This shrub requires careful care after planting, but the cotoneaster chokeberry will thank the owner for the care, transforming the dacha, garden or backyard of a country house. In addition, this plant has long been valued by traditional healers for its medicinal properties.
Chokeberry cotoneaster: description
This is an evergreen deciduous shrub that grows quite slowly. Cotoneaster chokeberry (Latin - Cotoneaster melanocarpus) is most often a small tree from the Rosaceae family. The name of the plant was given by the Swiss botanist Kaspar Baugin. It consists of two words: cotonea, which is translated from Greek as "quince", and aster - "similar, having the appearance." This is due to the fact that the leaves of one of the cotoneaster species resemble quince leaves.
The leaves of the plant are simple, not large, entire, alternate, ovoid. In summer, they are dark green, and in autumn the color becomes a brilliant reddish hue.
Flowers pale pink or white in the form of small corymbs,single or collected in a brush. Flowering time - up to twenty-five days.
This plant is an excellent honey plant, and various crafts are made from its branches: pipes, canes, etc.
The fruit is a false drupe. The shape resembles a small black (or red) apple. Inside contains from two to five bones. The fruits remain on the branches until late autumn, until the first frost. Shrub owners should be aware that the cotoneaster chokeberry is fundamentally different from the similar dogwood. However, its fruits are edible, which is not the case with most other species.
Distribution
The plant has more than forty species that grow in North Africa and Eurasia. Cotoneaster chokeberry (you see the photo below) is frost- and drought-resistant. In addition, this plant is not demanding on the composition of the soil, lighting and humidity. The plant in culture is widespread: from Northern China to the Western regions, in Central Asia and the Caucasus, it is found in light deciduous forests, on mountain slopes. In Eastern Siberia, under natural conditions, it grows singly or in groups.
Healing properties
Chokeberry is used for food, most often compotes, soft drinks are prepared. Traditional healers use its medicinal properties to treat certain diseases, these include:
- chronic and acute gastritis;
- diarrhea;
- gastroenteritis;
- fever;
- neurasthenia;
- jaundice;
- edema;
- stress conditions.
It is believed that with liver diseases, infusions and decoctions must be taken. The fruits are used in the treatment of epilepsy. Cotoneaster chokeberry successfully treats eczema and scabies. In Tibetan medicine, the properties of this plant are used to stop bloody diarrhea. An infusion of the fruit is a powerful antiseptic.
Chemical composition
In folk medicine, flowers and branches of the plant are used, which must be collected during flowering. In addition, bark, buds and fruits are used. Only fully ripened (at the end of summer) fruits should be harvested.
The leaves are rich in vitamin C, flavonoids, glycoside. In the seeds, hydrocyanic acid, in the fruits - ascorbic acid, coumarins. The resin of the plant is used to treat skin diseases.
Tincture
This composition is recommended for patients with gastroenteritis and gastritis. You need to take a tablespoon of shoots and leaves (well crushed), pour 0.5 liters of boiling water over them, and leave for about two hours. After that, the tincture is filtered. Take a quarter cup three times a day. The same composition will help with diarrhea.
Contraindications
To date, no contraindications to the use of compositions based on chokeberry have been identified. Only individual intolerance is possible. To date, culture has not yet been fully studied. Before starting treatment, it is necessaryconsultation with your doctor.
Chokeberry cotoneaster: planting
Seedlings are planted in early spring, when the ground thaws, and the buds on the trees have not yet opened. You can plant bushes in the fall. The time is chosen between the beginning of leaf fall and the first frost. Cotoneaster chokeberry feels quite comfortable in the shade or partial shade. This will in no way affect the decorative qualities of the bushes. The plant is also not demanding on the quality of the soil.
For cotoneaster, a pit of at least 50x50x50 centimeters is required. It is covered with a layer of gravel or broken brick (20 cm). The soil mixture is prepared from peat, humus and sand (one part each) and soddy land (two parts). It will not be superfluous to add three hundred grams of lime to the soil mixture. The distance between the cotoneaster bushes or the structure should be from fifty centimeters to two meters. It depends on the expected size of the crown of the plant.
When burying a seedling, make sure that the root neck is flush with the surface. Then the soil is compacted quite tightly, watered abundantly and mulched near the trunk circle. For this, it is best to use a layer of peat eight centimeters thick.
Plant care
Even a novice gardener can grow chokeberry cotoneaster. Plant care is not difficult. The main thing you need to know about this plant is the categorical rejection of excess moisture at the roots. The cotoneaster will easily endure the rest of the vagaries of nature.
Experienced growersthey assure that watering the bush is required very rarely, and if the summer is rainy, then it is better to forget about watering altogether. In dry and hot summers, it will be enough to water the plant once every two weeks at the rate of eight buckets of water per adult plant. After rain (or watering), remove all weeds from the site and loosen the soil no deeper than fifteen centimeters.
Feeding
In the first spring days, when the positive temperature is established, the cotoneaster should be fed with nitrogen fertilizer. You can use urea (25 g) diluted in ten liters of water. Suitable and granules "Kemira-universal" (prolonged action). Before flowering, feed the plant with 15 g of potassium and 60 g of superphosphate per square meter of soil. At the end of the season, the planting circle is mulched using peat (or covering material).
Cotoneaster pruning
Shrubs are responsive to pruning. This is exactly the plant that designers use to form bushes of various shapes: prisms, cones, hemispheres and even more complex shapes. Recommended pruning by a third of the growth of the annual shoot. Curly pruning will require special tools and certain skills. After pruning, the shoots grow back quickly, but the shape given to the bushes is preserved.
Pruning cotoneaster can also perform a sanitary function, since sick, old, broken branches appear on any bush from time to time.
Cotoneaster: preparation for winter
Cotoneaster is cold-resistant and winters well without shelter. It is enough to mulch the landingcircle using peat. But if there are fears that the winter will be too cold and snowless, bend it to the ground and secure it in this position. From above, cover the bush with dry foliage.
In very cold and snowless winters, insulate the plant with spruce branches or any covering material. If it begins to snow, free the cotoneaster from shelter. It is much more useful if he winters under the snow.
