Few people know that holly maple has excellent beneficial qualities. If used correctly, considerable benefits can be gained from it. Of course, many people know about its most important quality. This tree is widely used in landscape design due to its amazing decorativeness, especially in the autumn season.
The article provides a description of the maple, features of reproduction, use in decorating garden and park areas, etc.
Varieties of maples
Maple grows around the world. Often it is used in the landscaping of city parks and suburbs. In total, there are more than 150 species of this tree, among which there are decorative forms and simple ones.
The most common types:
- holly maple;
- bearded;
- red;
- Ginnala (or riverine);
- yellow;
- greenback;
- false-plane
- naked Dane-shaped (fan-shaped);
- field;
- Tatar;
- sugar (Silver);
- ash-leaved (American);
- the black.
Spread
This type of maple grows in the vastness of Europe and Asia (western part). The northern border of the distribution range of maple leaves reaches the southern regions of Finland, Scandinavia and Karelia, and the southern one passes through the northern territories of Iran.
It grows mainly in deciduous and mixed forests in small groups and singly. In Russia, this maple mainly grows in its middle lane.
Maple Overview
Various types of maples are widespread in deciduous forests. More often than others here you can find the maple, or ordinary maple. The flowers are fragrant, yellowish-greenish. Flowering of the plant occurs both before the leaves open and after.
This rather decorative look is used for landscaping alleys and parks, ponds, gardens and summer cottages. Fruiting begins at the age of 17 years. Maple is unpretentious, tolerates winter frosts well, and is not afraid of shading, but loves fertile soil. It should be noted that wild species have greater frost resistance than cultivated ones. A tree may die in excess moisture and in saline soil.
The tree has the most wonderful qualities - a large wide crown, a beautiful slender trunk. Holly maple leaves are the most attractive part of this plant. For all these qualities, a tree as a decorative species is very much appreciated. In the autumn period, the plant stands out especially among evergreen conifers. It should be noted that the maple is well tolerated transplant, urban conditions with a dusty atmosphere, smoke and gases. Holly maple is one of the main species intended for landscape gardening.
It is important to note that the leaves of this species are also used for the manufacture of medicines, as they possess such useful enzymes as carbohydrates and aldehydes.
Description of maple
This maple is very similar in appearance to another species - Canadian (or sugar) maple. They differ among themselves, first of all, in the juice that stands out from the petioles: it is transparent in Canadian maple. And the color of the leaves in the Canadian maple in autumn is brighter, and its bark is rougher and rougher. The shape of the leaves of the holly is more ragged, and the buds have a reddish hue, in contrast to the bright green in Canada.
Milk-colored juice stands out from the petioles and veins of broken leaves. The crown of the maple is dense, the bark has a red-gray hue, dark green leaves are five-lobed in shape. The lower part of the leaf plate is slightly paler. In the fall, they turn yellow-red, and this natural phenomenon acquires indescribable beauty.
Flowering tree occurs in the first half of May. Yellowish-green flowers are collected in shields (15-30 pieces). Due to the fact that this type of maple is dioecious, it has flowers either male or female. Pollination of the plant occurs by insects. The nectar in the form of a flat ring is located between the petals and the ovary. The fruit of the maple is a lionfish, which decomposes into 2 single-seeded small fruits. It ripens at the end of summer, and sometimes falls off before the end of winter.
Forms
Maple of this species has several decorative forms and many varieties.
- The spherical shape is used most often. This is a slow-growing tree grown by grafting into the neck of the root or in the stem. This achieves the bushy appearance of the tree. This form is used both in single landings and in group landings (in alleys). You can also graft it in the root neck for use in decorating lawns.
- The dlanenadrezannaya form is a spectacular plant with dark green leaves separated to the base.
- Drummond Holly - a tree with pink leaves when blooming, which then become white edged. Its unusual beauty makes such a plant an indelible impression.
- Golden Globe - a form with a spherical crown and golden foliage.
The most common varieties
- Maple Holly Globusum. Height 7 meters, diameter 3-5 m. Leaves palmate-separate, pink when blooming. As they grow, they turn dark green, in the fall yellow-orange.
- Crimson King is a tree that grows up to 20 meters in height. Leaves have a deep purple, almost black color throughout the season. When blooming, they are bright red, and in autumn the upper part turns purple.
- Crimson Sentry. The height of this slender tree reaches 20 meters, its diameter is 8 m. The branches are directed upward, the leaves are bright red.
- Deborah. The width of the crown can reach 15 meters, height - 20 m. The leaves are five- or seven-lobed with slightly wavy edges. When blooming, they have a purple-red color on the upper side and dark green on the lower side. Further, the upper part gradually turns green, and then becomes brown. Autumn leaves are yellow-orange.
- Emerald Queen is a fast-growing tree (height 15 m, crown diameter - up to 10 m). When blooming, palmate-lobed leaves have a bronze color, then in summer and autumn they acquire green and yellow shades, respectively.
- Royal Red. The height of the holly maple is 8-12 meters. Leaves in the spring are blood red, in the summer black and red and shiny, redden again in the fall.
Chemical composition
As noted above, maple leaves contain aldehydes (beta-hexene, alpha-hexene), alkaloids. They also contain carbohydrates, organic acids (succinic, acetic, phthalic), rubber, polyisopropenes (squalene), carotenoids (beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, etc.), nitrogen-containing compounds (methylamine, etc.), phenolcarboxylic acids (gallic, salicylic), vitamins C and E, tannins, higher fatty acids, flavonoids, lipids (phytinylnolenate) and other substances.
Seeds contain rubber, cyclotols and fatty oil.
Reproduction of maple
Propagation by seed is the easiest way. It is best to sow the seeds in the fall, so that in winter they pass stratification in natural conditions. When shoots appear in the spring, they should be transplanted to a permanent place.
Sowing can be carried out in the spring (in March), but for this it is necessary to stratify the seeds for 5-7 days in the refrigerator, in the cell for vegetables, placing the seeds in a container with moistened sand.
For propagation by layering, it is necessary to make several cuts on the cortex (obliquely) with a sharp knife, and then treat them with a rooting agent (Kornevin or Heteroauxin) on the branch intended for breeding a new sprout. To avoid closing the edges of the incisions, polystyrene grains can be inserted into them, and the wounds should be covered with wet moss (sphagnum). Put a plastic bag on top of this part of the branch, tightly fastening it below and above the cuts made. Then you should cover the bag from the sun with foil or canvas. In places of incisions, roots will gradually begin to grow. Next spring, you need to separate the layering from the maple, and together with the sphagnum plant it in the ground.
Reproduction by layering basal is as follows. On the root shoot, located closer to the soil surface, incisions are made and treated with a rooting agent solution. Then it should be high up, covering the incisions with the ground. It is necessary to water and spud layering throughout the season. His own roots will develop by next spring, then it will be possible to dig it out and plant it in a new place.
Medical use
Preparations, which include holly maple, are used for diseases of the kidneys, bladder and jaundice. It is used as a tonic and antiemetic, as well as for colds, inflammatory processes of the oral cavity and pneumonia. A decoction of the leaves is recommended after childbirth (for a complete exit of the child's place).
Fresh chopped maple leaves heal wounds and ulcers. Before using them, it should be well treated with an antiseptic. You can also simply apply steamed leaves to boils, bandage the wound site every day, changing the sheet. The course of treatment is about 5-7 days. Maple juice can be taken with scurvy and as a fortifying drink.
Maple, after birch, oak and pine, is a leader among other trees in terms of the amount of bioenergy that can replenish human energy. Moreover, its amount is constant from spring to autumn. The best time to chat with him is in the early morning, during and after sunrise. “Friendship” maples in the forest with oaks, aspen and birch.
Farm use
Holly maple is popular in the design of gardens, parks, and it is planted along highways. Decorative plant throughout the growing season. From a simple stump gives abundant growth, perfectly transfers the transplant and growing conditions in the city. Within its range, it is one of the main species among trees used in landscape gardening. In the garden culture has existed since ancient times.
Maple is a good honey plant, of great importance as an early pollen and honey plant. Maple honey belongs to the light varieties and has good taste. Bees from a plot with a blooming maple of 1 ha produce up to 200 kilograms of honey per season.
The wood of this type of maple is used to make furniture and various wooden crafts. Leaves are used as dyes for wool. Maple wood is used to make the most singing clarinets and flutes.
Legend
Somehow the evil mother “swore” the naughty son, turning him into a maple tree. It grew and became spreading and beautiful. Once the musicians, passing through a grove past this tree, settled on a halt under it. From a branch of a tree he liked, they made a violin, which for many years, through the voice of an enchanted mother, his son told the whole world about her fault before him.
Maple is actually a tree melodious. It was from him that Sadko's harp was made.
Maple in landscaping
Gardeners in Holland, Germany, and England often use large trees with brightly colored or variegated foliage for landscaping their gardens. The variety of varieties of maple leaves opens up great opportunities for designers. For example, the slopes of ravines or mountains, planted with maples with purple and yellow shades of foliage, and even with variegation, look fabulous.
To design personal plots and summer cottages, even one maple of the Crimson King variety is enough, which brings a unique flavor to the design. And compositions with his participation, along with other decorative shrubs and trees, can achieve even better success. Of course, this task is not so simple, since when planting seedlings, it is necessary to take into account not only the compatibility of plants by their colors, but also their future sizes. With deliberate and correct calculations, this task is quite feasible.
