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Japanese silver apricot "Relikt" (Maidenhair tree, Ginkgo, Fossil tree)
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Maidenhair tree "Relikt" (Japanese silver apricot, Fossil tree) - Ginkgo biloba.
This legendary plant is a "living fossil", more ancient than conifers. None of the modern gymnosperms have such decorative leaves.
At the beginning of the 18th century, ginkgo was brought to Europe from Chinese palace gardens as a "temple tree".
The tree is deciduous, with a slender crown, single- or multi-stemmed. It grows in its homeland up to 30 m in height. The branches extend from the trunk almost at a right angle.
The bark is gray with longitudinal folds, wrinkled. The leaves are leathery, with frequent parallel veins, fan-shaped, dissected into two lobes, collected in bundles on shortened shoots, due to which the branches acquire an original appearance in winter. In autumn, the leaves acquire an attractive golden-yellow color.
The plant is dioecious. It grows well in garden soil in the sun or in partial shade. Ginkgo takes root well, is undemanding to soils, is quite frost-resistant (up to - 30 °C), and is easily propagated by seeds.
Before sowing, it is better to clean the fleshy fruits of ginkgo by keeping them in salt water. The cleaned seeds are sown to a depth of 3-5 cm after 1-2 months of stratification in wet sand in a refrigerator at a temperature of + 2 °C.
In Estonia, it is better to form the plant in the form of a low-growing bush, since it freezes in severe winters. It is better to cover young plants with covering material for the winter.
In the southern regions, ginkgo is used for urban landscaping as it is resistant to industrial smoke, fungal and viral diseases, and insect damage.
It is considered a valuable medicinal plant, has a rejuvenating effect. Medicines are prepared from the leaves to improve cerebral circulation, with atherosclerosis, diabetes, and sleep disorders.
This legendary plant is a "living fossil", more ancient than conifers. None of the modern gymnosperms have such decorative leaves.
At the beginning of the 18th century, ginkgo was brought to Europe from Chinese palace gardens as a "temple tree".
The tree is deciduous, with a slender crown, single- or multi-stemmed. It grows in its homeland up to 30 m in height. The branches extend from the trunk almost at a right angle.
The bark is gray with longitudinal folds, wrinkled. The leaves are leathery, with frequent parallel veins, fan-shaped, dissected into two lobes, collected in bundles on shortened shoots, due to which the branches acquire an original appearance in winter. In autumn, the leaves acquire an attractive golden-yellow color.
The plant is dioecious. It grows well in garden soil in the sun or in partial shade. Ginkgo takes root well, is undemanding to soils, is quite frost-resistant (up to - 30 °C), and is easily propagated by seeds.
Before sowing, it is better to clean the fleshy fruits of ginkgo by keeping them in salt water. The cleaned seeds are sown to a depth of 3-5 cm after 1-2 months of stratification in wet sand in a refrigerator at a temperature of + 2 °C.
In Estonia, it is better to form the plant in the form of a low-growing bush, since it freezes in severe winters. It is better to cover young plants with covering material for the winter.
In the southern regions, ginkgo is used for urban landscaping as it is resistant to industrial smoke, fungal and viral diseases, and insect damage.
It is considered a valuable medicinal plant, has a rejuvenating effect. Medicines are prepared from the leaves to improve cerebral circulation, with atherosclerosis, diabetes, and sleep disorders.
Ginkgo does not bloom, grows slowly: annual growth is 2 cm, in some years - up to 4 cm.
Location: photophilous, wind-resistant, quite frost-resistant (tolerates temperature drops to -30 °C). Young plants should be protected from the scorching rays of the sun, shading them with shields or light fabric. Adult plants are best planted in well-lit places.
The plant is successfully cultivated in the temperate zone - where the climate is quite mild. In open ground, ginkgo grows in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Tartu.
Soil: undemanding. For successful growth, ginkgo requires constantly moist soil, its mechanical composition is not so important.
Care: parasites and pests are unknown for ginkgo. But mice pose a certain danger - they can gnaw the bark at the base of the trunk of even a 10-year-old tree. To combat this problem, a well-known trick of fruit growers is used - tying the base of the trunks for the winter with spruce branches, roofing felt or burdock.
Ginkgo has a strong ability to form shoots, it produces shoots from the stump and root.
The tree does not tolerate transplantation well, and does not grow for 2-3 years after that.
Landscapers like ginkgo, but female specimens are not suitable for decorative purposes, because during ripening the fruits smell unpleasant, and when they fall, they interfere with pedestrians and transport. Male specimens are usually used. In nurseries, a male bud is grafted onto a young seedling. In the first year, the seedlings are 12-15 cm high. Ginkgo is easily propagated by seeds, stem and root cuttings. Cuttings should be taken in late June - early July, and preference should be given not to long (by that time still poorly lignified), but to short shoots, which are cut into cuttings with a "heel" or with part of last year's wood. Half of the leaves are removed from them and they are placed in a solution of root formation stimulants for several hours.
Then they are planted in a film greenhouse, where coarse sand mixed with high-moor peat, perlite or similar loose, air-permeable materials are used as a substrate. Cuttings are regularly sprayed, adding a solution of "Epin" to the sprayer once a week. If all goes well, by autumn the plants will give, if not roots, then at least callus. For the winter, the cuttings are covered with spruce branches. In the spring, they start growing quite quickly, and they need to be planted before this time - in April. Cuttings with only callus also develop successfully - in the second year, almost all of them give roots. But plants from cuttings develop much more slowly than seed plants, at least in the first 1-3 years.
Maidenhair tree, ginkgo, Fossil tree, Japanese silver apricot.
