Cornel is a very old cultivated plant. Even before the beginning of our era in the Crimea, the Greeks grew cornel and drank cornelian juice and cornelian wine. In Ivan Kotlyarevsky's famous poem "Aeneid", the Cossack ambassadors drank cornel, derenovka and Crimean tasty dulivka from Tsar Latin

 

An ancient Crimean legend says that once the khan's daughter became seriously ill. Promising a great reward, he called a famous Byzantine physician. The overseas guest, entering the room where the patient lay, glanced at the wide windows, behind which swayed the golden-yellow inflorescences of cornel, and suddenly said that he was immediately returning home. The astonished khan anxiously asked why the important guest did not examine the patient, to which he replied: "Where cornel grows, a doctor is not needed. If this plant has not helped the patient, then Allah himself will not save it." The daughter recovered due to the wonderful properties of cornel. In Tatar cornel "devil-tree".

 

Cornel is cultivated in many European countries, but there are no special plantations. In horticulture it is used in Italy, France, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Spain. Remember Sancho's revelation (M. Cervantes "Don Quixote") about how cornel and acorns served as food for the noble knight Don Quixote and his faithful gunsmith Sancho Panza?

 

In Bulgaria it is a garden plant. According to the ancient Bulgarian custom, a twig cut from a cornelian tree and decorated with bright flowers and colorful paper, gives people happiness on New Year's Eve. The custom is simple: people familiar and unfamiliar at the meeting lightly touch the cornelian twigs, saying: "Surva, surva, happy time." And that's all. It's enough. Whey is sure to bring health and happiness in the new year.

Cornel is very popular in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Cornelian trees grow in Ukraine: the gardens of the Crimea, western and southern regions, but it is also known in northern Ukraine.

On the outskirts of Kyiv - Kurenivka, Korchuvatom, as well as in Podil and on the territory of the National Botanical Garden, there are 150-200-year-old cornelian plants, which still bear abundant fruit. What is their origin? Descendants of the Crimean folk varieties that were brought here, or those plants from the forests that once surrounded Kiev? We can confidently speak of the introduction (introduction into culture) of cornelian during the formation of Russia, and, as is often the case in history, a positive role in this process was played by the clergy, namely monasteries, especially Vydubychi, Mezhyhirya, Kiev-Pechersk, which were famous for their gardens and were located near Kiev on the famous Dnieper road "from the Vikings to the Greeks."

The princes were fascinated by gardens, they grew them in their estates and near palaces. According to spiritual and contractual charters, there were gardeners at the prince's palaces, and various drinks and delicacies were prepared from fruits and berries here.

Although there are also dogwoods of southern origin. At the beginning of the 20th century (in 1905) Lesia Ukrainka often visited the estate of the Kyiv artist Fotiy Krasytsky, a relative of Taras Shevchenko, in Kurenivka (20 Bryusova Street). The estate on the outskirts of Kiev was flooded with gardens. Lesya Ukrainka brought several cornelian plants from the Caucasus. The history of their planting and cultivation is recorded in the correspondence of the Kosach sisters. Until now, these cornelian plants bear abundant fruit in Kyiv and on the writer's family estate in Kolodyazhne in Volyn.

Value, use and medicinal properties of the plant

Cornelian cherry are eaten raw, and also used to make jams, jellies, marmalades, jams, syrups, fillings, compotes. Fresh fruit can be stored for a long time grated with sugar.

High nutritional and medicinal properties of cornel are due to the presence in the fruit of pectin, glucose and fructose, easily digestible, vitamins, minerals - iron, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, which have a beneficial effect on people with cardiovascular disease.

Of particular importance are biologically active substances: catechins, anthocyanins, flavonols, the so-called P-active compounds. They normalize the permeability and elasticity of blood vessel walls, prevent sclerosis, and maintain normal blood pressure.

Cornel is associated with many interesting legends, customs, songs, which in one way or another reflect its healing properties. Here is one of the songs-kolomyyok on this topic:

Oh, green deren, Derenko-pigtail, Those who love your fruit, Have nice faces. I pick narwhal leaves from the derenka, I bathe in the compote. I have good strength through this derenochka.

In order for a newborn girl to grow up healthy and beautiful, her parents bathe her in a decoction of young cornelian shoots, saying: "Like a deer on a spruce tree, so you, girl, look beautiful. For health, for life, to be like her." And in six weeks, usually at baptism, the young mother is served cornelian pies as a token of gratitude for her daughter.

Fresh fruits are useful for patients with diabetes because they reduce blood glucose levels, enhance the enzymatic activity of the pancreas, stimulate digestive processes, increase appetite.

In Chinese folk medicine, cornel is popular as a tonic and anti-TB agent that binds and removes toxins. In Tibetan medicine, the bark and leaves of this plant are used for pleurisy, fever, dried fruit powder - for kidney disease (nephritis).

Studies in recent years have shown that the cornelian cherry have a detrimental effect on bacteria of the typhoid dysentery group, streptococcus, tuberculosis and are indicated for gastrointestinal disorders.

Requirements for growing conditions

Cornel grows on any soil - dry, stony, calcareous, grows best on light, nutrient-rich, drained soils. After applying limestone to the soil, fruiting accelerates.

Although cornel is a drought-resistant plant, but loves moderately moist soils.

In homestead, country areas, the place for planting cornel is chosen along the border (retreating 3-4m from it), given that the plants live 100-150 years and all this time with proper care bear abundant fruit. On fertile soils the area of ​​feeding of plants should be 6х5м, on poor and without watering 4х5м.

Landing holes are dug with a diameter of 80-100 cm and a depth of 70-80 cm. Fill them with fertile soil mixed with organic and mineral fertilizers. Planted plants are watered at the rate of 25-30 liters per hole.

After planting, the shoots must be shortened by 1 / 2-1 / 3 to balance the aboveground and root systems.

Varieties

The National Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine has been creating varieties, studying the peculiarities of culture, and methods of reproduction for several decades. Until 1990, there was no cornel in the State Register of Varieties of Ukraine. This gap is filled by the works of the NBS.

The gene pool of cornel NBS is characterized by a great variety of biological and economic features. The average weight of the fruit is 5.0-8.0 g, their maximum weight reaches 7.0-10.0 g. In the best varieties, the weight of the stone is 7.5-10.0% of the weight of the fruit (in wild forms, the size of the stone is 18-21% of the weight of the fruit). Very original varieties with yellow and very sweet fruits, which are used mainly in raw form. Especially delicate yellow pear-shaped fruits in the variety Gentle. There are almost no plants with yellow fruits in nature. Back in the early twentieth century. famous Ukrainian scientist Levko Platonovich Symyrenko wrote that in the Crimea (and here dogwood was very common in nature and culture) yellow dogwood is rare.

Reproduction

The most effective method of reproduction is budding behind the bark in a T-shaped incision or as an example, depending on weather conditions. Interestingly, before our research, cornel in Ukraine were not propagated in this way. This method provides a sufficient number of seedlings. Eye survival is 85-90%. The usual budding dates are from July 25 to the end of August.

Seedlings come into fruition in the 2-3rd year, while seedlings only in the 5-7th year.

Cornelian seeds have a long dormancy period, in natural conditions they germinate in 20-24 months. For sowing the seeds are stratified (mixed with wet sand and kept until sowing at a temperature of 0 to + 50C).

Seeds laid for stratification immediately after its removal from the fruit, under normal stratification germinate in 16-17 months. With constant washing of seeds with water, the stratification period can be reduced to 11-12 months.

Perspectives of culture

Cornel - a valuable fruit, medicinal, ornamental plant. The main biological features of the species: there is no periodicity in fruiting, biological productivity in favorable growing conditions is 25-100 kg of wood, depending on its age. Plants are practically not damaged by pests and diseases and do not require treatment with pesticides. Garden cornel does not require any special farming techniques. Varieties of selection of the National Botanical Garden are the basis for the creation of productive profitable farm and private cornelian gardens.

Svitlana KLYMENKO, Doctor of Biology. Science, Professor

Source "Voice of Ukraine"

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