Spiny plants: names, description, photo. Spines in plants. Their role and origin Application in medicine

In the Volgograd regional narcological hospital, the time has come for a “harvest” for patients who have overeaten dope herbs. Seven people who got poisoned by grass have already been to the hospital and three more are in the rehabilitation period.

"Glitch-thorn" - nonsense without coming

Datura is a genus of plants of the nightshade family in the form of a large grass or a small tree. In Russian, the plant has many names, for example: stinky dope, divderevo, duropyan, dope potion, dope-grass, crazy grass, prickly apples, thistle, cocklebur, or just a bug-thorn.

As you can see from the names, nothing positive. And the appearance of the plant is repulsive: it seems to warn everyone about its harmful properties to health. Nevertheless, out of curiosity or in order to “drive cartoons”, teenagers put this muck into their mouths. And get absolutely the opposite of the expected effect. But the fact is that it is extremely difficult to maintain a proportion that would allow catching a wave of a hallucinogenic buzz. An overdose leads to severe poisoning, leading to the development of severe psychosis. A little more dope - and nightmares come out of the fear room into reality, and you no longer control the situation. It is not for nothing that hospital specialists note that they try dope only once - and that is enough in abundance. Then teenagers who ate grass remember this day as the worst.

"Bending Iron Beds"

Symptoms of dope poisoning: speech and swallowing disorder, dilated pupils and impaired near vision, photophobia, dryness and redness of the skin, delirium, strong heartbeat. In severe poisoning - a complete loss of orientation, a sharp motor and mental excitement, sometimes convulsions with subsequent loss of consciousness and the development of a coma. Basically, the poisoned person is betrayed by his inadequate behavior.

I don’t remember anything myself,” says one of the hospital patients. - But my mother told me that I almost crumbled the whole house, literally walked along the walls. Now I am very ashamed of everything that I did. Now I'm trying to get in shape. In general, I have a lot of all sorts of different hobbies: hip-hop, dancing, street parkour. I just went out into the street, out of boredom I went for a walk with the boys, with whom, in general, I don’t communicate. They offered me to try the seeds. Of course, he's a fool himself for agreeing. And then I felt very strong nausea, my head was spinning. I asked: "Take me home, I can't see anything." And that's it, I don't remember anything else.

Others who have eaten dope see huge birds, monsters or fire around them, auditory hallucinations and panic attacks are possible.

No buzz, some negative emotions, - says another victim of dope grass. - Huge spiders attacked me, and I somehow ran away from them very slowly.

Horror. But then they also did a gastric lavage and an enema - such a payment for a dubious pleasure.
Very often, patients have impaired vision: “I could not open my eyes,” says one of the patients, while he himself lay with his eyes open and simply did not see anything. After patients wake up, they cannot read for a few more days, their working memory suffers greatly - in other words, they remember only the last few words spoken.

Very often, the victims run somewhere, they are saved from someone. Such a violent patient is immobilized, first of all, in order to protect him from himself.

Motor excitement is so great that it is difficult to keep a teenager in place even for adults, says Vasily Yemtsov. - In such a state of psychosis, they are able to bend iron beds!

Road with a fast end

Experts note that in the future, although patients are sent home after a week's stay in a hospital bed, bad complications can occur. For example, due to a serious load on the cerebral cortex, there will be serious problems with memory or intelligence. Therefore, even after leaving the hospital, the teenager will visit a narcologist and a pediatrician more than once.
As a rule, boys between the ages of 12 and 15 are admitted to the hospital with acute poisoning. Adults do not indulge in such weed.

Unfortunately, the older generation has its own preferences, - says Vasily Yemtsov, head physician of the narcological hospital. - Last Saturday, a seriously ill man, 31 years old, was admitted with an overdose of heroin. Unfortunately, we were unable to save this patient. Behind him, literally next, another man was admitted, of the same age with the same diagnosis. He is still alive, but his condition is assessed as serious.

The preferences of adults are largely their business. It is more important to protect teenagers. Unfortunately, not only curiosity pushes boys and girls barely out of childhood on a slippery slope. A feeling of protest, a desire to go against everyone and everyone in order to stand out from the crowd, to prove something. To whom and why?.. It's easy to follow the knurled path. However, the consequences are predictable: "hard" drugs, addiction and, finally, "no longer a tenant." But isn't it better to prove to yourself and others that you are in control of your own destiny? Sometimes it is very difficult to refuse something, especially when “friends” are sitting nearby and, not really understanding what they are doing, they take it “weakly”. It's time to stop and make it clear that you yourself have a personal opinion. And, no matter how trite it may sound, say “no” to drugs and “yes” to your own life.

The main advantage of thorny plants is their unpretentiousness. This is what attracts the attention of many gardeners. Find out what types of plants with thorns can be used for growing in the garden.

Karlina (stemless thorn)

A very bizarre exotic plant. Karlina blooms unusually - its inflorescences are like large baskets (up to 12 cm in diameter) with a bluish-lilac hue.

The flowers of the plant are hard and rough, it seems that they are made of thick cardboard. Carlina has an amazing property - at night, as well as in cloudy weather, its flowers close, forming dense large buds.

The flower is actively used to decorate the garden interior. Unusual carlina inflorescences grow on long stems, so the plant can be combined in a flower garden with other undersized flowers.

Karlina refers to unpretentious plants. It perfectly tolerates both drought and hot weather. The flower grows ideally on rocky areas or in rock gardens. If used as a flower arrangement, carlina goes well with alpine asters, juniper, sagebrush and fescue.

Eringium (syringum)

An amazing plant with thorns is eringium. In recent years, landscape designers have been actively using it to decorate the interior and give the garden grace and unusualness.

Eringium is a small shrub (about 70 cm in height), on which numerous inflorescences of blue and bluish hues grow.

Varietal variations of eringium:

• Flat-leaved eringium. The height of the bush is 100 cm. The plant has small (compared to other varieties) inflorescences of a bright blue or pale green hue.
• Variegated eringium. Plant height - from 70 cm. The inflorescences of the flower are small bluish or purple.
• Plain eringium. Low (up to 70 cm) shrub, which has a lot of sharp thorns. The plant blooms in small inflorescences of a rich blue or blue hue.

Absolutely all eringiums are used for landscape design. Plants prefer to grow in rocky areas, they do not like abundant watering and sudden temperature changes. In compositions, eringium goes well with lavender, echinacea, juniper.

milk thistle

Many gardeners consider milk thistle (thistle) a weed. But it is this plant that is very popular with landscape designers, because with the help of an unusual appearance, milk thistle can transform the interior of any garden plot.

The pride of milk thistle is its unusual large leaves. On the surface of bright green leaves, a white cobweb is depicted. This combination creates a unique image. But it is important to remember that milk thistle leaves are covered with sharp thorns, so touching a beautiful plant will not work.

Inflorescences also have an unusual appearance. Their shape resembles small baskets, the color scheme of which can be very diverse - from raspberry and red to pale white. Along the edges of the inflorescences, like the leaves, sharp small spines grow.

Milk thistle is considered a medicinal plant. Folk healers use the plant to prepare decoctions and tinctures for the treatment of colds, coughs and diseases of the esophagus.

Tatarnik

The prickly plant differs in impregnable and formidable appearance. Tatarnik is a tall plant, the trunk length of which reaches 2 meters. The advantage of a flower is its leaves and inflorescences. The leaves of the tartar are painted in silver tones.

They are located on fleshy and dense stems, giving a warlike appearance to the plant. Tatarnik inflorescences are small "buds" of purple or red hues.

Tatarnik with its prickly leaves can be used to decorate a garden interior. The ideal "neighbors" of the prickly plant are elecampane, rudbeckia, coniferous shrubs and other landscape flowers.

Bodyak

In central Russia, a popular plant with thorns is a bodyak. It can also be grown in the garden. The height of the plant is approximately 150 cm. Its advantage is the gracefulness of the inflorescences. The flowers of the plant are large, painted in bright red and burgundy tones.

The bodyak is a honey plant. It can be planted in the garden to attract bees.

Dipsakus (forest hairweed)

Another amazing plant with thorns that can become the pride of the garden. The height of dipsakus is about 2 m, its trunk is equipped with strong shoots, on which funnel-shaped leaves-plates grow. Dipsakus blooms in large inflorescences, which at the end of flowering turn into large prickly cones.

The plant will become the dignity of the rock garden. Dipsakus blooms from mid-summer to late autumn. The plant is ideally combined with undersized flowering shrubs.

Indoor plants with thorns

The most popular houseplants with thorns are cacti and euphorbia. Thorny plants are unpretentious, they can live for several days without water, love the heat and are rarely attacked by pathogens.

Spurge

This plant has a huge variety of species. A feature of milkweed is its toxicity - in the milky juice of the plant there are toxic substances, contact with which causes burns or poisoning.

• Euphorbia Fisher. The plant has medicinal properties, it is used in the treatment of "male" diseases. Euphorbia Fisher in appearance resembles ginseng, but the first plant is larger with a massive trunk and prickly leaves.
• Euphorbia is triangular. Popular indoor flower. The stem of the plant is dense and massive, equipped with trihedral ribs, along the edges of which there are small and sharp spines. Dense oval leaves grow on the top of the flower. With proper care, the plant can grow up to 3 m in height.
• Euphorbia is white-veined. Another common indoor plant. In appearance, the flower resembles a palm tree. The height of an adult milkweed is 1.5 m. The stem of the flower is ribbed, dense, large dark green leaves are located at the top of the flower.
• Euphorbia "Head of a Medusa". An exotic plant that has recently been actively grown by flower growers at home. The flower is a small bush, the shoots of which grow out of the ground and hang from the pot. The flower is best grown in a pot, in which case the appearance of the plant will actually resemble the head of the famous Gorgon jellyfish.
• Euphorbia fat. A very funny flower that deserves special attention. Some novice gardeners mistakenly mistake Euphorbia obese for a cactus. The appearance of the plant is a small green ball growing from the ground. On the surface of the spherical stem there are ribs from which small but very sharp spines grow. The height of milkweed fat rarely reaches 20 cm, more often it is a flower no higher than 9 cm in height.
• Euphorbia Turukalli. Bushy succulent, consisting of many branches-sticks. The plant has no leaves, but it blooms in small white inflorescences. With proper care, the flower can grow up to 9 m in height.

cacti

It is the cactus that is the most popular thorn flower. Caring for a cactus is simple, in the common people the plant is called "a flower for lazy people."

• Aporocactus whip-shaped. The perfect hanging flower. The stems of the plant are not more than 1 cm thick, equipped with small spines. The cactus blooms with large flowers of various shades.
• Astrophytum capricornus. A young plant has a spherical shape, an adult - is formed into a cylinder. The cactus blooms regularly, its inflorescences are large (up to 15 cm in diameter) and painted in a wide variety of colors.
• Cereus. The stem length of the plant reaches 1 m. In the hot season, the cereus produces large red inflorescences with a delicate aroma.
• Mamillaria. Amazing cactus with unusual flowering. In spring, the inflorescence wraps around the surface of the cactus and blooms in soft pink or red hues.

Conclusion

• Plants with thorns are the pride and dignity of the garden. With the help of thorny plants, you can create a unique and inimitable interior.
• Prickly plants are classified into garden and indoor. Garden "thorns" are grown in rock gardens, indoor plants - in flowerpots, planters or clay pots.

For gardeners are of particular interest. There are many varieties of them. Photos of thorny plants demonstrate that some of them have a very exotic look and become a decoration of a garden plot, flower beds. Such plants enhance the decorative effect. They are indispensable in designer compositions, making them especially stylish. Very fond of such unusual specimens and home flower growers. The name of thorny plants, as well as a description of their species, will give an idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe unsafe, but very common inhabitants of flower beds and window sills.

Functions of spines

Spines in plants are hard, sharp formations. The functions of spines are different for different plants. One of the most important is the condensation of water vapor. The plant is supplied with water through the spines. Another equally important role is to protect the surface of plants from being eaten by animals, as well as from the hot sun.

Conditions for their cultivation

A characteristic feature of thorny plants is their unpretentiousness. They do not require the creation of special conditions for their maintenance. In most cases, plants are photophilous and do not like excessive watering. Let's take a look at some of their types.

Eringium

Sinegolovnik is another name for it. These plants have a thorny flower. Currently, eringium is very popular and is a decoration of the garden. Its blue and blue spiky inflorescences are very showy. The most common types of steel and alpine. They are widely used in garden landscape design. The height of these specimens reaches from 70 cm to 1 meter. Alpine eringium, compared to flat-leaved, has larger inflorescences.

In modern landscape design, the flat eringium, the so-called tumbleweed, is also used. It is a very thorny but showy plant. The eryngium grows well in stony and dry soil.

Thistle

These are annual thorny weeds. There are more than a hundred types of them. Among them is milk thistle. It belongs to one of the species grown by people. Its height is 1.5-2 meters. Her spines are long and sharp. The stem is erect, strongly branched at the top. Flowers are collected in prickly baskets. It does not lose its decorative effect throughout the season, delighting with flowering until late autumn. Milk thistle is a photophilous and drought-resistant crop, it can do without watering for a long time. She is not afraid of temporary cold, diseases and pests. Milk thistle is usually planted at a distance of at least 1.5-2 meters from paths and other plants.

In addition to bright decorativeness, this plant has healing properties: diuretic, antidepressant, anticonvulsant. Its shoots with foliage are widely used to treat various diseases, including diseases of the liver, thyroid gland, sciatica, hemorrhoids, psoriasis and many others. This amazing plant is also used in cooking in the form of flour and oil.

Teasel

This biennial plant is a stem, which reaches a height of 0.8-2 meters, with a rosette of oblong leaves. At the top and side branches prickly cones are formed, covered with white and lilac buds.

The plant looks spectacular in the garden. It should be planted in the background of a flower bed, against the background of coniferous plants or shrubs, and also near a wooden fence. It easily tolerates winter even without shelter. Cones, when ripe, do not crumble, retain their shape. Stems do not bend from wind and rain. It is no coincidence that pile is the favorite material of florists. It is used as an independent plant in a bouquet, and as part of stylish decorative compositions.

Cleoma prickly

Herbaceous annual, forming powerful bushes. Its height is on average 1 m. The stems are branched in the upper part. Cleoma flowering is very spectacular. It comes in different colors: white, yellow, pink, purple.

This plant is one of the most original flowering plants in the garden. It is used in flowerbeds, to create hedges, to decorate groups of shrubs. When using cleoma, there is a basic rule - it should be planted only in groups.

Mordovnik

This is a perennial plant from the Astrov family. The round head of its inflorescence looks like a mace. Mordovnik stem single erect. The leaves are pinnately toothed or entire with teeth, depending on the species. Blooms in the second year of life from May to August. Blue flowers are collected in prickly inflorescences, which have a spherical shape.

It is a hardy plant that is disease resistant. Doesn't like a lot of moisture. Mordovnik is used to decorate flower beds, as its blue color is in harmony with the warm bright tones of other plants.

cacti

These are thorny plants of different sizes. Basically, cacti are inhabitants of deserts and semi-deserts, where there is a very low level of humidity. But some species grow in the tropics. Cacti easily adapt to sudden changes in temperature. They live on sandy and gravel soils. The spines of these plants grow instead of leaves, their maximum length can be up to 25 cm. This helps cacti prevent moisture loss.

Currently, various types of these exotic plants are very widely used in landscape design.

Features of home cacti

These thorny plants are unusually tenacious, as they can be without watering and fertilizers for a long time. In winter, they can not be watered at all. But cacti definitely need sunlight. There are many types of them. Home flowering cacti are covered with buds, as a rule, annually, but when they reach 3-4 years of age. It happens in the spring. But some species can delight with flowers at other times of the year.

For a cactus to bloom, it is necessary to create conditions for it that are close to natural. First of all, it concerns lighting and moisturizing. In autumn, you need to water less often. In winter, it is advisable to refuse watering altogether. And start spraying with water only in March, resuming irrigation. In winter, the lighting should be subdued, and the room where the cacti are kept should be cool. If the buds are already born, this prickly houseplant should not be transplanted and fertilized.

Domestic coniferous thorns

Currently, for home flower growers, the passion for coniferous prickly plants has become very popular. Keeping such cultures in a room is problematic: many of them need a low room temperature, which should not exceed 12 degrees. Therefore, the list of prickly coniferous houseplants is small. These are cypress, araucaria, legcarp, cryptomeria and others.

Araucaria

This is a coniferous evergreen plant, its bark is flaky. Grows very slowly. Its branches are located horizontally, the crown is pyramidal. The leaves are subulate, light green in color, up to two centimeters long. Gives the design of the room an elegant chic. Araucaria is unpretentious in care. Likes good lighting, but is afraid of direct sunlight. In the warm season, it requires abundant watering, and in winter, moisture must be reduced. Likes daily sprays.

Cryptomeria

Its other name is Japanese cedar. This is an evergreen plant of the Cypress family. Its crown is dense, the color varies from light to dark shades of green. Japanese cedar is quite common in landscape design and park gardening. At home, dwarf forms are used. They are grown in winter gardens, on a balcony or terrace. These plants are photophilous, but cannot stand direct sunlight. The best place for him is outdoors. Watering requires special attention. Water should be warm, settled or boiled. Likes spraying.

pandanus

This screw palm is widely used by home flower growers. It is a plant with spiny leaves and a lush crown.

The leaves are narrow and oblong, with thorns at the ends. They grow in a spiral. This is a very showy plant. It naturally grows in the tropics. As a home inhabitant, the pandanus is very unpretentious. It is usually recommended to beginner growers. It quickly grows to a large size, becoming like a real palm tree. But if there are small children or pets in the house, it is better to refuse this plant.

ANSWER: Many plants need thorns for protection. Plants with thorns you pluck less, because you know that you can prick yourself. This is how they protect plants not only from children's hands, but also from herbivores.

There are plants that need thorns for other purposes. For example, burdock. Its leaves are smooth, and nothing prevents animals from eating them, but its burdock flowers have thorns with which the plant spreads its seeds. Thanks to the thorns, the burdock clings to animals, and the seeds travel with them. So they fall into the ground far from the place where they originally grew.

Cacti need spines to hold water. In nature, cacti grow in deserts where it is very dry and they need to conserve as much water as possible to survive. When water gets on the cactus, the spines hold drops. If you have a cactus at home, you can see it when you water it. Due to the fact that instead of large leaves, cacti have thin dry spines, moisture does not evaporate from them, but is stored in the trunk, as in a barrel. Also, some cacti have soft spines that protect them from the scorching sun.

Spiny thistles are not eaten by animals.

Burdocks travel thanks to their tenacious thorns.

Cactus spines hold water drops.

In nature, there are two types of camels: one-humped and two-humped. Only the second one lives in the wild, while people have long tamed the one-humped camel for their own needs. The body of a camel can retain water for a long time and not overheat in 50-degree heat. Huge calluses on the legs allow this animal to walk calmly on hot sand.

A camel can go up to two weeks without a single sip of water. It is covered with thick wool, which prevents the evaporation of moisture from the skin. The surface of wool at noon can heat up to 80 degrees, while on the surface of the skin the temperature will not be higher than 40 degrees. The camel does not open its mouth when it breathes so that excess moisture does not evaporate. This animal cannot exist in areas with a humid climate.

In the body of a camel, fats are able to turn into water, which is deposited in the humps. It can contain up to 50 kg of fresh water. He can spend it within two weeks. People who got lost in the desert often killed a camel and drank water from its hump in order to survive and get to the oasis.

When traveling, a camel replenishes its water reserves by eating camel thorn. This plant lives up to its name. It is covered with many sharp spines of various sizes, which are modified axillary shoots. A camel can eat such a plant due to the special structure of its oral cavity. The inner side of the cheeks is equipped with many hard tubercles, protrusions that are not damaged even by the sharpest spines. In addition, he has a very rough and rough tongue.

Camel-thorn

This plant is found only in deserts and semi-deserts. It belongs to the legume family. Camel thorn is a low shrub with a powerful root. Thanks to him, the plant can absorb moisture from the deep layers of the soil and not die in the harsh conditions of the desert.

Camel thorn, in addition to life-giving moisture, also contains a lot of useful substances. No wonder Avicenna considered her a real storehouse of vitamins. A tincture of this plant helps relieve fatigue and cleanses the body of toxins. Camel thorn secretes a special substance - manna, which is a surrogate for sugar. It is a powerful diuretic and choleretic agent. Perhaps it was her that God sent to Moses and the Jews who fled from the oppression of the Egyptian pharaoh.