Ash, Or Burning Bush. Description And Cultivation. Photo

2023 Author: Ava Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 07:13

One of the interesting features of the ash tree is that the plant secretes essential oils in large quantities, and this is most pronounced during the period of seed ripening. At this time, in calm sunny weather, the evaporating oils (phytoncides) of ash tree can flare up from a spark or a lit match - a fleeting flame will arise. The plant itself will not be affected. That is why the popular name "burning bush" was assigned to the ash tree. In our relatively cool and humid climate, such a phenomenon is extremely rare.

The Latin name for the ash tree - Dictamnus comes from the words 'dicte' - one of the mountains of Crete and 'lhamnos' - a bush. Russian folk names are wild starian, volkana, ash, butan, ash, badan. The type species of ash-tree - White ash (Dictamnus albus) - is better known under the popular name of the burning bush.

Content:

• The danger of the ash tree to humans
• Ash description
• Growing a burning bush
• The use of the burning bush in traditional medicine

The danger of the ash tree to humans

In sunny weather, the ash tree should not be touched due to the risk of photodermatitis

It is the flowers and seed boxes of the burning bush that are especially dangerous. At the moment of touching, a person does not feel anything (this is the main catch), but then, after 12 hours, the skin at the place of touch turns red, becomes covered with blisters and a burn forms. After a while, the blisters burst. Blisters and blisters are replaced by ulcers, the temperature may rise, which is accompanied by weakness.

Burns will heal over time, but will not disappear without a trace, there will be little aesthetic scars and scars, dark spots that will last about a year. Large skin lesions are life-threatening. Recall that all this happens in sunny weather; on a cloudy day, the ash tree is safe.

www.botanichka.ru/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/dictamnus.webm

Flame on the ash tree, or the Burning Bush. Video. © Muggsy

Ash description

The Burning Bush is a herbaceous perennial with a powerful branched woody root. An adult plant reaches 60-80 cm, sometimes up to 1 m in height with a bush up to 1 m in diameter. Stems are strong, erect, densely pubescent, sticky to the touch, branched in the upper part. Leaves are odd-pinnate, similar to ash leaves. The flowers of the ash tree are numerous, large, slightly irregular in shape with loose petals, in a racemose loose inflorescence 30-40 cm long. The ash tree is pollinated by bees, an excellent honey plant.

The ash tree blooms in late June - early July for about a month. During this period of summer, among other flowering plants, the ash tree can be considered one of the most beautiful perennials.

For all its beauty, the burning bush has a pungent unpleasant smell of some kind of medicine or orange peel.

The roots and leaves of the ash tree contain alkaloids: skimmianin, diktamnin, trigonelline. The aerial part of the plant contains: choline, saponins, essential oil. The essential oil contains anethole and methylchavicol.

Growing a burning bush

Burning Bush is a very unpretentious and winter-hardy plant that grows well in the sun and in the shade, on fertile non-acidic soils. Ash is very decorative, it forms a slender bush with many spectacular inflorescences and looks great in the garden.

Most often in the culture cultivated species from the Caucasus and Crimea: yasentsy Caucasian (Dictamnus caucasicus) and golostolbikovy (Dictamnus gymnostylis). Less common in culture is the Western European species white ash (Dictamnus albus).

As a rule, in the burning bush, flowers are pink with purple veins. However, all species can have forms with white flowers.

In nature, ash trees most often grow in light forests, on forest edges, among shrubs, or on rocky and grassy slopes. Plants are very stable in culture, they thrive both in full sun and in partial shade, better in dry places and any cultivated soils.

In one place, a burning bush can live for a very long time. Young bushes are transplanted without problems in early spring or autumn. Adults should not be touched in the fall. If the ash tree needs to be propagated, it is better to root small divisions in a greenhouse. In the summer, transplanting and dividing will lead to the death of the plant.

The ash can give self-seeding. The seeds ripen in early August, but they need to be sown before winter or in winter under the snow. From seeds, the plant blooms no earlier than after 3 years.

The use of the burning bush in traditional medicine

In folk medicine, ash grass juice was used to remove warts; decoction of the root - for diarrhea, as an antihelminthic and anti-febrile agent, for epilepsy, malaria, jaundice, angiocholitis; outwardly - with scabies, urticaria, baldness; infusion of seeds - as a cosmetic.

The tops of the shoots of plants grown in the garden are dried in bunches in the shade. The roots are dug up, like almost all roots and rhizomes, either in early spring or late autumn. The thick roots must be split before drying in the shade.

Side effects of the burning bush are unknown, but they cannot be ruled out. Consult a physician before use.