Eucalyptus (tree) where it grows? Height of eucalyptus. The trunk of eucalyptus

Eucalyptus - the Latin name Eucalyptus - is a tall, fast-growing species of trees and shrubs. The homeland of green giants of the plant world is the smallest continent - Australia and the nearest to the mainland islands. Evergreen eucalyptus (wood) Europeans were brought to France in the middle of the XIX century for growing in gardens, and dwarf forms - in greenhouses. Since then, these green skyscrapers, natural pumps and a thunderstorm of germs have spread all over the world.

A plant that "changes the skin"

On Earth, there are not so many representatives of the flora that are liberated from the cortex on their own. The Russian writer V. Soloukhin was struck by this fact when he was resting in the Caucasus. He noticed that the eucalyptus is a tree, "eternally rejuvenated". Chinara (platan) is also capable of dumping the bark on its own. For such a feature, the tree is called among the people "shameless."

Widely used are powerful and strong trunks, healing essential oil, leaves that do not shed eucalyptus (wood). The description of this amazing plant includes many interesting details. For example, the outer layer of the crust crumbles in March, when the fall comes in the southern hemisphere. Then the trunks and branches of the eucalyptus become gray, greenish, yellow, sometimes bluish.

Description of eucalyptus

The leaves of the tree are opposite and regular, and their size depends on their age. The main features of the leaf apparatus are the whole shape of the plate, the presence of intercellular glands with essential oil. Adult leaves are lanceolate, with a pointed tip. The length is 12 cm, width - 2.5 cm. At a young age they have a more pronounced silver hue, round or cordate shape.

Eucalyptus is a tree that does not give shade, because the leaf blades turn to the sun. White flowers - bisexual, collected in umbellate or paniculate inflorescences, are found and single. Sepals fuse with the ovary, and the petals become lignified, resulting in a fruit - a box with a lid. Inside are small seeds that pour out when opening the leaflets.

The genus Eucalyptus

Flowering evergreen trees and shrubs belong to the Myrtle family. In Australia, in the last century 90% of the natural plantations were eucalyptus forests. There are about 700 species that unite the genus Eucalyptus, most of them native to Australia, only 15 of their origin owed to the islands of Oceania.

For more than 100 years, eucalyptus (wood) has been cultivated in tropical and temperate latitudes, on the continents of Eurasia, Africa and America. A number of thermophilic species that are grown in the Mediterranean, the United States, Brazil, the Middle East, and China are widely spread. These include eucalyptus:

• Rod-shaped;
• almond;
• Ball;
• ashen.

Eucalyptus flowers do not have a strong flavor, but attract bees. These collectors of nectar and pollen in Australia prefer exactly eucalyptus. Essential oils of different types of eucalyptus are used in alternative and official medicine, are used in perfumery, cosmetology. Medicinal properties also have leaves of these amazing Australian plants.

Eucalyptus - the tallest tree in the world

Trees are characterized by rapid, rapid growth. You can find quite large specimens that have reached just ten years of age. Here are some amazing facts:

• Almond eucalyptus already in the first few years of life grows to 3 m with a trunk thickness of up to 6 cm;
• Trees in natural conditions can have a height of 12 m in 5 years, a thickness of up to 20 cm, old specimens are known with a height of more than 150 m (30 m reaches such unusual tree in the girth ) ;
• Height (eucalyptus) of the trunk at 20 years of age is usually 30-40 m;
• Genetically modified trees reach 5 to 6 years of age at 27-30 meters in height.

The famous Russian naturalist writer K. Paustovsky compared eucalyptus and conifers. It turns out that at the age of five this amazing plant gives more wood than fir or fir at the age of 120 years.

The use of a "green skyscraper"

The height of the eucalyptus tree is 20 years - with a 15-storey house. Fully mature and ready for industrial felling planting at the age of 25-30 years. By the age of 40, trees can be taller and thicker than two-hundred-year-old oaks. Eucalyptus produces paper, cardboard. World fame was its hard and durable wood, comparable in quality with black walnut. It almost does not rot, drowns in water, repels insects-woodworms.

Eucalyptus trunks are used where the durability of the material is required. Piles of straight and smooth trees stand in seawater for two decades without signs of rot. The wood of different species is differently colored, different in texture. The prevailing yellow, olive, white and reddish tones, which are particularly valued in the furniture industry and decoration of buildings.

Transgenic trees

It is difficult to light eucalyptus wood, but the coal obtained from it is of high quality. Biotechnology departments of industrial companies have created genetically modified specimens that grow by 40% faster even in thickened plantings, yield more wood and coal. Plantations of transgenic plants - eucalyptus, pine, poplar, papaya and other fruits, rapeseed, soy, vegetables - take up more and more places on Earth. Their experimental cultivation has been carried out since the 1980s in different countries. With the help of these plants, food and raw materials problems can be solved, and the growing world energy needs are met.

For more than 10 years, Israeli biotechnologists have been studying the possibilities of industrial cultivation of eucalyptus and poplar GMO trees. The massive introduction of such commercial landings is restrained only by laws in the field of biosafety. They regulate the sphere of circulation of transgenic products, but not in all countries.

The consequences of the introduction of GMOs have not been adequately studied, but it is already clear that transgenic eucalypts are more resistant to pests, may have unaccounted influence on soil and living organisms. Possible consequences are associated with food webs in ecosystems. Eucalyptus and poplar scatter pollen in a vast space, live for decades, so the harmful effects last longer.

What can be dangerous for a modified eucalyptus (tree)? Where a transgenic specimen grows, surrounded by natural forms, there can be their mutual pereopylenie. This, according to experts in the field of biological safety, is fraught with uncontrollable consequences. Can become a reality nightmarish scenes from fantastic films, when shoots grow at an incredible speed and break through the walls.

Eucalyptus in landscape design

The evergreen plant has excellent windproof properties, drains the moist soil. The roots of eucalyptus are able to absorb an unusually large volume of water, so the tree is called a "green pump". The landscape architect will mention many other valuable features that eucalyptus possesses.

The tree is grown at home more often, it is unpretentious, requires minimal maintenance. More time and care will be required for the formation of bonsai with the help of pruning branches and the main shoot. In landscape design, eucalyptus is suitable for soil stabilization on slopes, slopes and banks of water bodies, to prevent erosion. The plant prefers wet, but well drained sandy loamy soils (the pH value is from neutral to slightly acidic).

Healing properties of eucalyptus

In the Australian hospitals, eucalyptus branches were hung out for air disinfection for a long time. The phytoncides released by the plant have an antiseptic and soothing effect. Infusion of leaves is used in folk medicine as an expectorant, disinfectant and anti-inflammatory agent. Infected wounds are washed with 15% decoction of eucalyptus leaves (previously sterilized).

Eucalyptus oil

The most suitable for treatment is the essential oil obtained from the eucalyptus ball (ball) type. As a medicinal raw material, only the old leaves of the plant are suitable. They are collected in summer and autumn, when the percentage of oil rises. Extracted for the production of volatile aromatic substances can be both fresh and dried leaves. Eucalyptus oil is a colorless, yellow or greenish liquid with a pleasant smell. This product of processing leaves perfectly refreshes the air, saturates it with a useful and pleasant aroma. Eucalyptol, which is part of the oil, has antiseptic and expectorant action, it helps with diseases of the mouth and throat. Apply it in sprays and candies with angina, flu.

For the cultivation of eucalyptus in a room, it is better to use seeds of relatively stunted species, to place seedlings and seedlings in small dishes. It will take an annual transshipment or transplant, intense sunlight and good hydration.

Sweet leaves of each type of eucalyptus have their own flavor, which combines notes of lemon, roses, violets, lilacs. Most of the oil smells like laurel, turpentine, camphor. In the premises where eucalyptus is grown, the trees delight the view with smart and useful foliage, purify the air with phytoncides.