Cedar de Himalayan (Cedrus deodara): description
Surprising life expectancy, power, strengthand the beauty of cedar Himalayan, or deodar, as its biologists call it, represents the flora of East Asia, meeting in the Himalayas and decorating the mountainous landscapes of Nepal, Afghanistan and India.
Description of the species
Himalayan cedar - one of the species of the genus cedar inthe Pine family. Like many of his brethren, he distinguishes an amazing article, growing to 50-60 meters in height, forming at a young age a wide cone of the crown with a characteristic slightly blunted apex and drooping shoots. As a rule, in the structure of the crown there is no longline, inherent in other representatives of this genus. To old age, the top of the tree becomes even more rounded, the skeletal branches are horizontally straightened, and the crown loses cone-shaped outlines.
This conifer is one of the fast-growing breeds. Cedar is unpretentious and, combining together with other close relatives (fir, pine and spruce), forms coniferous forests.
Cedar Himalayan: features of the plant
The diameter of the trunk of this giant reaches 3 meters. Strong roots allow the tree to rest on scarce mountain soils, because the deodar can grow even at an altitude of 3,500 m above sea level.
The tree is famous for its excellent wood - fragrant, at the same time soft and strong, always in demand.
Bark and pine needles
Remarkably decorative cedar bark -dark brown, smooth, even shining at a young age and gray-brown, cut into rectangular tiles, with more mature cedars. Young shoots are short, thin and matte, reddish and drooping at the ends.
Helix spirally located on the branches can besingle, thin, sharp and long (up to 50 mm) or collected in small bundles. Hvoinki dense, glossy, with well-defined facets of green, silvery-gray, bluish or gray shades, completely non-spongy, dulled-pointed.
Cedar Himalayan: cones and seeds
In October or November, ripens and spreadspollen. Bumps appearing on the top of the crown are located singly, rarely two together. Turned up, in shape they are oblong and plump, like barrels; reach 7-13 cm in length and 5-7 cm in diameter. Strongly sitting on short petioles, they mature 1.5 years. Gradually changing the color (from bluish at first to terracotta-brown tones), cone-repeaters ripen after ripening, releasing a lot of seeds.
Solid flat wedge-shaped seed scalestaper to the base with an almost rectangular upper edge. Seeds of light beige-colored obovate-shaped 6-7 mm wide, narrowed at the base, reach a length of 12-17 mm. They are equipped with a large shiny wing, allowing the seeds to fly far enough away.
Deodar preferences
Growing in the mountainous regions of Afghanistan andto the north of the Himalayas, the Himalayan cedar excellently feels itself in wild lands untouched by civilization. Probably, therefore, the gas contamination of cities affects on it a noticeable loss of decorativeness. Longevity and ascetic, deodar is characterized by rapid development in youth and moderate - in the adult state. It perfectly tolerates shading, relatively frost-resistant - withstands short-term temperature drops down to -25 ° C in windless places.
Like many coniferous trees, cedar is undemandingfertility of the soil, successfully grows on loams and easily tolerates the presence of lime in the ground, but its high content can cause chlorosis - a very serious disease that manifests itself by staining the needles in yellow-orange hues and a significant lag in growth. Plants in the culture are almost as lethargic as their wild-growing brethren, but they grow much better in areas with poorly known, water- and air-permeable soils without a near approach of groundwater.
Cultivation of cedar
The heat-loving deodar does not survive in the harshconditions of moderate Russian latitudes. Its distribution does not extend beyond the Black Sea coast, the Crimea and the Caucasus foothills. It is in these places that the queen mothers of the Himalayan cedar are defeated. Despite the fact that the homeland of the deodar is the Himalayas, on the world map located in the warm continental belt, medium-latitude gardeners are increasingly being accepted for growing Himalayan cedar, and often such experiments are successful. It should only be guided by the advice of experienced gardeners, as cultivars in the middle climatic zones to take root is not an example more difficult than in the southern regions. Especially vulnerable are young trees, whose height does not exceed 3 meters. They need shelter for the winter, which they use to establish negative temperatures.
The covering material is selected depending onown preferences. The most practical are considered breathable materials - spruce lapnik, burlap. With the foreseeable severe winter over the lapnika, they arrange original houses of roofing material.
Fertilizers
Top dressing is necessary for a culture such as cedarHimalayan. Cultivation of it will be the most successful with the application of fertilizers of German production Greenworld or Russian brand "Green Needle". Feed the plant three times per season - in April, June and July. Top-dressing with a nitrogen component is made until August, as the growth of shoots in late summer will complicate wintering. Therefore, since July nitrogen fertilizers do not give, but they feed cedar with phosphorus-potassium preparations.
Application in the park and garden interior
Deodar is one of the most populardecorative park culture in the Crimea and the Black Sea coast. The experience of farming techniques for cultivating culture dates back to the mid-20th century. Today, the Himalayan cedar is a familiar park tree in the south of Russia. Individuality, charm and monumental beauty are the features of this conifers.
The most attractive old trees, mighty, with a wide spreading crown, enveloped in a silvery-greenish haze of soft needles.
Used Himalayan cedar in the arrays,groups-ensembles, on alleys or singly in various landscape compositions. Young trees are well tolerated by pruning and are quickly restored. Such planting often turns into living hedges of the most intricate forms.
