Exploring Plants with Alfia

  In the downtown of Kazan, between Nekrasova and Chapova streets, there is a small park called "Hermitage Garden". Before the Revolution, this area was private and passed from one owner to another. The exact date when it became a park is not known. The park was organized as a central park of the city in the 20 th century due to its convenient location and its beautiful scenery. Unfortunately, the non-central parts of the park are now in a semi-abandoned state. The variety of trees is still great: Norway maple, linden, birch, aspen, poplar, hawthorn, larch. However, these are all old trees and there are very few young trees. There are a lot of box elders in the park. Box elder or ash-leaved maple ( Acer negundo L.) is native to North America. In the 17 th century, the seeds of this species of maple were planted in parks and squares in Europe, and at the end of the 18 th century - in Russia as a rapidly growing ornamental tree. However, in the 20 th century the box elde...

  The hero of today's postcard is the snowberry (Symphoricarpos Dill. ex Juss.), a member of the family. Honeysuckle family (Caprifoliaceae). The genus name is derived from the ancient Greek words συμφορεῖν (sampforhein), meaning "to bear together", and καρπός (karpos), meaning "fruit". In fact, the fruits on the branches form tightly packed clusters.  The white fruits on its branches are very conspicuous and decorate parks throughout the winter. The snowberry is native to North America, where it grows in mixed forests and its fruits are eaten by quail, pheasants and grouse. In Europe birds usually do not eat them, although it is noted that European greenfinches and bullfinches sometimes eat snowberry seeds. In any case, not too eagerly, as the berries are preserved on the bush until spring. The berries are poisonous and contain isoquinoline alkaloids. This is a very broad class of alkaloids, each subgroup of alkaloids of this class is characterized by its act...

  The star of today's postcards is the Tatar maple, its subspecies Amur maple ( Acer tataricum subsp. ginnala (Maxim.) Wesm.). It has narrower and more dissected leaves than the Tatar maple ( Acer tataricum L.). The natural habitat of the Amur maple is the Far East, Korea, Japan, eastern Mongolia, and the native distribution of the Tatar maple is eastern and central Europe. Both subspecies are frost-resistant and tolerant to environmental pollution. At the same time, they are decorative, making them ideal plants for use in urban green spaces around the world. The Tatar maple is most beautiful in autumn. At first, the ripening seed wings are colored in reddish tones against the background of dark green glossy leaves, there are many seeds and they can be seen from a distance. After the seeds ripen, the wings lose red pigments (anthocyanins), become gray, unsightly, but by this time anthocyanins begin to accumulate in the leaves. And the Tatar maple continues to attract the attenti...

  In the center of Dimitrovgrad, near the Preobrazhensky Orthodox Church, there is a park of Spirituality. The park itself is small, there are benches along the paths, a fountain in the middle, nothing special. The main attraction are the big, tall horse chestnut trees with a powerful spreading crown planted along the perimeter of the park. They are beautiful at any time of the year: in winter - by the imaginative pattern of strong branches, in spring - by the ready to open buds and funny palm-shaped leaves, in summer - by the luxurious flowering of large straight pyramidal inflorescences, in autumn - by their spherical spiny fruits. In October, these fruits ripen and open, spilling out large, shiny brown seeds as if polished by an unknown carpenter. The seeds germinate in the spring and form shoots (see photo). In our latitudes, the horse chestnut blossoms at the end of June. But this year the spring was fast and the horse chestnut gave us its "candles" or "thyrses...

  In the hustle and bustle of the big city, when you're running around like a squirrel, trying to get everything done in a hurry, it's good to stop, let go of "everything" for a while and go for a walk.   This walk, not along the trails of an urbanized park, but along the paths of a wooded, hilly, shrubby natural area, where you can see a lot of interesting things.   Such a corner is the area of the park "Russian-German Switzerland", the SPNA (specially protected natural area, status - natural monument), its paths stretch along the Kazanka River from the Millennium Bridge to the Novatorov railway station. I n the early 19th century, Karl Fuchs, a professor at Kazan University, led botanical and entomological excursions with his students. One of his students was Sergey Aksakov, the author of the fairy tale "The Scarlet Flower". In the USA known as a cartoon "The Beuaty and the Beast".  Already an old man, Aksakov wrote an essay-memoir ...

  The choice of the first object for a post is usually a difficult one, but in this case I had no doubt. It is the "flower of the sun", Helianthus (in Greek "helius" means sun, "anthemon" means flower). The bright, large flowers of the annual sunflower ( Helianthus annus L.) symbolize sunlight, warmth, peace, and well being. Art with images of the sunflower is full of energy, positivity, and optimism. The other members of the Helianthus genus are also full of the same positivity. In total, there are 60 species in the Helianthus genus, but only two species are used in agriculture. What's the other one? You may have guessed, it is Helianthus tuberosus L. It belongs to the same genus as the annual sunflower. It has many common names: topinambur, Jerusalem artichoke, earth apples, earth pears, and even sunroot. Topinambur and the sunflower were introduced to Europe from North America in the early 16 th century, from areas of what is now southern Me...

Plants are everywhere – in our homes, gardens, yards, parks and forests. The world of plants is amazing and diverse – there are more than 400,000 species that have different life forms, plants are found in all habitats. Plants play a special role in the life of our planet: only plants and certain bacteria (cyanobacteria) are able to convert the energy of the sun into the energy of organic matter. It was cyanobacteria that made oxygen appear in the Earth's atmosphere. Today, it is cyanobacteria and plants together, that keep oxygen levels in the atmosphere suitable for animal life.  Photosynthesis is just one of the processes and can be compared to the tip of the iceberg that represents the capabilities of plants. Plants have a very complex organization of internal structure, processes of cell signaling, regulation of metabolism and development, and interaction with other organisms. Many food chains in ecosystems begin with plant organisms; plants not only feed animals, but also hea...

  Hello friends, it is nice to meet you on a channel "Exploring plants with Alfia".  I'm a plant physiologist, working in a research institute. I'm going to fill this channel with information about plants, with everything what can be interesting for you: facts, records, history of certain plant species discoveries, legends about plants, beautiful places where plants grow, also about botanists, artists who draw plants, scientists who study plants, even experiments and many other things that can be useful or intriguing. P.S. I'd like to point out that all pictures on this channel are my own. P.P.S. I also invite you to visit my TG channel  or blog on Dzen  if you read/speak Russian.