The fire that brought the titan Prometheus a cruel test, and provided life and prosperity to mankind, is now very easy to get. True, this simplicity was not easy.
The forerunners of modern matches, the so-called phosphorus matches, were invented in 1831 by the 19-year-old Frenchman Charles Soria and after 5 years they came to Russia, but they cost fantastically expensive for that time: a penny apiece. On November 29, 1848, matches were mentioned in Russian legislation: “during the fires that occurred this year ... arsonists very often committed crimes through matches.” Nicholas I ordered that henceforth match factories “were allowed to be in some capitals, and matches released from factories for sale were sealed in a thousand pieces in tin boxes with the last parcels glued to this, which should be issued from city councils, with a penalty for every parcel ruble silver.
Such paternal concern for the prosperity of the new industry soon led to the fact that in Russia there was only one match factory left, and the lack of matches began to be compensated for by all sorts of artisanal substitutes like seryanok - torches covered with sulfur. Only 21 years later, Alexander II issued a new decree, allowing "everywhere, both in the empire and in the kingdom of Poland, to manufacture phosphorus matches and sell them without special restrictions."
In Balabanovo, Kaluga region, you can not only hear the most flattering reviews about aspen, but also see its wonderful transformations. The first meeting will take place at the station, where tall stacks of logs are waiting for their turn.
At the experimental match factory of the institute, machines will first remove the bark from the aspen before your eyes, then cut the logs into one and a half meter blocks and lay them on the main “surgical table”. Tightly clamped chumps slowly rotate on a special machine, and huge sharp knives carefully remove layer by layer in thin strips. This process is called veneer peeling. Next, the veneer is chopped into matchsticks, which are immediately picked up by a stream of air and carried away to the bathhouse. In the bath, straws are impregnated with synthetic substances, after impregnation they are dried and sent to a grinding machine to eliminate burrs. Then the aspen straw is sorted, and only after that another machine puts an elegant brown head on it.
Strict requirements are imposed on a thin stick with a sulfur head: it must not contain resinous substances and its surface after processing must be perfectly clean, it must ignite easily, burn with an even, calm, non-smoking flame; an indispensable condition is considered and its ability to be easily impregnated.
Of the many types of wood, only aspen corresponds to all these rules, although it requires very delicate handling. For example, you can cut it for matchmaking only in winter, when it contains the least amount of moisture. Aspen does not tolerate long-term storage, it dries up. For about 2 years, her logs are able to wait their turn, but later they are unsuitable for match production.
Aspen grows in our country on an area exceeding half the territory of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The match kings have long envied our aspen riches. German and British factories had to pay 35 rubles in gold to our country for every cubic meter of aspen. Later they started breeding aspen on special plantations. One British match company, Brimay, having bought seedlings from the USSR after the Second World War, occupied about 4,000 hectares for aspen.
In our country, only birch is inferior to aspen in terms of area occupied among hardwoods. Its slender trunks with greenish-gray bark above and ash-gray below can be seen next to spruce and pine, birch and oak, linden and maple. Pure aspen forests are also often found. Where only aspen does not grow with us! Unless she favors the harsh tundra and arid steppes, she settles very willingly in the rest of the regions.
At the end of April, even before the appearance of the first leaves, it already blooms. As with poplar (aspen and poplar belong to the same botanical genus), the crowns of some trees are covered with fluffy catkins (males), while others are hung with green catkins of female flowers. One and a half to two months after pollination, female trees already scatter countless seeds. Their seed is so small that it is barely noticeable to the naked eye, but it is well adapted for long-distance air travel: each has its own parachute fluff.
Aspen trees of seed origin are usually healthy, although finding them among the vast aspen forests is not an easy task. The fact is that, relying little on their seeds, aspen has adapted to multiply by root shoots. Only somewhere on an abandoned arable land or a damp bare slope can its seeds give friendly, viable shoots. In the forest, due to the thick and loose bedding of leaves, they very rarely manage to germinate.
Examining the aspen forest, here and there you will meet young low plants with straight and thin stems. This is that coppice, or vegetative, offspring, to which almost all aspen forests owe their existence. Dig a few times around such a midget, and you will see that he is sitting on a not thick horizontal root, and if you are not too lazy to work with a shovel, then make sure that the root originates from an adult tree. At a distance of up to 50 meters, coppice aspens from mother trunks are sometimes located along the roots-ropes. Up to two dozen of these offspring plants can settle on one root. No less happens in an adult aspen and roots. So, it is not in vain that foresters consider it a malicious forest weed. One has only to cut down an oak forest, for example, and it is unlikely that the oak will be able to renew itself here without the help of a person. Aspen quickly captures the entire vacated area, oppressing the shoots of oak, its recent patron. And to restore the rights of the oak here, say, by cutting down the aspen growth, which densely occupied the entire cutting area, blowing against the wind. Nothing will come of it. Instead of the felled coppice, dozens or even hundreds of new coppice will appear.
It is possible to survive the aspen from the plantation only by frequent repeated felling, which will enable the seedlings or shoots of the main species to grow stronger, or by banding old aspens before felling them. Now chemistry has become an ally of the arborist.
But foresters are so merciless only to low-value, rotten aspen trees. For healthy aspen trees, they do not spare labor. Soviet forest scientists under the guidance of Academician A. S. Yablokov have been successfully hybridizing rot-resistant aspen for many years. Identified several forms of gigantic aspens reach 50 meters in height and have a trunk almost a meter thick. These fast-growing giants, not at all damaged by aspen's eternal enemy - rot, are the pride and hope of foresters.
In addition to giants, beautiful decorative forms of aspen grow in our forests with falling, weeping branches or slender pyramidal crowns. The original aspen was bred by a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR F. JI. Shchepotiev, naming it in honor of the outstanding Soviet forester Sukachev's aspen.
Aspen forests, with their constant coolness, create favorable conditions for aspen mushrooms that delight the heart of the mushroom picker. From spring to the end of summer, the greenish-white foliage of aspen shimmers in the wind, and summer ends, and it is painted with almost all the colors of the rainbow: carmine, minium, lemon-yellow leaves with various shades give amazing picturesqueness to trees.
However, aspen leaves also owe the notoriety that accompanies it, perhaps, from time immemorial. Its leaves constantly tremble and rustle, causing a feeling of inexplicable anxiety in a traveler passing through the aspen. Many nations gave her unflattering nicknames. Even in ancient times in Ukraine, the aspen was called the sworn tree. The Belarusians dubbed the aspen a whisper-tree, the Poles - awe. And among the Germans and in Russia, they believed that Judas Iscariot hanged himself on an aspen, and with disgust it tries to shake off the memory of the traitor, shaking the leaves. And so the name "Judas tree" stuck to it.
Meanwhile, everything is explained very simply. Petioles of aspen leaves are flattened in the upper part, which is why they slightest movement air move, tremble. This feature of the aspen is reflected in its name: botanists call this tree trembling poplar.
However, the peasants in everyday life never disdained the "Judas tree", using aspen rods for weaving baskets, and wood chips (roofing shingles) for roofs. They were even treated with the "damned" aspen. Now its wood is used in paper production as an admixture to spruce wood and to obtain cellulose - the raw material for rayon. But the most important business of the aspen is fire.
- S. I. Ivchenko - Tree Book
Aspen or poplar trembling- Populus tremula L. - a tree from the willow family (Salicaceae) 15-20 m high. good conditions aspen reaches a larger size. For example, in Bryansk region a noticeable area is occupied by 50-year-old aspen forests with trees 25 m high. And in the Tver region, among the impenetrable sphagnum swamps, hillocks (remains of a moraine) rise, on which exceptionally large aspens grow: a height of 35 m, trunks up to 80 cm in diameter, and only about 75 years old. years. The bark of the trunks is predominantly gray, but there are aspens with a greenish bark, and in Eastern Siberia and Mongolia they are almost white-bark, from afar they can be mistaken for birches. The bark is smooth, only in old trees with longitudinal cracks.
The leaves are alternate, rounded-rhombic or rounded, 3-7 cm long and wide, glabrous, green above, bluish below, with uneven large rounded teeth along the edge. Leaves turn yellow and purple in autumn. Aspen owes its scientific name - “trembling poplar” to leaves (they have long petioles). Look carefully at the aspen. Even when there seems to be no wind, its leaves are constantly trembling. Hence the saying: "It trembles like an aspen leaf." The mobility of the leaves is carried out due to flattened petioles, thinner in the middle than at the edges. On coppice shoots, the leaves, as a rule, are larger and of a different shape - triangular-ovate with a pointed apex.
Aspen flowers are small, dioecious, collected in inflorescences-earrings from 4 to 15 cm long. All species included in the willow family are dioecious plants, that is, only male flowers develop on some individuals, and only female flowers on others. Both those and other flowers are arranged very simply, even primitively. They have no perianth at all. Male flowers consist of 5-8 stamens with red anthers, while female flowers consist only of a pistil with an upper ovary and two purple stigmas. Aspen blooms before the leaves bloom, in April.
The fruits ripen a month after flowering, open on the first hot days: in late May - early June. Fruits - 2-leaf boxes with numerous small seeds, equipped with fluffy bats in the form of a bundle of hairs. 1000 aspen seeds weigh only tenths of a gram. They fly very far, because because of their lightness they hang in the air for a long time and are carried by the wind for a considerable distance. So aspen conquers new territories. Her fruiting is plentiful and annual. Experts have calculated that up to 500 million aspen seeds ripen per 1 ha of aspen in harvest years.
The seed begins to germinate a few hours after it hits moist soil - the seed coat bursts, two tiny cotyledons are exposed. A day later, a root appears. By autumn, the seedling has a stem the size of a pencil and a taproot up to 30 cm long. Aspen grows very quickly, especially when young. At the age of 20, the trees have a height of 10 meters, and by the age of 40 they reach the maximum size in height. Aspen does not live long - 80-90 years, but individual trees live up to 1 40-150 years.
In the first years of life, the aspen has a pronounced taproot. However, soon it stops growing, but the lateral roots grow very vigorously. They lie very shallow, in the upper soil horizon, move away from the mother plant far to the sides and give abundant root shoots. Coppice shoots grow very quickly - in the first year they reach half a meter in height. It is through the shoots that aspen largely renews and spreads, although seed reproduction is expressed in it. Many aspen forests are composed of trees of exclusively coppice origin.
Aspen spread
The range of aspen is the temperate zone of Eurasia and the mountains of North Africa. A significant part of the range falls on our country. In Russia, aspen is distributed almost everywhere. In the north, it reaches the border of the forest with the tundra, in the south - to the dry steppes. In the forest-steppe, it forms island groves, the so-called "aspen groves". In saline areas, it takes a bushy form. In the Alps it rises to mountains up to 2,000 m above sea level. Almost everywhere, aspen forms, as a rule, pure forests, with only a small admixture of other species in the upper tier. It is very photophilous, therefore, where other breeds obscure the aspen, it dies. Aspen itself often acts as an admixture in birch forests or in lightened areas of other forests.
Aspen forests most often appear on the site of oak and spruce forests brought down by man or destroyed by fire. Such aspen trees live for a relatively short time - 80-100 years. They are light, which allows undergrowth of bedrock species (oak, spruce, etc.) to successfully grow under their canopy, even if it is not shade-tolerant. Over time, the indigenous tree species that have grown under the canopy of the aspen forest overtake the aspen in growth, shade it and it dies, giving way to its stronger competitors. Thus, aspen plays an important biological role - preserving the forest area, it contributes to the restoration of oak and spruce forests.
Aspen can also act as a pioneer tree species. For example, abandoned arable lands in the Non-Chernozem zone of Russia quickly overgrow with forest and turn into dense aspen or birch forests (aspen-birch forests form in places). But even they will not last long - under their canopy, again, an environment is created for the settlement of indigenous, more durable species: spruce, oak, linden, etc.
Economic use of aspen
aspen wood soft, light, but fragile. She goes to various crafts, such as wooden shovels, spoons, ladles and other hollowed and carved utensils. Plywood is made from it, as well as chips (shingles), with which roofs are covered. In sparsely forested areas, aspen trunks are used as construction material for the construction of residential buildings, sheds, other utility rooms. Unfortunately, aspen wood is easily affected by fungi that cause rotting of the core of the trunks, so choosing a good building material in an aspen forest can be difficult.
But aspen wood found its main use in match production. It is from it that matches are made, without which it is impossible to imagine our life. What conquered the matchbox aspen? Certainly not trembling leaves. The main advantage of its wood is the absence of resins and tannins in it, which give off a smell when burned. In addition, it is light and burns well when dry, without soot. For the manufacture of the so-called match straw, it is also important that aspen wood easily splits in the right direction.
In sparsely forested areas, aspen in bulk is used for firewood, but their calorific value is rather low.
Aspen bark, despite its bitter taste, serves as food for wild game animals. Moose gnaw bark from growing trees, and hares clean fallen or sawn aspen trunks from it. Bees collect pollen from aspens, as well as resinous kidney secretions, which are then converted into propolis. 
Medicinal value of aspen and methods of therapeutic use
In scientific medicine, aspen has not found application. Among the people, it is widely used for medicinal purposes. Kidneys, leaves, bark are used for medicines. Aspen in paganism had a good meaning as a tree full of excess of life; its leaves are always trembling, oscillating, talking among themselves. That is why this tree was considered especially saving against any evil spirits. By folk beliefs, vampires can only be killed by piercing them with an aspen stake.
As they say folk healers Aspen preparations have anti-inflammatory, analgesic and diuretic effects.
Aspen bark and buds contain tannins, bitter glycosides, benzoic acid and other substances. Alcoholic extract of aspen buds has a bactericidal effect on some dangerous microbes (Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, enteric-typhoid bacteria). It is better to harvest buds from young trees in spring - in April-May.
Aspen buds insist on vodka or 70% alcohol in a ratio of 1:10 for a week. Take 25-30 drops in water 3 times a day. This tincture is used for acute chronic cystitis and weakness of the bladder, for gout and rheumatism.
A decoction of a young, greenish bark is good for inflammation of the bladder and kidneys: pour 1 tablespoon of crushed bark with 1 glass of water, boil over low heat for 15 minutes. Take 2 tablespoons 3-4 times daily before meals.
Take a pinch (1 heaping tablespoon) of buds or aspen bark in 500 ml of boiling water. Boil 15 min. Insist, wrapped, 3 hours. Take, for coughs, colds, as a diuretic and diaphoretic, 1 cup 3 times a day, sweetened with honey. In addition, it is a good appetizer.
Boil one tablespoon of dry chopped aspen bark for 30 minutes. over low heat in 2 cups of water. Insist, wrapped, 3 hours. Take 1/5-1/4 cup of Zraza daily before meals in the initial stages of diabetes. Drink up to 3 months or more. A decoction of aspen bark also helps with gastritis.
Mix aspen wood ash with vaseline in half or in a ratio of 1:4. With the resulting ointment, treat the areas affected by eczema.
Crushed, scalded with boiling water, young aspen leaves put on hemorrhoidal cones and leave for 2 hours. If these poultices bother the patient, remove the leaves, repeat the procedure after 1-2 days.
ethnoscience different countries recommends for patients with prostate hypertrophy an alcoholic tincture of aspen bark: 5 tablespoons of crushed bark per 0.5 liter of vodka, leave for 2 weeks. The bark is removed in early spring, young, greenish, from thin branches. Tincture is taken in a dessert spoon once a day shortly before meals. Instead of the bark, you can infuse the kidneys in the same way and take 20-40 drops 3 times a day.
Ointment from the kidneys is an excellent remedy for treating cracks in the chest and nipples: mix 1 part of the kidneys and 2 parts of pork fat, grind and cook over low heat until completely dehydrated, strain. The same ointment can also be used to treat hemorrhoidal bumps.
Dried and powdered aspen buds mixed with fresh butter, serve as an anti-inflammatory and wound healing agent for burns, chronic ulcers and are used to soften hemorrhoids.
In ancient herbalists, good advice was given: for inflammatory processes in the mouth, use a decoction of the bark of aspen, oak, alder.
Alder and aspen bark and scrape evaporate with water, soak, strain, and after steaming with molasses, hold that water in your mouth, but don’t let it into your larynx at all - and that clay (mucus) will perish.
AT explanatory dictionary We find V. I. Dahl: fever and teeth are talking about aspen. Having cut a triangle out of the bark (in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit), they rub their gums until they bleed and apply it again in its place.
The people know one original simple way of external use of aspen juice with table salt for toothache. They take a fresh aspen log, drill through its middle (but not completely), put salt into the hole and plug it. They throw the log into the fire and, not allowing it to burn to the end, pour out the salt, already saturated with juice, from the hole. This salt is placed on a sore tooth or diluted with water in a ratio of 1:10 to rinse the mouth.
Vitamin decoction can be prepared from aspen leaves: pour 1 part of crushed leaves with 4 parts of boiling water, boil for 10-15 minutes, cool and strain. Acidify with vinegar and take 1 tablespoon 3-4 times a day. Autumn leaves give a decoction containing 1.5 times less vitamin C than spring and even summer ones. Remember this! For the winter, you can also prepare vitamin syrup from aspen leaves.
In Russian villages, peasants remarked: if it brings the legs together, an aspen log placed in the legs helps, and from headaches - under the head.
Housekeeping Council: so that the cabbage does not peroxide, put an aspen field in it.
According to Sedir, it is ruled by Saturn and is healing for Capricorn and Aquarius.
- Tree Description
- Basic properties
- natural medicine
- soil improvement
- Application in construction
- Aspen on the plot
- What options exist?
Aspen mainly grows in the central strip of Russia, Transbaikalia, the Vologda region. Medicines and animal feed are made from some parts of the tree. Aspen is used in landscape design. An adult plant is a good honey plant, building material.
Tree Description
Common aspen, or trembling, reaches a height of 35 m. Usually the trunk is straight, columnar. up to one meter in diameter. The bark is thin, smooth to the touch, gray-olive in color. With age, lenticels form on it, resembling a black rhombus in shape (see photo). The tree is frost-resistant, grows well on moist acidified soils, in shady places.
From other genera, species, for example, it differs in the shape of leaves, flowers that appear in early spring. The leaves are rounded-rhombic, with a serrated frame, the width is greater than the length. The cuttings are thin, flattened, so the leaves easily touch each other. Aspen trembles in the wind. The front side of the leaves is shiny, bright green, the back is matte, but slightly lighter. Leaves of the lower order are larger, up to 15 cm in length, have a pointed top, heart-shaped, serrate-toothed framing along the edge, pubescent on the underside. The leaves of young shoots are more like the leaves of poplars.
Flowers appear on the trees in spring. The shape is similar to earrings, bisexual. Women's light green, men's bright purple. Seed pods form in autumn. After maturation, the boxes open, the seeds, which have a crest, are carried by the wind.
Application
The bark can be harvested for the winter, used for food. Helps relieve fatigue.
In famine years, aspen bast, well dried, ground into powder, was added to the flour.
The branches of the first tier are still placed in sauerkraut. This prevents fermentation processes, helps to keep the blanks until spring.
natural medicine
Pine leaves contain a lot of organic acids, easily digestible carbohydrates, carotene, vitamin C, anthocyanins, flavonoids. The infusion, brewed from the leaves, has a mild expectorant property, helps to increase the intensity of sweating. Using aspen, you can quickly recover from a cold. The leaves are used to combat hemorrhoids. Tinctures from the bark help to remove phlegm, stimulate the immune system, treat diseases of the joints, the genitourinary system, reduce blood sugar, pain in pancreatitis, improve digestion, stimulate appetite. Young shoots are used to stop bleeding, burns, eczema, and other skin diseases are treated with alcohol ointments. Aspen decoction baths are soothing.
soil improvement
Aspen sheds a lot of leaves in autumn. They decompose in the ground faster than the leaves of other trees. The roots grow, capturing a plot of 160 m 2. When the plant dies, passages remain in the ground, into which other tall trees go deep. Aspens are often planted on clayey degraded soils. After some time, favorable conditions are formed for the growth of other more capricious plants.
Possibilities for landscape design
Application:
- Creation of wind protection lines.
- Strengthening the banks of ravines, rivers, lakes.
- Formation of an aspen natural fence on the border of the steppe and forest to protect against the penetration of representatives of the steppe fauna.
- Landscaping of streets in a short time.
- Arrangement of fire-fighting plantings.
Highly decorative properties. In spring and summer, the tree is covered with a thick green cap, in autumn it is bright red. There are varieties with weeping tiers, pyramidal forms. Used to create a backyard landscape.
Application in construction
Wood aged 40–45 years has the greatest value. In an adult tree, it is white, the texture of the pattern is weakly expressed. The structure is soft, but homogeneous, dries out moderately, practically does not crack. According to the scale of the European standard (EN 350-2:1994) it belongs to the class of unstable rocks, therefore it is not used in the construction of residential premises. Lumber is used to create. During the construction of wooden churches, a plowshare is used - aspen planks necessary to cover church domes.
Due to its low density, wood tolerates moisture well. The material is suitable for the construction of wells, cellars, baths.
Due to the low density, low resin content, and the absence of a large number of knots, it is used for the manufacture of interior decoration elements for Russian baths, Finnish saunas. The match industry for the production of its products takes aspen wood as a basis. At arts and crafts fairs, you can also often find beautiful products from this plant.
Aspen on the plot
Aspen can be planted with seeds, but growth and development will be long. It is better to find a wild grove in the neighborhood, dig up already grown seedlings there. You need to place them at a distance of two meters from each other. If you plant trees closer, they will grow, become like a dense shrub.
Aspen has a highly branched root system. Therefore, a tree cannot be planted closer than 12 m from buildings. Otherwise, the roots will damage the foundation, drainage system, communications.
The seedlings are unpretentious, grow on any soil, but mineral fertilizers are added to the dug holes before planting. They make a drainage layer by pouring a ten-centimeter layer of rubble into the hole. Plant plants in early spring, immediately after the snow melts from the ground.
Aspen is a dense but moisture-loving tree. If the seedling grows in dry soil, it will die. Therefore, as the soil dries, it is necessary to moisten it abundantly.
Tree care is simple, it comes down to watering the plant in the first four years of growth. Top dressing is required only at the time of planting. A solution of cow dung is poured into the hole, prepared in a proportion of 1 kg per 20 liters of water. The widely spread root system of an adult tree will find everything it needs for growth and development.
Aspens that are more than fifty years old need to be cut down and processed: over time, the trunk becomes rotten, and it can break with a strong gust of wind. Overgrowth quickly grows around the stumps, it is easy to form a hedge from it.
Varieties
There are trees not with green, but with gray bark. The base of their trunk is noticeably darker than the upper part. There are early, late varieties that differ from each other in the time of appearance of the leaves.
There are aspens up to 140 m in height. They have a triploid set of chromosomes. There is a rounded barrel. It is used to make furniture. For landing on household plots decorative forms with a weeping, pyramidal crown are used. They get along well with conifers.
Aspen is suitable for landscape design only if there is a large area. The tree grows quickly, is unpretentious in care, forms a green volume well. It is possible to make shrubs from ornamental species, form hedges.
Aspen, she is an ordinary aspen, Eurosiberian, or trembling poplar (lat. Populus tremula) is a species of common deciduous trees of the Dicotyledonous class, the Malpighiaceae order, the Willow family, the Poplar genus. Limited common names: Judas tree, osyka, whisper tree.
International scientific name: Populus tremula Linnaeus, 1753
Synonyms:
Populus australis ten.
Populus bonatii H.Lev.
Populus duclouxiana dode
Populus microcarpa Hook.f. & Thomson ex Hook.f.
Populus pseudotremula N.I. Rubtzov
Populus repanda Baumg.
Populus rotundifolia Griff.
Populus villosa Lang
Tremula vulgaris Opiz
English titles: Aspen, Common aspen, European aspen.
German titles: Espe, Aspe, Zitterpappel.
Guard status: Aspen is of Least Concern (LC) according to the IUCN Red List (Version 3.1).
Etymology of the name, or why the aspen trembles
A characteristic feature of the aspen are very mobile, fluttering leaves. Because of this, in Latin it was called "trembling poplar." It's all about very long petioles, strongly flattened at the top. Because of them, the leaves are unstable and at the slightest movement of air begin to oscillate, tremble. With a stronger wind, the petiole turns along with the leaf blade. By the way, from the inside, the aspen leaf is not green, but greenish-brown, so it seems that the tree is changing color.
The name "aspen" can be traced both in the Proto-Slavic and Indo-European languages. According to Hoops, it is borrowed from the Iranian language, according to Pedersen and Liden, from Armenian. Many European and Asian peoples call the tree consonant names. M. Vasmer in the etymological dictionary of the Russian language gives the following examples: “Ukr. aspen, osika, other Russian. aspen, Bulgarian Osika (Mladenov 388), Czech. dial. osa, osina, slvts. osika, Polish. wasp, osina, v.-puddle. wosa, wosuna, p.-puddle. wоsa, wósa "silver poplar" along with Bolg. yasika "aspen", Serbohorv. jasika, sloven.
Common aspen is a promising forest species for afforestation of slopes of ravines and other unstable steep slopes. She protects the eroded lands from further development erosion processes and allows you to return them to the economic circulation. Trembling poplar regenerates well after felling due to its ability to form root offspring. Therefore, plantations created on the slopes of ravines can be exploited without the risk of weakening the erosion resistance of the territory for a long time. It is one of the reforestation tree species, under the protection of which valuable tree species grow.
Medicinal properties of aspen and its use in traditional medicine
The benefits of aspen products have long been known to people in many countries of the world. A large number of Preparations from this tree are used as medicine. The bark, young twigs, leaves, buds, ash and coal of a trembling poplar are used. In Tibetan medicine, the bark is more commonly used for pneumonia, smallpox, and malaria. It is useful as an anti-inflammatory and astringent, diaphoretic, anticoagulant and analgesic. In Siberia, from time immemorial, all parts of this plant have been treated.
Compound
- The bark, leaves and buds contain essential oil, bitter glycosides, salicin and populin, tannins (up to 18%) and resinous substances, as well as organic acids. By the way, the bitter taste of the kidneys and bark is due to the fact that they contain the glycosides salicin and populin.
- The leaves additionally contain carotenoids, vitamin C, flavonoids, anthocyanins.
- The kidneys contain aromatic acids, triglycerides of phenolcarboxylic acids.
- The bark and young shoots contain aromatic acids, phenol glycosides, higher fatty acids (capric, lauric, arachidic, behenic, etc.), unsaturated fatty acids (oleic, linoleic, linolenic), carotenoids, vitamin E, phosphatides.
pharmachologic effect
- antiseptic;
- bactericidal;
- anticoagulant;
- reparative;
- diaphoretic;
- antipyretic;
- diuretic;
- astringent;
- painkiller;
- restorative;
- anti-inflammatory.
What does aspen treat?
- Bacterial infections
Diseases caused by Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and bacteria of the enteric-typhoid group are healed by leaves, and to a greater extent by aspen buds. They contain essential oil, which explains their medicinal properties. The oil has anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial effects. Externally, tincture and decoction of aspen bark is used for sore throat, stomatitis, gingivitis. A decoction and tea from the leaves, buds and young twigs of poplar trembling also helps. Alcohol tincture of aspen buds is used as an antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, diaphoretic.
- Thrombosis
If there is a risk of a blood clot in the blood, treatment is carried out with aspen bark and buds. Preparations from them are popularly called natural aspirin due to the presence of salicin glycoside in them. It stimulates blood thinning, prevents the formation of clots.
- Helminthiases
- Respiratory diseases
Most often in medicinal purposes use a decoction and tincture of aspen bark on vodka. Their use is widespread in colds and broncho-pulmonary diseases. A decoction of aspen buds helps with colds, bronchitis and pulmonary tuberculosis. Alcohol tincture of plant buds is used as an antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, diaphoretic. The plant has long been considered a strong antitussive product, it reduces the excitability of the cough center. But antitussive drugs should not be taken on their own, without the recommendation of a doctor. There are diseases in which it is important not to eliminate the cough, but to cause sputum discharge with it. It would be advisable to use this plant for an obsessive, irritating cough (pulmonary tuberculosis, pleurisy, whooping cough, bronchial asthma).
- Furunculosis
For treatment, ash from burnt aspen branches is used.
- Toothache and other types of pain
Aspen preparations are comparable in strength to aspirin. They have strong antipyretic and analgesic effects. For anesthesia, decoctions of the bark and kidneys are used.
- Type 2 diabetes
At diabetes usually used aspen bark. It normalizes metabolism, the work of the pancreas and the endocrine system as a whole, reduces blood sugar levels. The bark is indicated for type 2 diabetes mellitus, with insufficient insulin production.
- Diseases of the kidneys and bladder
Preparations from the bark act as a powerful anti-inflammatory agent. Her decoctions are prescribed to improve urination in nephritis, cystitis, urethritis. As the volume of urine increases, more toxins left behind by bacteria are excreted.
- Diseases of the joints and muscles
Means from aspen bark relieve inflammation, swelling, pain in the joints and muscles, improve blood flow, and prevent salt deposition. They are recommended for arthrosis, rheumatic, gouty pains, sciatica. It is also useful for such diagnoses to take therapeutic baths with the addition of a decoction of aspen bark.
- Problems with the digestive system
Aspen bark treats gastrointestinal infections, including dysentery, indigestion, inflammation of hemorrhoids. It is taken for diseases of the liver, spleen, biliary tract, stomach and intestines, to normalize appetite and secretion.
- Jaundice
An increased amount of bilirubin in the blood also helps to eliminate the decoction of aspen bark.
- Prostatitis and prostatic hypertrophy
In Western Europe, there is a demand for preparations from aspen bark for diseases of the bladder, prostatic hypertrophy, adenoma, prostatitis. Treatment of prostatitis with aspen bark is carried out according to a certain scheme indicated in the instructions for the preparations.
Who is contraindicated in aspen treatment?
Aspen-based funds should not be taken when:
- tendency to constipation;
- pregnancy and breastfeeding;
- allergies to substances contained in the plant.
In addition, do not forget that self-medication is dangerous! The doctor should make a diagnosis and prescribe drugs!
Aspen as pet food
Aspen branches and leaves serve as excellent food for pets. For example, goats and sheep even prefer this feed to hay. In Russia, peasants harvested them and made brooms for feeding animals. Sheep who suffered from poor digestion or fever recovered by eating aspen leaves. Cows fed this diet in winter produce milk of the same quality as in summer when fed grass.
Wood flour can be obtained from aspen wood, which is suitable for feeding livestock, like meadow hay and clover. The bark is also nutritious, but the old bark cannot be used in its natural form. Therefore, in the Leningrad Forestry Academy. CM. Kirov created a technology with which you can process the old aspen bark and get a vitamin concentrate (aspen fat) from it.
How to get rid of aspen on the site?
Aspen gives active shoots, occupying important land for the owners. And if you cut it down, then the root offspring will grow even faster and more abundantly. You can try to uproot stumps and roots, cut off shoots and wait for the underground part of the plants to die, buy wood stain in the store and kill trees with it. The most successful way is to drill a deep hole in the stump with a drill and pour acid into it. So the aspen will die quickly and for sure.
Pests and diseases of aspen, ways to deal with them
Aspen leaves damage the following pests:
- willow volnyanka (lat. Leucoma salicis);
- aspen toothed corydalis (lat. Pheosia tremula);
- rusty-brown brush (lat. Pygaera anastomosis);
- aspen mining moth (lat. Lithocolletis tremulae);
- aspen hairy sawfly (lat. Cladius viminalis);
- large aspen sawfly, or willow large sawfly (lat. Clavellaria (Pseudoclavellaria, Tenthredo) amerinae);
- aspen leaf beetle (lat. Chrysomela tremula);
- aspen yellow sawfly (lat. Cimbex luteus);
- aspen tube-roller (lat. Byctiscus populi);
- aspen bouquet mite (lat. Eriophies dispar);
- larvae of the aspen leaf beetle (lat. Chrysomela tremula);
- aspen goldfish (lat. Poecilonota variolosa);
- small (lat. Saperda populnea) and large (lat. Saperda carcharias) aspen creakers.
The most common pests of aspen seeds include poplar catkin moth, or frog moth (lat. Batrachedra praenqusta).
The fight against insects that damage leaves and seeds is carried out at the caterpillar or larval stage. Trees are treated with chloroform, karbofos, methylnitrophos, benzophosphate. From microbiological preparations, entobacterin, gomelin, insectin, dendrobatselin are used.
Aspen gall midge Harmandiola cavernosa on an aspen leaf. Photo credit: Gilles San Martin, CC BY-SA 2.0
Pests of aspen trunks can also damage the roots and branches of trees. The most common pests that damage wood include:
- large poplar glass jar (lat. Sesia apiformis);
- large aspen barbel, or large aspen creaker (lat. Saperda carcharias);
- small aspen barbel, or poplar creaker (lat. Saperda populnea);
- green narrow-bodied goldfish (lat. Agrilus viridis);
- gray aspen barbel, or aspen klit (lat. Xylotrechus rusticus);
- aspen woodworm (lat. Acossus terebra).
In addition to the listed species, aspen can be damaged by many types of glass beetles, gold beetles and some types of bark beetles, for example, unpaired bark beetle. As control measures, mechanical methods are used: uprooting of infected stumps, timely felling of plants. They also use biological chemical methods: creation of crops by the shadow method, treatment with insecticides.
Stem pests often cause butt and root rot, as they "open the gate" to wood-destroying fungi.
A fungus from the genus Melampsora on an aspen leaf. Photo credit: Rasbak, CC BY-SA 3.0
- It is worth walking through the aspen grove, and you will hear the disturbing rustle of its foliage, like before a storm. The tree is not very favored for its “talkativeness”, giving it unflattering nicknames: “whisper tree”, “sworn tree”, “awe”. According to legend, it was on the aspen that Judas, who betrayed Jesus Christ, hanged himself, and the Cross of the Lord was made from it. Allegedly, since then she has been trembling, remembering the inglorious death of a traitor. But in fact, aspen does not grow in Palestine.
- In paganism, aspen was considered a savior from evil spirits. For example, according to legend, vampires can only be killed by piercing them with an aspen stake.
- Aspen gets rid of excess healthy branches without breaking them. This process is called autumn branching. In autumn, the ground next to the tree is covered with thin young twigs the length of a pencil or more.
- Aspen is used to create field-protective forest belts in the steppe zone of Russia. The tree forms dense thickets and prevents the penetration of steppe vegetation on cultivated lands.
- Aspen is a nanny tree in relation to spruce. Under his protection and with his help, young spruces grow faster.
- Aspen was included in the Red Book of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in 2008.
- An old aspen aged 150 years grows in the Poltava region of Ukraine.
For the owner of the garden plot, aspen can be a serious problem. First of all, it is a fast-growing tree that can reach a height of 35 meters. The girth of the trunk of such a plant can be 1 meter. In addition, aspen takes root deep enough. Root offspring rapidly germinate, filling all the free space and displacing cultivated plants. Therefore, it is worth seriously thinking about the problem of how to get rid of aspen until a small forest appears on the site.
If you need to get rid of a large aspen, it is better to turn to professionals. A small tree can be removed from the site yourself. All that is needed for this is to correctly plan the fall of the trunk when chopping or cutting down an aspen. Of course, provided that the aspen stands away from residential buildings and there is enough space for the trunk to fall. A tree that has not reached a height of 10 meters is removed by successively completing two stages. If the height of the trunk together with the crown is more than 10 meters, it is advisable to cut the crown first, removing large branches separately.
Only after the crown is removed, the trunk is cut in parts. Depending on how the aspen looks like, on its size, it is possible to carry out a directed fall of the trunk with tightening slings designed specifically for securing the load. The device of the sling allows you to make an effort so that the trunk collapses in the selected direction. With a significant tree size, it is easier to tension with two slings, creating a guiding triangle in the application of forces.
It is necessary to carry out the first washed down in a horizontal plane, without bringing the saw to the end of the trunk by about 1/5 of the diameter. The height of the first gash is equal to the height of an average human height, as this allows you to create the necessary leverage for further uprooting. The second gash is made by setting the desired angle for the tree to fall in the chosen direction. After that, the sawn piece of wood is removed. The barrel at the same time continues to be held at 1/5 of the thickness of the barrel. From this point on, cutting the trunk is carried out with extreme caution.
It is possible to use assistants with ropes that create additional tension so that aspen, as a medicine, is not required by the workers themselves. In medicine, aspen bark is used as a fixing agent. You can take advantage of the moment and stock up on bark. To get rid of aspen completely, you need to expose its root system as much as possible, cutting off both large roots and small roots that have sprouted deep into, at a distance of 0.5 - 1.0 meters from the stem. With the help of a winch, a car or a block, the stump is uprooted from the ground. The branches and root system of the aspen should be burned.
It is better to burn branches, wood chips and roots in compliance with fire prevention measures, in a closed metal container. You can greatly simplify the work of protecting a garden plot if you imagine how to distinguish aspen and its shoots from other plants. The tree is similar to poplar, the leaves of which tremble even in calm weather. When young shoots appear, they must be immediately removed from the soil. By the way, aspen branches can be used by filling trenches designed to drain water from the site. And the aspen trunk will find application in the construction of sheds and sheds necessary for the garden plot.