Description of the plant mordovnik, tips for planting and caring for Echinops in a personal plot, how to reproduce correctly, how to deal with diseases and pests, curious notes, species.
Mordovnik (Echinops) can be found under the name Echinops, which corresponds to its Latin transliteration. This plant belongs to the Asteraceae family, which also has a synonym for Compositae. The area of natural distribution falls on the Siberian territory, as well as the European regions of Russia, Western Europe and the Caucasian lands. Representatives of the genus can be found in Asia Minor and on the African continent. In nature, they prefer to settle on hilly slopes, in the steppes or in the coastal zones of river arteries, along forest edges among shrub thickets, often at the bottom of ravines and wastelands. Scientists have combined 190 different species into a genus, but less than a dozen of them are cultivated in our latitudes.
| Family name | Astral or Compositae |
| Growing period | Perennial, occasionally one to two years |
| Vegetation form | Herbaceous |
| Breeding method | Seminal |
| Landing period in open ground | In the middle of May |
| Landing rules | Between rows at least 50 cm and 30-50 cm between bushes |
| Priming | Loose and fertile |
| Soil acidity values, pH | 6, 5-7 (neutral) or 5-6 (slightly acidic) |
| Lighting degree | Brightly deliberated location or partial shade |
| Humidity parameters | Very drought tolerant |
| Special care rules | Does not tolerate the proximity of groundwater and water bodies |
| Height values | 0.5-2 m |
| Inflorescences or type of flowers | A globular inflorescence of the second order is composed of inflorescences-baskets of the first order |
| Flower color | White, light blue or blue |
| Flowering period | May-August |
| Decorative period | Spring-Autumn |
| Application in landscape design | In the background of flower beds and mixborders, in rockeries and stone gardens, as a medicinal plant, for cutting in dry bouquets |
| USDA zone | 5–8 |
The plant got its name in Latin due to the combination of words such as "echinos" and "ops", which translates as "hedgehog" and "appearance", respectively. This is because the outer outlines of the flowers of this representative of the flora look like a ball surrounded by thorns that so resemble a hedgehog. There is also a legend that the name of the plant was given because of the people of Mordovia or the Russian word "muzzle", which is also associated with the type of inflorescences that look like a prickly mace. There is also the Russian word "muzzle", which means roughly "chubby" or "round-headed", which again sends us to the outlines of inflorescences. On the territory of Russia, the mordovnik can be found under such nicknames as the barnacle or the shooting, the tartar or the bluehead. There are also synonyms - hedgehog thistle or black sedge, Adam's head, blue or cool balls.
All representatives of the genus Mordovnik are perennials, but in rare cases they have one or two years of growth. They have a herbaceous growth and stems that can approach two meters in height (usually 50-200 cm). Usually, a plant forms only one stem, occasionally several of them grow. Stems are straight with a prickly surface, they can either have a branching in the upper part or grow without it. Ribbing is present, and occasionally they are characterized by pubescence. The root of the barnyard is fleshy, with rod-like outlines and slight branching.
The leaves also have thorns, their shape is doubly pinnately dissected or there is a serrated incision. Only sometimes does the foliage have solid contours. The edge of the leaves is always decorated with denticles, which come in succession. The color of the leaf plates of the upper part is dark emerald, but below they are whitish due to the tomentose pubescence. In the root zone, the leaves are characterized by the presence of petioles, the rest of the foliage is sessile. The length of the leaf varies in the range of 10–25 cm with a width of about 5–10 cm.
Usually, in the first year of growth, the shoot develops a basal rosette, and only in the second year a flowering stem will be formed, which will eventually be decorated with spectacular spherical inflorescences. At the same time, the size of the bush will become larger every year, and the flowering will become more magnificent.
Bisexual flowers of very small size. The corolla of the flower has the shape of a tube or funnel. The color of the petals in them can take on a white, blue or blue hue. From the buds, spherical or elongated-capitate inflorescences are collected, which can be 3-5 cm in diameter. The difference between the mordovnik and other representatives of the Compositae family is that its inflorescences have a spherical shape, but they consist of single-flowered baskets of the first order. Inflorescences crown the tops of the stems. The wrapper at the (main) inflorescence of the second order is practically indistinguishable, it is formed by very small leaves, which often have the appearance of bristles. A wrapper consisting of a large number of such leaves and bristles surrounds each of the flowers.
The inflorescence can have 150-400 buds. Moreover, each of the bushes of the shoot contains about three dozen inflorescences. During flowering, which in the barnyard falls for a period stretched from May to the end of summer, a large amount of nectar is formed in the flowers, therefore the plant is recognized as a very good honey plant. After the pollination of the inflorescences, the achenes, which are characterized by the shape of a cylinder, ripen. The length of the fruit is 6 mm; the achenes have a tuft with a cupped contour. Black sedge fruit ripens throughout the summer.
The plant is very unpretentious and, with simple care, will decorate a flower bed or flower garden all summer.
Planting and caring tips for Echinops - how to grow outdoors
- Growing place the barn should be selected open and well-lit by the sun's rays. The main thing is that groundwater does not pass nearby, as they can provoke rotting of the plant root system. It is better that there are also no bodies of water or streams nearby that provide the soil with moisture.
- Soil for the muzzle must be loose and fertile. Acidic reaction is preferable neutral (pH 6, 5-7) or slightly acidic (pH 5-6). If the substrate is clayey and heavy on the site, then it will be bad for Echinops to develop on it.
- Planting the muzzle is carried out in mid-May to protect still immature plants from possible return frost. The distance between seedlings should not be less than half a meter, since over time the bushes tend to grow strongly. After planting, moderate watering is carried out. If it is planned to grow species with high stems, then a support is dug into the hole during planting or next to it, to which the extended stems of the plant are subsequently tied.
- Watering. The plant is particularly drought-resistant, so the barnyard does not need moisture. Even when the heat is very intense, and there is no precipitation for a long time, and the soil turns into dust, it is not worth watering the muzzle continues its development.
- Fertilizers when growing a plant, Adam's head is recommended to be applied several times during the growing season. With the arrival of spring, the shoot should be fertilized with foliage humus or rotted manure (compost). When flowering begins, watering is carried out with fertilizer in liquid form, which contains a large amount of nitrogen (for example, ammonium nitrate).
- Carrying out the collection of the muzzle … Usually, they begin to collect this medicinal herb during its flowering period. For this, both foliage and flowers are suitable. In August, after the achenes are ripe, they are also harvested, and with the arrival of autumn (period September-October), they are engaged in digging up rhizomes. The roots must be rinsed under running water and placed on a clean cloth to dry. All collected parts of the Echinops are also thoroughly dried. Typically, a well-ventilated shaded area or under a canopy in the open air is suitable for this. After the raw materials are dried, they are folded into cloth or paper bags. Storage should take place at room heat indicators (18-22 degrees). Barberry inflorescences and foliage should be used throughout the year, but the roots do not lose their beneficial properties for up to three years.
- General advice on care. The most prone to problems will be only in the first year of life, when it will only increase its green mass. During this period, weeds can drown it or the plant will die due to severe frost. Therefore, it is important to regularly weed the subsidence of the barnyard from weeds and provide shelter for the bushes for the first winter with non-woven material - spunbond or lutrasil. Since the Adam's head plant is distinguished by the possibility of abundant self-seeding, then even before the seeds ripen, it is necessary to cut the flower-bearing stems at the root.
- Wintering. Steep has the ability to endure both extreme heat and frost. Even a decrease in the column of the thermometer to -40 units of echinops is not terrible, then only young plants will need shelter, and adult specimens do not need it. With the arrival of autumn, all the stems are cut to the ground, and when spring comes, the young shoots will begin to grow back.
- The use of a scabbard in landscape design. Since the Adam's head plant is the owner of rather large and colorful inflorescences, it is indispensable for decorating a garden plot. It is customary to plant such bushes in the background in flower beds and mixborders; Echinops will be a good decoration in rocky gardens, rockeries or rock gardens. Since the shoots of some species are quite tall and they require a support, it can also serve as an element of garden decor. Stems with inflorescences can be dried and introduced into dried flower compositions.
Good neighbors for shooting will be asters and phloxes, valalniks and mountaineers, and on the medicinal garden yarrow and other representatives of the flora.
How to properly reproduce mordovnik?
Any species of Echinops are propagated by sowing seeds. However, if the growing area is warm, then the seed can be immediately placed in the soil; in the area with cooler climatic conditions, seedlings are cultivated.
- A reckless breeding method for the scabbard. After harvest, seeds are recommended to be stored in a dry and dark place at room temperature (20-24 degrees). It is noteworthy that the seeds will not lose their germination over a three-year period. Sowing is done in autumn, but it is also possible in spring. However, it was noticed that during spring sowing, the plants will develop, not so quickly, and the flowering of such bushes does not differ in duration. In any case, a week before sowing the seeds, stratification is carried out, when the seed is kept at a low temperature (about 0-5 degrees). You can do this by placing the seeds in the refrigerator on the lower shelf or in the vegetable compartment. Some growers place the seeds on a damp gauze before placing them in the refrigerator. When sowing in autumn, the natural preparation of seeds for the frosty period will take place. In the period from the beginning to the middle of autumn, the seeds of the mordovian are sown. For this, they are mixed with sawdust, which will help uniform distribution in the grooves prepared for sowing. The depth of such grooves should be within 1, 5–3 cm. The row spacing is at least 50–60 cm. After placing the seeds in the grooves, they are sprinkled with a layer of soil, and then using a rake the surface of the substrate is leveled. If the winter turns out to be snowy, then the crops will not need shelter, otherwise the bed can be covered with spruce branches. With the arrival of early spring, when the snow melts, you can see the friendly shoots of Echinops.
- Seedling method of reproduction of the scabbard. It is clear that this method is used in the northern regions, and it will also help the cultivation of a barnyard in a small area. Sowing seeds is carried out with the arrival of the first days of spring. Seedling containers are filled with peat-sandy soil mixture and seeds are embedded in it to a depth of 3 cm. Then, careful watering is performed. After 7-10 days from the moment of sowing, you can see the first shoots. When they grow up a little and get stronger, they are thinned out in order to remove weaker specimens. Only when the middle of May comes, then it is possible to transplant the seedlings of the mordovian to a prepared place in the garden. Otherwise, plants may die from recurrent frosts.
Read also about vegetative propagation of cineraria and growing from seeds.
How to deal with diseases and pests when growing a scabbard?
All growers who are engaged in the cultivation of Echinops in the garden note its amazing resistance to diseases and pests. But, despite this, if the rules of agricultural technology are systematically violated, then the plant is susceptible to damage by diseases of fungal origin. If the weather is cloudy and damp for a long time, watering is too abundant and frequent, in which the soil is waterlogged, the temperature is quite low, the following problems may occur:
- Ash (belle) better known as powdery mildew … With her, all the leaves begin to become covered with a whitish bloom, as if they were watered with lime mortar. The photosynthesis of the plant stops, it dies.
- Gray rot in which the plaque on parts of the muzzle has a gray tint and a fluffy surface.
With such diseases, the root system of the bush is invariably affected, after which it dies. When the first signs of the disease appear, the affected parts must be removed and burned, and the bush itself must be treated with fungicidal preparations (for example, Fundazol). But if the whole plant has become affected, then it is simply removed from the site so that it does not cause illness of other "garden dwellers". All such bushes are burned. The soil where they grew is treated with antifungal drugs (they can be Bordeaux liquid or a strong solution of potassium permanganate).
There is one more disease - leaf spotwhich has a viral etymology. Then the foliage begins to become covered with marks of different shades (white, yellow or reddish), reminiscent of marble stains. It is useless to fight this disease, therefore it is immediately recommended to remove such bushes of Adam's head and burn them, and treat the soil with fungicidal agents.
It is noteworthy that the pests are not interested in this plant, so this problem is not terrible when growing Echinops.
Read also about the difficulties encountered in the cultivation of ageratum
Curious notes about the Mordovnik plant
Since the barnyard is an excellent honey plant (nectar can fill the entire inflorescence), then plant it next to the apiaries, while the resulting honey pleases the eye with its rich amber color and sophisticated aroma. The taste of this product is also excellent. When honey goes through crystallization, it acquires a fine-grained structure and a white color.
It is noteworthy that each inflorescence of the Adam's head contains about 20 grams of sugars. If there are Echinops plantings near the apiary, then from 1 hectare, bees collect up to one ton of honey. For this, a variety of ball-headed mordovnik is usually planted. Other varieties are also distinguished by their melliferous properties, but not so high - from the same area, you can get an average of up to half a tone or a little less honey.
Important
Every year, the amount of nectar in the scabbard grows, and it can be released in any weather.
Since the fruits of the steep contain the alkaloid echminopsin, the plant has long been used by traditional healers to tone the body (heart, vascular system). Achenes help to excite the central nervous system and increase blood pressure. If a person feels tired, the barnyard was used to eliminate it, relieve headaches and restore both sleep and appetite.
The first mentions of the shooting are in the writings of Dioscorides, an ancient Greek botanist, naturalist and doctor who lived in 40–90 AD. NS. It is in his work "On Medicinal Substances", which in Latin is called "De materia medica", tells how to use the plant in asthenic syndrome, neurological syndromes (paresis) or peripheral paralysis.
Due to the aforementioned substance "echinopsin", the globular muzzle was used for the production of the medicine of the same name. This substance somewhere in its properties is similar to strychnine, but today this remedy is no longer included in the category of permitted ones, which cannot be said about homeopathy. Here, seeds and fruits of black sedge are used and tinctures and decoctions are made on their basis. Chinese healers use a variety of Daurian mordovia to stop bleeding and treat inflammation.
Important
In the field of toxicology, mordovnik has not yet been adequately studied. Also, one should not forget that any treatment should take place under the supervision of a doctor and it is not recommended to exceed the dosage, since it is possible to cause severe poisoning. Signs of an overdose with means based on the Adam's head plant are muscle spasms and respiratory failure.
There are also contraindications to the use of drugs from Echinops, namely:
- period of pregnancy;
- asthma and allergies.
Because of its spherical inflorescences, steep is used as an ornamental plant, drying the shoots and inflorescences of which are dried flowers. Due to the large amount of oil in the barberry fruits, a rather fatty oil product is obtained, which is further suitable for the production of drying oil.
There are peoples on the planet on whose territory this representative of the flora grows, who use it for food, like artichokes.
Types of mordovnik
Ball-headed muzzle (Echinops sphaerocephalus)
it received its specific name due to the spherical outlines of large inflorescences. The term "sphaerocephalus" comes from the fusion of the words "sphaera" and "cephalus", which translates as "round" and "head", respectively. Herbaceous perennial, the stems of which do not grow higher than one or two meters. The root of the plant is fleshy and has a rod-like shape. The stem grows straight and is usually solitary. There is a branching in the upper part; it is rounded in cross-section. The surface of the stem is covered with glandular hairs.
The leaves on the stem grow in the next order, their shape is pinnately dissected. In addition to the foliage from which the basal rosette is formed, they are devoid of petioles, and they embrace the stem with their base. In the root zone, the leaves are petiolate. The length of the leaf blade can vary within 10–20 cm with a width of 4–10 cm. The color of the top of the foliage is dark green, the surface is rough under the toes due to glandular pubescence. The reverse side is whitish, since there is a coating of felt hairs. There are thorns or prickly teeth at the edge of the leaves.
When flowering, which begins with the arrival of summer, and stretches until the end of July, tubular flowers open, from which large spherical inflorescences are collected. Their diameter can vary in the range of 3-5 cm. Flower petals are painted in a pale bluish or snow-white color scheme. Anthers have a dark blue tone.
The fruit is an achene in the form of a cylinder. Its size is only 6–8 mm. A cupped crest forms on it. Fruits ripen from mid-summer to September. The largest territory of distribution falls on the Ukrainian lands, as well as the Caucasus and regions of Central Asia. This also includes the middle zone of Russia, and the southern regions of the European part, southwestern Siberia.
Common Mordovan (Echinops ritro
). It is widespread in the lands of Western Siberia and the Southern Urals. It can be found in the European part of Russia and Central Asia. Prefers in nature steppes and slopes on hills, sandy substrate in coastal zones, dry meadows, where there are chalk or limestone outcrops. The specific name was obtained thanks to the taxonomy of flora by Karl Linnaeus, who took the term "ritro" from the works of the Flemish botanist Matthias de Lobel (1538-1616), who denoted this term for all Echinops species growing in the southern regions of Europe. Today it is cultivated everywhere.
A perennial herbaceous form of growth, the stems of which will not grow higher than 30–80 cm. Its root is with very little branching, thickened. The stem is simple in outline or branching at the top. Its surface is covered with a whitish felt coating. The foliage is alternate, the length of the plate reaches 6–20 cm. Its top is glabrous or may be slightly pubescent, resembling a cobweb. The color of the upper part is dark green, and the reverse is covered with white felt hairs. The shape of the leaf plate is oblong, there is a deep pinnate division. In the lower and root parts, the leaves are attached with petioles to the stem, above they are sessile. At the same time, a gradual decrease in their size goes to the top. The leaf lobes are elongated-ovoid, can be linear or lanceolate. There is a sharpening at the top, while the edge has a prickly serration.
The corolla in flowers is tubular, its length is 2 cm. The flower is represented by a basket with a wrapper of many rows, the petals of which are divided into three types. The corolla is blue, with a cut to the middle. Anthers are also of blue color, there are five stamens, in the central part a whitish column with an ovary is visible. The flowering process takes the period from July to August.
Fruits in the form of cylindrical achenes reach 7–8 mm. They are decorated with hairs pressed upwards. Achenes have a tuft composed of bristles. Achenes ripen during August-September.
Broadleaf Mordovia (Echinops latifolius)
also has a long-term growth period. Its stems can stretch up to 30–75 cm in height. The structure of the stem is dense, its surface is covered with silvery-colored villi. The foliage is dark green with a serrated or spiny edge. The length of the leaf plate reaches 20 cm with a width of about 10 cm. Flowering begins in May and the stems are crowned with inflorescences of a blue-violet hue.
Related article: Planting arctotis, cultivation and care in the open field
Video about growing a scrub in the garden:
