Where do the willows grow? Description, characteristics

Verba is considered a symbol of spring, the birth of life in nature. In addition, associated with her church Orthodox holidays - Palm Sunday and Easter. Flowers of pussy will begin to form in the early spring, even before the green leaves start to blossom.

Description

Verbu is also called a holly ivy. This deciduous tree is 10-12 meters long. Less common is a shrub up to 6 m in height. This plant has thin, twig-shaped, flexible branches. Young shoots of pussy will be reddish-brown with a bluish coating. Also young growths can be bright yellow. In this case, shoots are found without plaque. The crowns of these plants are sprawling, with a diameter of up to 4 meters. The leaves of the willows are narrow and long. Their length reaches 8-12 cm, and the width is 3 cm. The top of the leaf is pointed, for which the verb has its unusual name. Edge of the leaf - serrate.

Verba is the first plant that blooms in Russia in April. In the spring you can see whole groves of trees and shrubs with grayish-white fluffy lumps on the branches. How beautiful are the places where the willow grows! In the Rostov region, a case of flowering willows was recorded in a 13-degree frost in December. But this is rather an isolated case. Probably, before it there was warm weather, or in a place where there are roots of a tree, pass warm waters. But, of course, the flowering of willows in winter is nonsense.

After a while fluffy lumps are covered with greenish-yellow flowers. They have a very pleasant smell. In addition, pussy-willow is an excellent honey plant. During flowering, thickets where the willow grows are simply teeming with bees. Seeds of this species ripen in May-June. They are equipped with fluff and are carried by the wind for quite a long distance. The verba grows very fast, the annual increment in height is 50 cm. The life span of the tree is about 30 years.

Places of growth of pussy-willow

In Russian climatic conditions, the willow feels great. Many species of this tree are a kind of pioneers, since they are the first to colonize abandoned or empty areas of the earth. The main places where willow grows are wet areas with acidic soil. Most species love moisture and gladly settle in damp places. In dry lands on slopes, sands grow a very small number of these trees. You can meet a willow in the forest, next to other trees.

Verba grows to the size of groves that occupy large areas. When the branches come into contact with the ground or water, these plants quickly take root. The roots of pussy will not only develop well, they give numerous ramifications. Sometimes this quality is used to strengthen the relief of loose soils and sands.

Pirate features

In addition to the above property, namely the ability to give additional roots, the willba can easily multiply by cuttings and stakes. It was noted that the sites, especially long ago abandoned, fenced in due time by a fence of willow tree trunks, became the place where the willow grows. In the Moscow region, a lot of such verdant groves appeared in the villages. Therefore, if you make a fence of pussy-willow, you will soon see green shoots on the pillars. In addition, this plant species has some positive characteristics in comparison with others:

1. High winter hardiness.
2. Indiscrimination in the choice of soils.
3. The ability to tolerate air pollution and various diseases well.

Because of the last property of the pussy, the plant is recommended for use in green urban plantations. Accordingly, where the willow grows, not only beautiful, but the air in this place will be cleaner.

Types of pussy

Verba is a tree-like plant of the family of willow trees. In some regions of Russia , the word "tamnik" is used for the name of the pussy-willow. So basically call the shrubby species of pussy-willow and its thickets. If you look more closely at the places where the pussy grows, you can see that these plants can differ significantly from each other. There are among them tall trees, bushes, which are sometimes rather small - stunted or creeping along the ground. In the polar countries, in the mountains, in the highlands, you can meet small dwarf pussy-dwarfs and very small shrubs, reaching only a few centimeters in height.

In total, the family of willow has about 370 species. Basically, most areas where willow grows are the cool areas of the Northern Hemisphere. Only a few species of this beautiful plant grow in the tropics. In North America there are about 65 of which only 25 species are trees. They reach a height of 15 meters, but among some species there are giants. They can be up to 40 m high, and the diameter of the trunk in this species can be up to half a meter.

Places where shrubbery shrubs grow:

1. In the east of the European part of Russia.
2. In Siberia.
3. In Central Asia.

In Russia and in the western regions of the European part, the willow is called rakit, vet, and crook. Basically it is quite large trees and shrubs.