General description of the plant, growing butcher's broom at home, reproduction, difficulties in cultivating mouse thorns, interesting facts, species. Butcher's Butcher (Ruscus) is a plant that today belongs to the Asparagaceae family. A little earlier, it was allocated to its own family with the same name Iglitsevs (Ruscaceae) or it was part of the Liliaceae or Convallariaceae families. The native habitat of the butcher's growth is in the Mediterranean, as well as the lands of the Crimea and the Caucasus. In natural conditions, it likes to settle in coniferous forests, hiding in the partial shade formed by the crowns of large trees.
The plant got its name from the translation of the Anglo-Saxon word meaning "box", popularly bears the name of Ruscus or Mousethorn.
Butcher is a perennial with a shrubby form of growth and evergreen deciduous mass, but there are varieties that take the form of dwarf shrubs or grasses. There is a creeping rhizome and a stem, which is covered with small grooves. The branches have the outlines of non-falling plates with a leathery surface, on which parallel veins protrude. Such shoots are called cladodia - they are usually branches or stems, painted in green tones, and bearing highly reduced (reduced in size) leaves. These leaf plates are distinguished by triangular-subulate contours and small sizes, membranous.
When blooming, small flowers appear, gathering in inflorescences. The buds grow on several elongated pedicels, which originate on the surface of the cladodia. Flowers can be either unisexual or bisexual. The perianths are colored greenish, they are divided into six parts and fall off over time, lobes with a slight deviation. Those placed outside have wider contours. Stamens in anther flowers usually appear 3–6 units, the stamens tend to grow together into an ovoid tube, which originates from the base of the bud or from the limb of the perianth. The anthers are located at the top of this tube. If the flower is pistillate, then the pistil is surrounded by filaments, there are no anthers on them, the column in such a flower is short, the stigma is capitate. The ovary usually has one or two nests, in rare cases there are three. There are also two ovules located in each of the nests.
In the process of fruiting, the fruit ripens in the form of a fleshy berry with a rich red color. The peduncle is short. There is one seed inside, but sometimes there can be a couple of them. The contours of the seed are spherical. Often, the plant is not often grown in the rooms, however, if climatic conditions permit, then it is not a rare guest of garden and park plots. However, if a decision is made to cultivate butcher's broom as a home green decoration, then it can play the role of a Christmas talisman, since its needles very much resemble Christmas tree needles, and bright red berries themselves, like beads, serve as a natural decoration. It is also worth remembering those medicinal properties that can be useful to the owner of the Ruscus. Let's learn how to grow this unpretentious flora in your home.
Recommendations for growing butchery, home care
- Lighting. When cultivating butcher's broom, it is recommended to choose a place with diffused, but bright lighting - a window of an eastern or western location, since phylloclades will begin to dry out in direct sunlight. Phyloclades are the stems of plants with modified outlines, can often take the form of leaves and take on the functions of photosynthesis.
- Content temperature. When summer heat comes, it is necessary to take out the pot with butcher's broom to fresh air, but with the arrival of autumn, it perfectly tolerates a decrease in heat to 13-15 degrees.
- Air humidity when growing mouse thorns does not play a big role, however, when there is an active growth of young shoots, it is recommended to spray.
- Watering. When young shoots begin to grow actively in the spring of Ruscus, they regularly moisten the soil. If the phylloclades have already been finally formed, the butcher will easily tolerate drought.
- Fertilizers for butchery are introduced during the period of vegetation activity. Regular feeding every 3-4 weeks. Complete complex fertilizer is applied. In winter, the plant is not fed.
- Transplantation and selection of soil. Change the pot for butchery as the root system fully assimilates the soil offered to it. A new container is selected depending on what shape the owner wants to get the bush. If you take a wide pot, due to the fact that the rhizomes have creeping shoots, many new shoots will appear, and the ruscus will have more magnificent forms. If the bushiness of the butcher is not required, then the pot is selected narrow. In any case, small holes are made in the bottom of the container to drain excess moisture, and a layer of drainage material is placed in the pot.
There are no high requirements for the soil. It must be remembered that the soil should not be dense, so that moisture does not stagnate in it. The soil mixture is prepared independently from sod soil, leafy soil, river sand, in a ratio of 1: 3: 1. You can add one part of humus. When replanting, it is recommended to remove all dried underground shoots.
How to propagate butcher's broom on your own?
Most often they are used to obtain a new bush of mouse thorns by sowing seeds or dividing an overgrown mother plant.
Seed material is recommended to be placed in a container with moistened peat-sandy soil and covered with a piece of glass or plastic wrap to create a microclimate for a mini-greenhouse. The container with crops is placed in a bright place, but without direct sunlight. Do not forget to carry out daily airing and, if necessary, moisten the dried substrate from a finely dispersed spray bottle. The first sprouts are cut in 2-3 months, and such a young butcher begins to bear fruit in a year from the time of planting.
There is also a second method of seed propagation, when the seeds are embedded in a peat-sandy substrate and a container with crops is placed in a room where the heat does not exceed 20 degrees. This growing season will last at least a year. If it is required to accelerate the growth of crops, then cold stratification is carried out. When the sprouts reach a height of 8 cm, a pick is performed in separate containers.
If the butcher is propagated by dividing the bush, then this operation is relevant before the beginning of the vegetative activity of the plant. It is required to carefully remove the plant from the pot, rinse the substrate from the root system and cut off old shoots. Then using a well-sharpened knife, the root system is divided into parts. Just do not divide the butcher's broom too finely, as the delenki may not take root. It is recommended to sprinkle the sections with crushed activated charcoal or charcoal. Delenki are planted in separate pots.
Difficulties in plant cultivation
Of the pests that bring problems when growing Ruscus, spider mites, scale insects, thrips and mealybugs are isolated. If symptoms of pests are found, it is necessary to treat with soap, oil or alcohol. If these funds do not help, then spraying with insecticides is performed.
Interesting facts about butcher
Often planting butcherbirds are used to create borders with evergreen foliage, placing them in park and garden areas, but where warm climatic conditions allow.
When the shoots are still young, they are used for food, and the locals can easily replace coffee with fruits or add them to culinary dishes. It is also customary to make beads from them.
It is customary to harvest shoots of the Colchis butcher variety for the winter to feed livestock. Buttock is also widely used in folk medicine, it is used to increase the tone of the veins, with hemorrhoids, edema and convulsions.
There is a beautiful legend associated with the Ruscus. There was a time when a forest nymph, having arranged a ball, invited all the plants growing in the forest to her. Everyone was merry and dancing, and only one butcher was not happy, but stood alone in a corner. A nymph approached her and, as the hostess of the celebration, began to wonder what was the reason for the guest's sadness. Iglitsa complained about her unprepossessing outfit, they say, there was absolutely nothing to brag about. And then the nymph, possessing magic, gave her evergreen leaves and fruit-berries, which adorned the bush like bright beads. But the butcher decided to refuse such a gift and said that she wanted to benefit people. And then all the guests began to decide which part of the butcher's broom would become medicinal, and beautiful beads were chosen. A fairy tale is a fairy tale, but even 100 years before our era, the poet Publius Virgil Miron mentioned the beneficial properties of butchery, the same was stated by the historian Pliny the Elder, born in the 1st century AD.
Butcher's species
Butcher's broom (Ruscus aculeatus) prefers to settle in valleys and mountainous areas in western Europe, mainly choosing for growth oak, coniferous or heather and pistachio tree plantings, and shrub thickets. You can also find this variety in the southern regions of Russia, many European countries, on the Crimean lands and the Caucasus as an ornamental culture, which is frost-resistant.
The height of the stems of this shrub does not exceed 70 cm. The flowers are small and have a divided perianth. They are located most often in phylloclades (their lower part). These parts of the plant are distinguished by their sharpness and are located in the lanceolate membranous bracts. The capitate-shaped stigma is in pistillate flowers; there is also an ovary with three nests, surrounded on all sides by staminate filaments. The latter have grown into tubes and are devoid of anthers. In the autumn period, fruits in the form of berries, with a red tint, are formed on the female bushes. This becomes possible only if there are male plants nearby. However, there are varieties that have natural hermaphroditism, that is, when both female and male flowers appear. Then there is the likelihood of fruiting due to self-pollination.
Buttock sublingual (Ruscus hypoglossum). It grows in the southern regions of Crimea, starting from the southern outskirts of the city of Alushta and Batiliman and to the northernmost spurs of the Yalta Yayla. A frequent visitor to this species in the lands of northern Europe and the Mediterranean, and also found on the Balkan Peninsula. The plant grows both singly, between stone boulders, and in small groups on wet substrates of slopes and in damp shaded woodlands.
It is a perennial with a herbaceous form, reaching in height indicators in the range of 20-50 cm (rarely 70 cm). Phylloclades are large with a pointed or rounded tip, painted in a dark green tone, their surface is leathery. Their size reaches 5–7 cm in length with a width of 3–3, 5 cm. Those that grow at the top are located opposite, and the lower phylloclades are alternate. In flowers, greenish petals and buds are located in the upper part of the modified shoots, taking up space in the axil of the whitish leaf of the bracts. Usually they appear from 2 to 5 units. The dimensions of the bracts reach 2.5 cm in length and 0.8 cm in width. When fruiting, berries of a rich red color appear, their diameter reaches 2 cm. The plant has male and female flowers. The period of flower formation extends from mid to late spring, and the fruit ripens from early July to December.
This variety is listed in the Red Book.
Butcher Pontic (Ruscus ponticus) or as it is also called Colchis Butcher. It grows on the lands of the Mediterranean, settling in the rocky areas of the southern coast of Crimea (the height at which the butcher grows reaches 1000 m above sea level). There, the plant thrives on heather trees and shrubs, it also loves to grow in the Caucasus, choosing forests in the Black Sea coastal areas for growth. The species is listed in the Red Book due to the catastrophic population decline. Therefore, it is grown in the botanical gardens of Russia located in Krasnodar, Omsk and Sochi.
It has a shrubby form of growth and varies in height within the range of 30-60 cm (rarely 90 cm). The stem is upright, tubular-grooved, with a bluish-green color. Smooth branches deviate slightly back, they are covered with fine roughness. The plant reaches meters in height. Phylloclades in this species are elongated, with narrow awl-like outlines, middle and lateral veins are clearly visible on them, along the length of such modified shoots are only 1, 2–1, 5 cm and a width of 1–1, 5 cm.
Small flowers with greenish-purple petals are formed. Their location is in the lower part of the leaf axil of the bractal leaf. Its size is small, the tip is pointed. The plant produces both female and male buds. The flowering process takes place from September to January. Fruits should be expected from late autumn to late winter. The fruit is a red berry.
Butcher's butcher (Ruscus hypophyllum) is the most widespread in the Mediterranean and Transcaucasia. The plant is quite shade-tolerant, as it is usually located under the forest canopy. The height of the stems often reaches half a meter. Phyloclades are distinguished by elongated-lanceolate forms, narrowing towards the base, glossy surface. Their size varies in length in the range of 6-9 cm (rarely 11 cm) with a width of 2-4 cm. The edge is all-edged, they are not rigid and do not prick. The flowers are small, located in 5-6 units in the lower part of the phylloclades, where there is a leaf sinus of the small bracts. Berries-fruits reach a centimeter in diameter and are cast in red color. The flowering process occurs in April-May, and the fruits ripen from late summer to September.
Butcher's broom (Ruscus hyrcanus) grows in the Caucasian territory and in the lands of Northern Iran. It is considered today a relict representative of the flora. Mostly found in mountain forests, can form solid green rugs from branches. Shoots do not exceed 25–40 cm in height (sometimes up to 60 cm). The rhizome of the variety is short, creeping. The stems have a grooved surface, the apex is usually crowned with branches arranged in the form of whorls of 5, but occasionally 4–9 units, there is a bend on the sides. Phyllocladia are leathery. There are cladodes (green stems, bear greatly reduced leaf plates, but they do not resemble them at all) with a length of 12-28 cm and a width of up to 8-12 cm. Their outlines are ovoid-oblong, greenish in color, and the surface is hard … On the plate, the central vein is strongly protruding, and the apex has a sharp point ending in a spine.
In the process of flowering, flowers with greenish petals are formed, and they are collected in 2–5 pieces (occasionally singly), located along the middle axis of the cladodia, where the sinus of the membranous bracts is located. The fruit is a berry of bright red color, spherical in diameter reaching 7-9 mm.
More about butcher's, about caring for the plant, see the following video:
