How to propagate the staghorn sumac? Master these key points
Because the staghorn sumac has strong adaptability and reproduces very quickly, it is relatively easy to grow. However, because the staghorn sumac reproduces too quickly and its secretions can also cause adverse reactions in allergic people, the staghorn sumac is not widely cultivated now.
Staghorn sumac
Staghorn sumac can be propagated by sowing, root sucker division, or root cuttings. For sowing, collect mature fruit clusters in September, sun-dry them to thresh the seeds, and stratify them in low-temperature wet sand until spring sowing the following year. Before sowing, rub them a little with alkali to remove the wax from the seed coat, then soak them in hot water at so℃ for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, then remove them, mix with wet sand, and place them indoors at 20℃ to germinate. When sprouts appear after about 20 days, drill sowing can be carried out, with a sowing rate of 3-5 kg per mu. As long as the soil is kept moist, they will basically all emerge after 20 days, and the seedlings can reach 0.8-1 m in height in the same year. The staghorn sumac has extremely strong suckering ability. For seedlings more than two years old, many root suckers often sprout around them. When dividing suckers, dig up thick root shoots and plant them with fibrous roots, and they will survive. Root cutting is done after the seedlings leave the nursery, collecting the remaining roots and burying them directly in the nursery. That is, each year when the seedlings leave the nursery, select lateral roots with a diameter of more than I cm, cut them into 20 cm long root segments, and according to the polarity of the roots, insert them vertically into the prepared nursery at a row spacing of 40 cm x 30 cm. Cover the top of the root segments with 2-4 cm of soil, keep the soil moist, and the seedlings can reach more than 1 m in the same year.
Key cultivation points for staghorn sumac
In autumn, the leaves of the staghorn sumac turn bright red, giving it a certain ornamental value, and it is also an excellent tree for autumn scenery. However, because the staghorn sumac reproduces very quickly, it has been recognized as having serious potential harm.
Staghorn sumac
Staghorn sumac, family name Anacardiaceae, is a deciduous small tree in the genus Rhus of the family Anacardiaceae. Odd-pinnate compound leaves are alternate, oblong to lanceolate. Upright panicles are terminal, and the fruit clusters are bright red. The fruits are oblate, with red bristles, densely clustered into a torch-like shape. The fruits mature in September and remain for a long time without falling, and the leaves turn red after autumn, which is very spectacular. Native to Europe and America, it often grows on open sandy or gravelly soil.
China introduced it in 1959 through the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and since 1974 it has been promoted to provinces and regions across the country. It is cultivated more in the provinces (regions) north of the Yellow River basin, mainly used for greening barren hills and also as a landscape forest tree species for saline-alkali wasteland. The staghorn sumac reproduces so quickly that until 2012 many greening tree species could not compare with it. It has unique excellent characteristics and serious potential harm.
A complete guide to pine tree types, distribution, and key points for identification
Pine trees have extremely strong adaptability to terrestrial environments. They can tolerate low temperatures of -60℃ or high temperatures of 50℃, and can grow in bare mineral soil, sandy soil, volcanic ash, calcareous soil, limestone soil, and various soils from podzolic soil to red soil. They are drought-tolerant and barren-tolerant, and like sunlight, so they are famous pioneer tree species. Let us take a look at the types of pine trees.I. Distribution types1. Cathaya argyrophylla
Compared with Abies beshanzuensis, Cathaya argyrophylla became famous a full 20 years earlier. Although the Chinese botanist Yang Xianjin had collected specimens of the branches and leaves of this plant in Jinfoshan, Sichuan, as early as 1938, because there were no flowers or cones, this specimen was never identified. It was not until 1955, after the scientific expedition led by Professor Zhong Jixin collected plant specimens with cones in the Huaping forest area of Longsheng County, Guangxi, that Cathaya argyrophylla was named and published by botanists Chen Huanyong and Kuang Keren. Cathaya argyrophylla is a fossil plant once thought to have long been extinct on Earth. Its cone fossils and pollen had been found respectively in the Tertiary strata of the Siberian region at 60 degrees north latitude and southwestern France. The discovery of living Cathaya argyrophylla greatly shocked botanists, and Western scholars looked at the land of China with even greater admiration. Only China has living Cathaya argyrophylla in the world, and the number is very small, only a few thousand plants, scattered in Jinfoshan in Sichuan, Huaping and Dayaoshan in Guangxi, Jiefushan and Bamianshan in Hunan, and the Daozhen and Tongzi mountainous areas in Guizhou, and it is very rare.
Cathaya argyrophylla can only grow in deep mountains with no severe cold in winter, no extreme heat in summer, abundant precipitation, and very humid air, and it has extremely strict environmental requirements. Therefore, although it is beautiful in appearance and has excellent wood, it is very difficult to introduce and cultivate, and to this day it remains a rare tree treasure that the world's botanical and horticultural circles can only wish for but cannot obtain. People love Cathaya argyrophylla and have given it many moving names: "living fossil plant," "giant panda among plants," "treasure of Chinese forests," "pearl of the forest sea"... and they long even more for it to leave the mountains and forests soon and shine brilliantly. Densely covered with yellowish-brown or reddish-brown soft hairs. Cones are 9-14 cm long, and after maturity the seed scales do not open or open slightly. Seeds do not fall off and have no wings (Figure 1 Korean pine). It is a major forest-forming tree species in the Xiaoxing'anling and Changbai Mountain areas of China. In China, its northwestern boundary is the Aihui to Bei'an line, and its southwestern boundary is the Dandong to Benxi line. From China it also extends northeast to the southern coastal areas of the Soviet Far East east of the Heilongjiang and Ussuri rivers, and south to Korea and central Honshu and the Shikoku mountains of Japan.
2. Abies beshanzuensis
Twenty years ago, few people in the world knew that there was a mountain peak called Baishanzu along the southeastern coast of China. In 1976, Wu Mingxiang, a senior engineer at the Qingyuan County Forestry Science Institute in Zhejiang Province, "shot to fame." The Abies beshanzuensis he discovered, named, and published made Baishanzu, this "forgotten corner," shine brilliantly in the world botanical community. Among the 50 known species of fir in the world, Abies beshanzuensis is the most precious. This is because on Earth only the southwestern slope of the Baishanzu summit in Zhejiang Province, China, has this tree growing, and only 3 are alive, one of which is weak and one malnourished. For a species, this is only half a step away from extinction. In 1987, the International Union for Conservation of Species listed Abies beshanzuensis as one of the 12 rarest and most endangered plant species in the world announced that year. Relevant Chinese institutions are also actively taking measures, hoping to turn this endangered plant from danger to safety through artificial propagation.
3. Korean pine
Korean pine (P. koraiensis), small branches. Pinaceae is the largest family in the gymnosperm phylum, with 10 genera and more than 230 species, among which the genus Pinus alone has more than 90 species, making it the largest genus in Pinaceae and also in the entire gymnosperm phylum. Pine trees are the most important forest tree species in the Northern Hemisphere. Except for Pinus sumatrana, which is distributed to 2 degrees south latitude, all other species grow naturally in mountains and plains from the equator to 72 degrees north latitude. Especially in temperate regions, plants of the genus Pinus not only have many species but often form vast forest seas, so pine trees are known as the "mother of Northern Hemisphere forests."
4. **Siberian pine
**Siberian pine (P. sibirica), similar in morphology to Korean pine, with the main characteristics being that the small branches have pale yellow hairs; cones are 5-8 cm long; the tips of the seed scales are rounded and curved inward. In China it is distributed in the **Kanasi River and Homu River basins in the northwestern part of the **Altai Mountains, with vertical distribution in the range of 1600-2350 m above sea level, often mixed with **larch. It is also distributed in the northeastern part of the European part of the former Soviet Union and Siberia.II. Species identification
There are many types of pine trees. Ornamental trees include Buddhist pine, lacebark pine, and so on; industrial trees include Japanese red pine, white pine, Korean pine, and so on; common ones also include deodar cedar, Japanese black pine, and masson pine.
There are nearly 115 species of pine trees in the world. Although there are many species, the leaf shape is mostly slender and needle-like, commonly called pine needles. Most pine needles grow together in bundles of one leaf or several leaves: the single-leaf pine with one needle per bundle is distributed only in Nevada in the United States and Mexico, and belongs to a minority of species. The two-needle pine with two needles per bundle not only has many species but is also widely distributed, such as the European black pine (P. nigra), Scots pine (P. sylvestris), mountain pine (P. mugo), jack pine (P. banksiana), and lodgepole pine (P. contorta) distributed in Europe, as well as the Chinese pine, Mongolian Scots pine, Japanese black pine, and Japanese red pine distributed in several provinces and regions of North and Northwest China, the masson pine, Huangshan pine, alpine pine in several provinces of Central China, the Bashan pine in the Qinba mountainous area, and Taiwan pine and North American shortleaf pine, most of which are major tree species for afforestation on barren hills in China. 3/ The three-needle pine with three needles per bundle includes the short three-needle pine distributed in the United States and the lacebark pine in the Qinling and Guanshan forest areas of China, the Yunnan pine and Simao pine in the Sichuan-Yunnan region, and the slash pine and loblolly pine introduced in Central and South China. 4/ There are few types of pine trees with four needles per bundle, distributed only in California in the United States. In addition, egg-cone pine and Lawson pine are four- or five-needle bundles. 5/ There are many types of pine trees with five needles per bundle and they are widely distributed, including the eastern white pine (P. strobus) of North America, the Swiss stone pine (P. cembra) of Switzerland, the Korean pine of the Northeast, the Huashan pine of several provinces in the Northwest and Southwest, and also the Himalayan white pine, Guangdong pine, Anhui five-needle pine, Dabie Mountain five-needle pine, dwarf Siberian pine, and Taiwan fruit pine.
The differences in pine needles help us classify and identify pine trees and understand their ecological characteristics. Usually, five-needle pines are suitable for humid environments and have stricter soil requirements, while pines with two- or three-needle bundles are more drought-tolerant and can grow in thinner soil. For example, the two-needle-bundle Chinese pine has strong adaptability to continental climate and atmospheric drought. Of course, this is also related to the depression of the stomatal bands on its needles. The wax covering on the leaf surface can reduce some evaporation.China is one of the countries with the richest gymnosperm species in the world. From Pinaceae alone, it can be fully shown that the land of China is truly the "hometown of gymnosperms." In China's vast mountains, forests, and plains, not only do lush pine, larch, spruce, and fir forests grow, but many extremely precious and rare Pinaceae tree species are also hidden in some deep mountain forests. Among the first batch of rare and endangered plants under key protection announced by the state, there are 39 species of Pinaceae plants, accounting for 1/10 of the total (389 species). Among them, Cathaya argyrophylla is listed as a first-class key protected plant, 17 species including Abies beshanzuensis and golden larch are listed as second-class key protected plants, and 21 species including yellow-branch keteleeria and Mongolian Scots pine are listed as third-class key protected plants.
I hope the above information on pine tree types is helpful to you. For more, please continue to follow.
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