It may seem surprising to many that a rocky bush has nothing to do with the one sung in songs. These are completely different botanical families and their features are different. About this unusual plant, which has the name of a rakit bush, can be read in this article.
Rod broom
The yellow acacia, familiar to everyone from childhood, belongs to this genus , which is quite actively growing and densely flowering. Many of her delicate pods made whistles that sound good and loud.
About 60 species of the genus broom are known. Racite bush is quite popular among gardeners. Its distribution, except for Russia, is noted in Africa, Europe and Asia.
The usual acacia and broomberry have certain differences. In yellow acacia (tree-shaped caragana), related to other acacias only in the common family (legumes), the leaves are several pairs of small leaves. A broom usually has triple leaves, located on the stem in the next order.
Rakitovy bush: photo
Flowers in the form of moths near the broom, closely fitting to the branches during the flowering period, almost hide its small leaves from the eyes. Moreover, the flowers well attract the attention of insects, but the sharp spikes located on the branches do not let the enemies into the bushes.
In Italy, the broom is called the Droch of coal miners because it often grows near coal mines. Next, a little more detailed description of the rakite bush.
Description
Broom is a genus of deciduous shrubs, less often small trees from the legume family. Mostly these are deciduous, semi- or evergreen plants, some with small spines.
Broomweed is a beautiful honey plant, but many species are poisonous. Plant height varies greatly depending on growth conditions and species: the largest reach 4-5 meters, medium - 2 meters, the lowest grow up to 0.5 meters. There are also creeping plants of this species, whose growth reaches about 20 cm.
Rakitovy bush has small leaves on flexible thin branches. They are triple or single in shape. Some of them begin to bloom in spring (early or late), and others in summer.
Similar in shape to pea blossoms, beautiful, collected in axillary brushes: a large upper petal like a sail, two narrow elongated side petals like wings and two lower small petals fused into a shuttle. They adorn the broom for a month. Their coloring is the most diverse, depending on the type and hybrid: yellow, white, pink, purple, red. Two-color varieties are also found in nature.
And the smell is different for different types of flowers: pleasant, sharp, delicate. Flowering under the most favorable conditions of broom growth is so plentiful that its flowers completely hide the branches of the bush.
The most common varieties
In nature, several varieties have a rakit bush. Classification by type:
- The rod-shaped broom has green glossy branches, which in May-June are covered with numerous yellow flowers.
- Russian broom is a rather popular ornamental shrub that grows up to 2 meters in height with an abundance of yellow moth flowers.
- Spanish gorse, or Spanish broom, is a lush shrub, covered with racemose inflorescences of very fragrant yellow flowers all summer.
Other species: hybrids
Rakitovy bush happens, as noted above, and with flowers of other colors unexpected for this plant. All of them are hybrids of hygiene.
Below, we briefly present some of them.
- The early broom has slightly curved, drooping branches. It blooms in spring as one of the first bright yellow fragrant flowers. There are varieties of this species with other colors of flowers.
- Oblong broom - medium-sized shrub (1.5 m), blooming in June with golden yellow flowers.
- White broom is a small bush blooming with white flowers in spring.
- The emery racite bush is small in size (about 70 cm), and begins to bloom in May with bright yellow flowers.
- Purple broom - an open bush with lilac flowers and growing up to 30 cm. It usually blooms in May-June.
- Regensburg - one of the smallest species (up to 30 cm), erect. Single flowers collected in small inflorescences of several pieces have 2 shades of yellow (thick yellow and pale yellow) with inclusions of reddish-brown color.
- Moroccan - the tallest (up to 5 meters), it has large leaves and dense yellow inflorescences with an aroma resembling pineapple.
- Creeping boletus is the smallest (up to 10 cm) with golden yellow flowers and with pubescent leaves.
A little about the features of growing broom
Rakitovy bush unpretentious. It tolerates both high and low temperatures equally well, but still prefers to grow in lighter sunny places.
Broom, depending on the species, can grow both in calcareous and in acidic soil. Suitable for shrubs, even sandy poor soil, but loose and with good drainage. In the case of growing bushes in flower pots, regular watering is required. And the plant growing in open ground is resistant to drought and practically does not require watering. Pottery cultures once every two months should be fed with organics, and feeding should be combined with the next watering.
In general, broomberry bushes look great, especially during the flowering period in any urban park areas and in personal plots. They are a wonderful bright addition to any landscape design.