The desert plant saxaul. Saksaul: flowering desert tree

Saksaul belongs to the family of amaranth plants. These are trees or shrubs reaching a height of 12 m. With its very powerful roots, it reliably fixes the sands and is an obstacle to dust storms, thereby protecting canals, rivers and fertile lands from the harmful invasion of sand, delaying the onset of solonchaks. It also keeps groundwater at the same level, enriches the land with organic matter, promotes an increase in the feeding capacity of desert pastures. In addition, saxaul is a flowering desert tree.

Description

Small semi-shrubs, shrubs and trees, with small leaves or generally leafless, are assimilated by green young segmented shoots, partly falling in autumn. Leaflets sometimes alternate, opposite, awl-like or scaly, pointed or blunt. Flowers are bisexual. The fruit is winged oblate-spherical, slightly fleshy.

The plant of the desert, saxaul lives very briefly - sometimes more than 60 years. At a small height, the old trees have a comparatively thick trunk at the bottom (at the root its thickness can reach 40 cm). The trunk is tapering upward.

Places of growth

Black saxaul - a plant of the desert, characteristic of the solonchaks and sands of the Turkestan region. Also found in Mongolia. It forms huge thickets in the sandy areas of Turkestan.

The tree grows in deserts. There are 2 main types of saxaul: white and black.

Saksaul white

The desert plant saxaul white is a large shrub that reaches 2.5 m in height, less often 5 m. Its leaves are in the form of small scales. Perfect, occasionally even the only camel food for the whole year. They eat its growth and green branches. Camels can eat bushes in height up to 3 m and from one bush receive up to 12 kg of food. Sheep are available only fallen on the ground twigs and dry leaves (up to a kilogram from the bush). White saxaul has a high nutritional value: 100 kg of feed contains up to 52.3 fodder units, as well as 3.7 kg of protein.

Saksaul black

The famous plant of the desert black saxaul is a fairly large shrub, reaching 7 m in height, with a very branchy trunk. Propagated by seeds. Often forms saxaul forests. It grows in Central Asia, more precisely in its deserts. It grows best on loamy and sandy loamy sierozems with good filtration capacity, especially in the presence of groundwater.

It occurs on takyr-like sierozems and takyrs, although here it forms less powerful thickets. Differing by its great forage productivity, when cultivating it in the form of pasture-protecting belts, it increases the yield of the forage mass of plants in pastures that are located on the adjacent territory. The branches of the plant are eaten more readily by camels than white, with more stocks of forage mass.

Saksaul Zaisan

The desolate wilderness saxaul Zaisan is sometimes seen as a species of black saxaul. It grows on solonchak and sandy soils. He has a strongly twisted and branchy trunk. The branches are covered with long thin green branches that replace the leaves. They are reduced to small scales. Flowers are inconspicuous, small, sitting in axils of scales; Consist of 5 loose leaves, 5 stamens, and 1 pestle, which has up to 5 stigmas.

In the ovary there is one ovule, which develops into a seed with an embryo spirally wound. Its wood is very hard, while fragile, does not fit for handicrafts, although it gives excellent fuel. Saksaul grows slowly and renews with great difficulty, being cut down. In Iran, Afghanistan, Spain and North Africa, there are other types of plants, but they are much less common.

Using

The desert plant saxaul, or rather its bark, is the best fuel for quality. It is very heavy and hard, it is very difficult to cut and saw, therefore, it is broken. By the production of calories it exceeds the wood of oak, birch and even different types of brown coal. It burns wood, very valuable coal, which is widely used in various plants. The desert plant saxaul for a long time in Central Asia was the only fuel. He was mercilessly uprooted, wrenched and taken out on camels from the desert. At the same time, the sands, which lack the fastening roots of this tree, began to fly with ease under the influence of the wind, came into active movement, and then turned into dunes.

The plant was used on railways, in villages and mountains. Branches and trunks of saxaul, with their incredible clumsiness, go to the construction of houses, as well as the fastening of wells.

Also saxaul is called the scout of water: in those places where ground waters approach the surface, tall and slender saxaul trees begin to grow. At the basic quantity of plants root pressure reaches 5 atmospheres, thus at saxaul up to 100! With a similar force, he sucks the grains of moisture out of the soil.

In addition, saxauldrons are of great economic importance in the active development of livestock, among other things, and one of its most valuable industries - karakul breeding.

Considering medicinal plants in Russia, saxaul should be singled out separately. It is included in the diet of large gerbils. Consuming its shoots as a feed, gerbil can produce a significant alienation of phytomass, thereby entering into a competitive relationship with various agricultural animals. The burrowing activity of these animals adversely affects the plant, as they die if directly below them the animals arrange their nesting chamber.

At the same time, the "business" superficial passages of large gerbils, located on a considerable extent among the saxaul sowings, probably play a positive role, thereby contributing to the accumulation of organic matter and the penetration of moisture into the soil. Against the large gerbil, nevertheless, on artificial plantings of this plant in conditions of gypsum-rubbly desert it is necessary to regularly conduct special fighter measures, since this will lead to guaranteed conservation of crops.