This medium-sized berry of a pleasant red color, mostly growing in the harsh northern latitudes, has been known for its amazing beneficial properties for many centuries. It was not only a delicious treat, but also a very useful healing product, which is still today.
General information
Legends have always been made up of this magic berry. She had a rather impressive and corresponding name - “berry of immortality”.
In this article, you can see and learn a lot of interesting things about this amazing berry called lingonberry: a photo where it grows, a description, properties, etc. Also, the Moscow Region territories rich in thickets of a miraculous plant will be described in more detail.
One of the most famous healthy berries, revered by many, belongs to the group of medicinal plants.
What does lingonberry look like? (Photo)
Where the berry grows, we will tell after its description.
Lingonberry is a small evergreen shrub from the Heather family. It grows in height to about 25 cm.
Its leaves are regular, leathery and thick in structure, wintering. White-pink bell-shaped flowers with a faint delicate pleasant aroma are collected in apical brushes. Bright red spherical fruits - shiny berries with a diameter of 8 mm.
The plant usually blooms from May to June, and the fruits ripen from August to early September. As a rule, cowberry berries from about 2 to 9 pieces sit in a dense bunch on one brush.
The ripened fruits are usually harvested from August to September, and, with continuous thickets, yields of up to three or more centners per hectare are achieved. Here it is - lingonberry! Where this magical prolific berry grows, we learn a little later.
Lingonberry usually begins to bear fruit from the 3rd year of life.
Its fruits are quite astringent, tart and sour to taste, but after the very first frosts they become pleasant, sweet-sour. Now it is grown in many places by huge plantations. By its properties, ordinary lingonberry is very useful and popular. Where does it grow and what can it be used for? About this a little later, but for now a little about its properties.
Beneficial features
Today, many people know the benefits of not only the fruits of lingonberry, but also its leaves. Moreover, the latter as a therapeutic agent are used more often than fruits. What are the beneficial properties of lingonberry? Both leaves and berries have antimicrobial and antiseptic properties, and they are also widely used as choleretic and antisclerotic agents.
This miraculous plant has other properties: wound healing, anthelmintic, anti-zingotic. It is also used in the treatment of vitamin deficiency, enuresis, gout, hypertension, neurosis, rheumatism, tuberculosis, gastritis with low acidity, diarrhea and liver diseases.
We can say that this is the best natural remedy used for kidney diseases and diseases of the urinary tract (with cystitis and urolithiasis).
This plant is widely used in the field of beauty. Lingonberry extract has a good tonic effect on the skin, increases its elasticity. Also, decoctions of the plant perfectly strengthen the hair, help eliminate dandruff and relieve skin inflammation.
And lingonberry, which has a powerful oxidative property, prevents aging. Amazing and magical lingonberry! We will find out where such a miracle grows.
It is worth noting that the constant use of berries or syrup is good for improving vision. Infusion brewed with lingonberries, not only quenches thirst, it also reduces body temperature for colds. Here it is - an amazing lingonberry (berry).
Where is it growing?
This cold-resistant plant in the wild prefers regions with harsh winters and cool summers. And the soil berry prefers more acidic and poorer. It usually grows in coniferous dry and mixed forests, among shrubs, and sometimes in peat bogs (mostly on dried peat bogs).
It should be noted a curious fact that these low shrubs may well compete with oaks in their longevity, which is why they live up to almost three hundred years.
Lingonberry thickets can be found in Asia, North America and in Europe (northern and central).
Cultivated lingonberries first appeared in the 60s on plantations in Russia, Belarus, Germany, the USA, Switzerland, Finland, Holland and Poland. The yield on such lingonberries turned out to be almost 30 times higher than natural, wild.
Now, except for Russia, this evergreen plant has been well developed in some territories of Ukraine (Carpathians) and Belarus (Polesie).
Berries of Russia
As noted above, this culture appeared in Russia in the 1960s. Typically, the area of distribution of the bush covered with smooth leathery leaves is the overgrowth of other shrubs, peat bogs and alpine meadows. A lot of lingonberries can be found in the forest.
Where does lingonberry grow in Russia today? Its habitat is mainly mixed pine forests (spruce, pine, larch), and sometimes deciduous forests.
As for where lingonberry grows better, then at the most they are flat territories, mountain belts of the taiga and coniferous forests of the Far East and Altai. In addition, often in the tundra and forest-tundra you can find whole shoots of this amazingly tasty sweet and sour berry.
This necessary and useful plant grows even on the cold shores of the Arctic Ocean and in the harsh conditions of the Urals. Lingonberries can be found in the mountains of the Caucasus, in Karelia, in the Arkhangelsk and Murmansk regions.
The swampy forests of northern Russia are also a good place for lingonberries. And now we will dwell in more detail on the suburbs.
Berry places near Moscow
Where does lingonberry grow in the Moscow Region? In general, the vast forests of these places are very rich in a wide variety of berries: blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, wild strawberries, etc. And lingonberries are not bad here.
This is absolutely not surprising, due to the fact that the southern spurs of the northern taiga reach here from the north, and the northern border of the southern oak forests is located from the south. It was at the junction of the borders of broad-leaved and coniferous forests that a diverse berry flora found its refuge.
Favorite places of lingonberry are mossy, peat bogs and heavily swampy pine forests. This is mainly the territory of the floodplains of the Suloti and Dubna rivers, as well as the Meshchera in the area of Shatura.
In addition, lingonberry grows in other areas around water bodies overgrown with peat. These are Krugloye and Trostenskoye lakes in the Lotoshino area.
In the above-mentioned places, usually from one hectare of a swamp with cranberries, you can collect up to a ton of berries per year. Moreover, the fruits are harvested in three terms: September, the beginning of freezing, early spring (April). Lingonberries are beautifully preserved throughout the winter.
This marvelous berry, as noted above, prefers drier pine forests, burnt areas, clearings and lighted edges. Therefore, the following forest areas of the Moscow Region are very rich in these berries: northern regions - Zagorsky district; eastern - Noginsky, Orekhovo-Zuevsky and Kurovsky; Western - Volokolamsk, etc.
A little bit about the composition
We learned about what lingonberry is, where it grows. Now a little about the composition of this magic berry.
It contains carbohydrates, proteins and fats. The composition of the plant: vitamins A, B, E, PP and beta-carotene. Most in the berry is vitamin C. There are various organic acids: oxalic, citric, malic, benzoic, salicylic.
Mineral substances are represented by potassium, sodium, magnesium, iron, manganese, phosphorus and calcium. Lingonberries also contain pectin, natural sugars (sucrose, glucose and fructose) and dietary fiber.
About contraindications in use
Having lingonberry berries and applying it to food, you should always remember about contraindications. For example, the fruits of this plant should be used moderately for people suffering from gastritis and high acidity, because the substances contained in it can irritate the gastric mucosa. This also applies to people with cholecystitis.
Also, cranberry leaves and juice from it reduce pressure, adversely affect hypotensives. Fresh lingonberry berries are contraindicated in case of duodenal ulcer and stomach, in the presence of stones in the urinary system.
