General description and varieties of Sophora, recommendations for cultivation, watering, choice of fertilizers and soil, problems of transplantation and reproduction, pests, interesting facts. Sophora (Sophora) is part of a family called Legumes (Fabaceae), which also includes up to 62 plant species. They are mainly small trees or shrubs, but they can also have a herbaceous form of growth. The breeding area of these plants is quite extensive, it includes Southeast Europe, South Asian areas, Australia, the Pacific island territories and also some areas in the east of South Africa. You can decide from the name that Sophora takes its origins from Greece or the Mediterranean countries, but Japan and China are considered to be its true homeland, where this tree was treated with sacred trepidation. It has many other names in different languages: the British call it "Japanese pagoda", the Spaniards call it Japanese acacia, in Vietnam it is found as a "hoe tree", and botanists gave it the name of the Japanese Stenfolobia.
The growth rate of the Japanese acacia is very high, it spreads quickly, filling large areas. Many of its species are classified as poisonous plants. In natural nature, the sophora can reach 15–25 m in height. The bark of the "Japanese pagoda" acquires a dark gray color only with the age of the tree, since in youth the branches are gray-greenish. The entire trunk is streaked with deep slits-cracks. In the summer season, the sophora foliage attracts the eye with a rich emerald color, and it stays on the tree until late autumn. Foliage and young shoots completely cover the hairs, due to which the petiole of the leaf plate has a strong thickening at the base. The leaves are rather large, odd-pinnate. And only by the end of the November days, all the foliage gradually falls off, but the sophora does not cease to be beautiful, since its yellowish fruits remain on it. All trees with bizarrely curved branches and trunk do not lose their decorative appeal.
The plant blooms only once every two years. From mid to late summer, inflorescences appear on the sophora, which look like disheveled long panicles, characterized by pale yellow-white, pale pink or bluish-purple shades. The color directly depends on the type of plant. Sophora is a dioecious plant when flowers of both sexes are present on one tree or bush. Some varieties have a pleasant, fragrant bud aroma.
After the flowering process is complete, these panicle buds develop into bundles of fleshy fruits. They are non-expanding beans. Their length reaches about 10 cm. The color of the beans is greenish and there is a yellow stripe at the edge, they are completely covered with constrictions. They will stay on the tree all winter, pleasing the eye with a bright color. In these bean fruit, seed material begins to ripen.
The parts of the plant contain the substance maakiain, which has pronounced properties of inhibiting parasitic fungal spores (it is a fungicide of natural origin). For medical purposes, almost all components are used at Sophora - leaf plates, buds (buds), fruits and seed. Despite its toxicity, the substances contained in the plant help a person stay strong and help restore a youthful appearance to the skin. From the flowers of Sophora, they learned to extract a useful substance - rutin, which is very similar to the properties of vitamin R.
Most often, Japanese sophora is used for this. The number of diseases for which tinctures are used, medicines created on the basis of this medicinal plant are quite large. Here, only a few of them are listed: diathesis, hemorrhage, radiation sickness, rheumatoid diseases, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, measles, typhus and many others.
Recommendations for growing Sophora indoors
Although the plant reaches quite considerable heights in nature, it can be successfully cultivated in an office or apartment. I often form bonsai from sophora.
- Lighting. Sophora is very fond of good bright lighting, so you need to choose the brightest place in the room for her. Sills of windows of a southern, south-western or southeast orientation are suitable. But in the north - the plant will not have enough light and will have to arrange supplementary lighting with special phytolamps, otherwise the sophora will lose its decorative effect. In the hot hours of noon, it is recommended to shade the bush from the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation.
- Content temperature. The plant perfectly tolerates low temperatures, but the heat is not terrible for it either. There is evidence that some species of Sophora survived at -25 degrees of frost. But if the tree is kept in room conditions, then for it in the winter-autumn period you will have to look for a cooler place. The plant feels most favorable at 0-13 degrees of heat, but the Japanese sophora can winter at room temperature. Backlighting, both at reduced and at room rates, will not require heat.
- Air humidity, lowered sophora tolerates well enough, because in nature it can grow in deserts or semi-deserts. You don't even need to spray it. But in order to clean the leaf plates and branches from dust, it is necessary to wash under the shower.
- Watering the Sophora. The plant normally tolerates some dryness of the earthen coma, but the overflow "Japanese acacia" will not tolerate, waterlogging of the substrate should not be allowed in any case. Since Sophora has a pronounced salt tolerance, it is not at all afraid of hard water, which will be used to moisten the soil. When wintering with low temperatures, watering is reduced to a minimum - only once every 2 weeks, and if the heat indicators are room temperature, they are moistened once every 7 days. But it is also not recommended to allow frequent and prolonged drying of the soil, since in this case the foliage and some shoots may dry out and fall off.
- Fertilizers. It is necessary to make fertilizing for Sophora from the end of winter (February) to the end of summer days, and while the leaves will still hold on the tree. At this time, the regularity of top dressing should be every two weeks. You can pick up a complex mineral fertilizer and alternate it with organic compounds (it is possible to add mullein diluted in water).
- Sophora wintering. As soon as the daylight hours diminish (August-September), the plant begins to stop growing the leaf mass, and the shoots, the already existing leaves begin to turn yellow and fly around. The tree gradually loses its decorative appeal. If the plant hibernates at low temperatures, then the leaf mass is completely discarded, but if the heat indicators are within the room temperature, then part of the deciduous cap may remain on the branches and this is normal. As soon as the buds of the "Japanese pagoda" began to swell at the end of winter days, this is a sign of the activation of vegetative processes and the beginning of growth, at this time it is necessary to increase watering and start feeding the Sophora.
- Transplantation and selection of soil. Even despite the fact that the deciduous mass of young Sophorae is recruited quite quickly, they rarely need to be transplanted, about once every 2 years you can change the pot and soil. When the plant is already old enough, then the container and soil are not replaced, but just a little substrate is poured up. The transplant is combined with the beginning of growth activation (end of January-February). But if necessary, the sophora can transfer the change of the flowerpot and land both in the spring and in the summer months of the year.
The soil for transplanting "Japanese acacia" is taken the most common for indoor plants. The acidity should be neutral, approximately pH 6. There is only one important requirement for the soil for the plant - it is sufficient air and moisture permeability. An interesting feature of Sophora is that its root system enters into a process of symbiosis with soil nodule bacteria such as Rhizobia. With the help of them, molecular nitrogen is fixed, which is produced in growths, the so-called mycorrhiza. Therefore, this allows sophora to grow on soils very poor in useful microelements. But you can independently compose light soil mixtures from the following options:
- deciduous land, peat soil, coarse sand (all proportions are equal);
- compost or humus soil, peat, river sand (in a ratio of 1: 1: 1, 5);
- sod land, leafy soil, river sand (proportions 1: 3: 1).
Self-breeding tips for Sophora
You can get a new plant using seed material or by cuttings.
If a decision is made to plant the seeds of Sophora, then before that they need scarification. It comes from the Latin word "scarifico", which means to scratch or cut. For planting seeds, the time is selected at the end of autumn days. First you need to take a file or a hard nail file and scratch the surface of the seeds. This will allow them in the future to quickly absorb moisture, swell and germinate. Then the seed material must be scalded with boiling water, and after that leave them in this water for 10–20 minutes, but many experts recommend not removing the seeds for 2 days to increase the effect. After the indicated time has elapsed, it is necessary to plant the prepared material in a peat-sandy earthen mixture. Then the containers are wrapped with plastic wrap to create the conditions for a mini-greenhouse and seedlings are expected. The main thing is not to forget to ventilate the seedlings and moisten the soil from a spray bottle. Germination occurs within 2 months from the moment of planting.
If propagation is necessary using cuttings, then you need to cut branches from the tops of the shoots, their length should be at least 10-14 cm. Before planting in the soil mixture, it is advisable to treat the cuttings with any root stimulator (for example, heteroauxin). The twigs are then planted in small pots and covered with plastic bags or wrap to withstand moisture and heat conditions. At the same time, it is also recommended to regularly ventilate and moisten the soil.
Interesting Facts
If sophora seeds get into the flour, then it becomes very poisonous. The plant is considered a rather dangerous and harmful weed. In Japan and China, Japanese Sophora was considered a coloring plant, since the color of its buds gave a beautiful yellow tint to the fabrics. But the entire spectrum of substances that make up Sophora has not yet been fully studied, and thoughtless use can greatly harm, than benefit.
Interestingly, the sophora reacts very well to the change of time of day - with the arrival of evening time, the plant lowers its leaf blades, and as soon as morning comes, it dissolves them again.
Problems when growing sophora
The plant is practically not affected by harmful insects and is very resistant to diseases, if something is wrong with the Sophora, it means that you have violated the conditions of detention.
Of all the pests that can infect the "Japanese acacia", one can distinguish aphids, false scutes, root rot, speckled moth. When the sophora is sore, the foliage begins to turn yellow and fall off. You can first spray the bush (tree) with oil, soap or alcohol solutions so as not to subject the plant to chemical treatment, but if this does not help, then modern systemic insecticides are used to combat these insects, in the case of root rot they are treated with fungicides.
Types of Sophora
- Sophora foxtail (ordinary) (Sophora alopecuroides). It is a herbaceous perennial, all parts of which are covered with delicate pressed hairs. The plant reaches a height of 10–12 cm and is distinguished by egg-like leaf plates. They usually grow in the range of 10-12 pairs. This variety is grown to obtain pachycarpine, which is actively used in medicine to improve the function of muscle tissue and increase its tone. It is often taken with weak labor and its advantage is that it does not affect blood pressure indicators at all.
- Sophora yellowish (yellowing) (Sophora flavescens). Also in some literary sources it is called the narrow-leaved sophora. It is a perennial that grows as a herbaceous plant with good branching and an upright stem. It can grow in height just over half a meter. The leaf plates are distinguished by an ellipse-like shape, on the upper side they are of a rich green hue, and the back is casted with a bluish color and is completely covered with hairs. When flowering, a dense racemose inflorescence appears on the tops of the shoots, consisting of pale yellow flowers. In this variety, rhizomes or seeds are used for medicinal purposes, in which there are many alkaloids, fatty oils and organic acids, as well as flavonoids. Helps in stabilizing nervous disorders, pain syndromes, insomnia, etc.
- Sophora thick-fruited (Sophora pachycarpa). The plant is a herbaceous form of perennial, which has a fairly branched and powerful rhizome. The height of this variety can vary from 30 to 60 cm. In relation to other varieties of Sophora, the stems of this species are very branchy - they begin their development almost from the very base. Flowering occurs in a creamy shade of flowers, from which spike-shaped inflorescences are collected, which are mainly located on the tops of the stems. The main growing regions of the desert or semi-desert, which are located in the Central Asian territories and also in Kazakhstan. In the treatment, all parts of this Sophora are applied, as described above.
- Japanese Sophora (Sophora japonica). Sometimes it is called the Crimean Sophora. This plant is a tree that successfully grows in the southern regions of eastern Siberia, the Caucasus, the Crimea, Sakhalin and the Amur region. It will take about 30 years for this type of sophora to bloom after it has been planted. The plant tolerates dry periods very well, can grow well in direct sunlight and is salt tolerant. The tree can reach a height of 25 meters, but in the conditions of the Russian strip its height will be only 10-15 m. The entire trunk of the sophora is covered with deep-looking cracks, the bark takes on dark gray shades. When the branches of the tree are still young, their color is gray-greenish and their entire surface is covered with hairs. Blossoming occurs in small flowers with a rich fragrant aroma. Their size rarely exceeds 1 cm and rather large long inflorescences are collected from them, which are located at the tops of the branches.
Japanese sophora is used, like other species, actively for medicinal purposes, but its spectrum of action is more extensive. It is used for more serious skin diseases, against burns and restores the capillary system. However, it must be used with great care and only after a doctor's recommendation. This plant is also used by landscape designers for landscaping gardens and alleys. It can coexist with white acacia or ailant, but other plants clog it.
About cleaning blood vessels with Japanese Sophora in this video:
