only then they start growing.
Seedlings will require periodic watering and not too high indoor temperatures. The hardened bushes can be immediately transplanted into the beds, but for this it should already be consistently warm outside - 10-15 degrees. Return frosts can kill young plants.
Reproduction by dividing the bush
Overgrown myrikaria bushes in the spring can be dug up and divided into several parts. Each cut obtained should have several shoots and strong roots. Until the root system is dry, parts of the bush are quickly planted in the prepared pits, having previously sprinkled all the resulting sections with crushed charcoal.
Separation of root growth
In the root area near the trunk of the plant, numerous shoots are usually formed. In the spring, before the start of active growth, such processes can be separated by digging them out from the main bush, and then planted in pits in the same way as parts of the myrikaria during its division.
You can also get a new bush by forming a layer. The lower branch is tilted to the ground and buried in the prepared groove, leaving the crown of the shoot on the surface. This area is watered along with the rest of the bush. After two seasons, a fully formed young plant is separated from the mother plant and planted in the right place according to general rules.
Cuttings
For the reproduction of myrikaria, past-season or older woody shoots, as well as fresh green twigs, are suitable. Cuttings from a bush can be cut during the entire period of plant development, starting in early spring, but in the summer for this procedure it is recommended to choose segments of shoots located closer to the ground.
The dimensions of the segments should be at least 25 cm. The woody cuttings should have a thickness of about 1 cm. After harvesting, the cuttings are kept in a root growth stimulator for several hours. Then they are planted in containers filled with a peat-sandy substrate, placed at an angle. At least 2-3 buds should remain above the soil surface. From above, the seedlings are closed with a cut plastic bottle to create greenhouse conditions.
Although such plants form roots very quickly, with the risk of a cold winter, they should be planted in the ground only in the next season - young, fragile bushes will not be able to overwinter. They are transferred to a permanent place only next spring, when the soil has time to warm up enough. Plants obtained from cuttings bloom two years after rooting. Myrikaria reaches its peak of decorativeness 4-5 years after planting.
Diseases and pests
Some types of myrikaria are poisonous - this feature allows the bushes to drive away pests from themselves, but other plant species very rarely attract harmful insects. In addition, the plantings almost never get sick, so they almost do not cause trouble for gardeners. Natural immunity allows them to successfully resist both weather whims and temperature extremes.
In order not to weaken the bushes, the basic conditions for caring for them should be observed. So it is not necessary to overmoisten the soil in which myrikaria grow too often too often. Despite the fact that plantings tolerate short periods of flooding well, constant stagnation of moisture can lead to the development of root diseases.
Types of myrikaria with photos and names
Although the genus myrikaria includes about 13 different species, only a few of them are used as ornamental plants.
Myricaria daurian, or long-leaved (Myricaria longifolia)
This species is also called Daurian tamarisk. Myricaria longifolia lives in the East Siberian region and Altai, and is also found in Mongolia. Such myrikaria grows in separate bushes or forms clumps near rivers or streams on pebble soil. In height, the bushes are usually no more than 2 m. Old shoots are painted grayish-brown, fresh ones are yellow-green. Due to the numerous small leaves, the branches have an openwork appearance.The leaves are colored silvery green or light green. In this case, the foliage of the primary shoots differs in a slightly elongated ovoid shape, and on the secondary shoots the leaves have lanceolate outlines. Each leaf is up to 1 cm long, up to 3 mm wide and is covered with punctate glands.
The species blooms throughout the summer, lasting from May to August. On last year's and young branches of the bush, apical inflorescences-brushes (sometimes - panicles or spikelets) are formed. The lateral shoots of the last year can also bloom. The inflorescences can be simple or complex and are about 10 cm long, increasing as they grow. The size of the bracts reaches 8 mm in length. They have a sharpening at the top. The size of the calyx reaches 4 mm, the petals are painted pink, the length of each is about 6 mm, and the width reaches 2.5 mm. The stamens are partly spliced together.
After flowering, tricuspid fruit-boxes are formed on the inflorescences. They are filled with small seeds with an awn covered with light hairs. The buds on the bushes open gradually, so the fruiting period also extends throughout the summer.
The species has been used in culture since the 19th century.
Myricaria foxtail, or foxtail (Myricaria alopecuroides)
The most famous species in horticulture. Myricaria alopecuroides naturally lives in the Middle East, southern Siberia, Central and Central Asian countries, but also occurs in the regions of Europe.
This species is a shrub with thin twigs. Its height does not exceed 2 m. The bush is formed by whip-like shoots, their number reaches 20 pieces. All shoots are covered with numerous fleshy foliage with a greenish-gray color.
The flowering of such myrikaria begins in May and lasts until the end of summer. At the tops of the shoots, many small flowers are formed, collected in inflorescences-spikelets. They droop slightly under the weight of the flowers. The inflorescences are painted in a delicate pink color, the buds in them bloom from bottom to top. Starting from 10 cm, the size of such a spikelet during flowering can reach 40 cm. At the same time, the inflorescence becomes looser from a dense inflorescence.
The fruits ripen as they bloom, uncommonly, but by October the bolls open massively, which is why the branches of the bush acquire a fluffy appearance. Drooping inflorescences, pubescent with tails of seeds, it is during this period that they begin to resemble the tails of foxes, which gave the species its name.
This species is moderately frost-hardy, if its shoots are not covered with snow for the winter, the unripe parts of the bush may freeze, but in the next season the planting is quickly restored.
Myricaria elegans
This type of myrikaria is not found in gardens as often as the first two. Myricaria elegans lives on sandy coastal lands in India and Pakistan, sometimes meeting up to 4.3 km above sea level. The species forms a semblance of a bush or a medium-sized tree up to 5 m high. Old shoots of such plants are colored brownish-red or purple. Fresh shoots are green or reddish in color. The foliage on young branches is sessile, the width of the plates reaches 3 mm. The top of each leaf can be pointed or blunt.
The bracts also have a pointed tip. Flowers can be white, purple or pink. The petals are up to 6 mm long and up to 3 mm wide. They are distinguished by a blunt apex and a narrowed base. The stamens are slightly shorter than the petals. The flowering period is in the first half of summer.
After flowering, fruits up to 8 mm long appear on the branches. They contain oblong seeds with a hairy spine. Their ripening period occurs at the end of summer - beginning of autumn.
Mirikaria in landscape design
Thanks to the decorative foliage, the shoots of myrikaria look beautiful even before the flowering period. Such plants are often used to create group plantings, but they can look no less impressive alone or in combination with other plants. Bushes go well with coniferous species, fit perfectly into rose gardens, and can also coexist with ground covers. A good composition can be created by combining myrikaria with decorative leafy species. Playing on the contrast of shapes and shades of foliage, it will be possible to form an interesting green island.
Tall species of myrikaria can be used as green hedges.In their natural environment, bushes often grow near water, so you can decorate the shores of garden ponds with myrikaria. Thanks to the love of drained soil, you can supplement with such a bush a rock garden or rockery. Against the background of rocky ground, the foliage of the myricarium looks very unusual.
Mirikaria is very similar to its close relative, the tamarisk. Both plants are bush-shaped with similar foliage and bark color. Their natural habitats are very similar, and during the flowering period, both plants are covered with numerous pink-lilac flowers. But tamarisk is more adapted to living in hot areas and many of its species are unable to withstand significant cold. It is thanks to frost resistance in landscape design that myrikaria can be used as its alternative for regions with more severe winters.
Mirikaria usually blooms more modestly, but sometimes these plants are so similar to each other that you can probably distinguish them only by the type of flowers. Tamarisks usually have about 5 stamens, myrikaria - 10. At the same time, in myrikaria flowers, the stamens half grow together, forming a tube. In tamarisks, the stamens are located freely. The appearance of their seeds is also slightly different - the awn on the seeds of myrikaria in most cases is only partially pubescent, and in tamarisk it is completely pubescent.
It is important not to confuse these plants at the purchase stage - tamarisks often require more careful shelter before wintering. To surely purchase the desired bush, you should go shopping in a reliable nursery or store, or contact your friends who are already growing myrikaria.
Useful properties of myricaria
Although myrikaria has been studied for a long time, it has not been possible to fully study the chemical composition of its species to this day. But it is known for certain that many of these plants contain vitamin C, as well as tannins and flavonoids.
Mirikariya is often used as part of the traditional medicine of Tibetan medicine. Decoctions from the foliage of the Daurian species can help with edema and polyarthritis, are used for poisoning, and also help relieve inflammation. Mirikaria helps to fight worms, and is also considered one of the remedies for colds and rheumatism - decoctions of foliage are not consumed inside, but added to the water when taking baths.
Treatment with myricaria has its limitations: any drugs based on it must be agreed with the attending physician. One of its types - bracts myricaria, is considered poisonous and is included in the list of plants prohibited for use as a dietary supplement.
Mirikaria is used not only as a medicinal plant. The brownish-yellow bark of its bushes contains tannins, therefore it is used for leather dressing. The bark and other parts of the bushes were once used to make black dye.
