Prunus laurocerasus

Cherry laurel shrub flowering time

The laurel cherry (Prunus laurocerasus, syn. Laurocerasus officinalis ) is a flowering plant in the rose family ( Rosaceae ). She is originally from Asia Minor. Your trivial names received this plant due to its cherry -like drupes and because of the laurel -like leaves. Your grades are used as largely hardy ornamental shrubs in parks and gardens. 2013, it was poisonous plant of the year.

Description

The Cherry Laurel is reached up to 7 m an evergreen shrub or tree, the heights of growth. In severe winters, with temperatures ranging from -20 ° C to freeze all sheets and a large part of the branches. In most cases, the plant pushes back out again. The 8 to 15 cm long leaves similar in shape to the genuine laurel (Laurus nobilis ), followed by the incorrect name goes back as " Laurel ". The fragrant flowers appear from April to June and are available to many in terminal, racemose inflorescences together. The initially green spherical pods are black in maturity.

Ecology

At the upper end of the petiole sit 2 (-3 ) Red, extra-floral nectaries where sugar juice is released. As suspected for some time, it involves " police fodder" for ants. The nectar production in the glands is in the first few weeks especially great after budding and attracts large amounts of the ant Formica obscuripes that attack the still small harmful caterpillars or aphids.

Use

Laurel cherry varieties are used as largely hardy ornamental shrubs in parks and gardens. Apart from short stature varieties the wood is due to its growth happiness without regular section unsuitable for small gardens as it occupy a large state space in a short time and also can rapidly develop through self- sowing with favorable local conditions to a kind of " weed ". This is particularly problematic when the plant spreads in the undergrowth of forests, thus displacing the indigenous natural vegetation. Therefore, the Cherry Laurel is listed in many places on the black list of neophytes and should not be planted outside their natural range. Laurel cherry plants also thrive in inhospitable places. It is used both solitary or as a hedge plant.

In addition to its use as an ornamental plant the laurel cherry is now recognized as an important function in the restoration and preparation. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the leaves are used with a high proportion of hydrocyanic acid or the softening -soothing organic materials - without causing water damage. For example, you can get mobile again dried insects, if you keep them for a few days over the chopped leaves in a closed vessel (leaves replace daily and avoid direct contact ). Even long pleated fabrics, as they are known from graves, can be soften again with this method. Was rediscovered the method in the 1990s by Klaus changer ( Ethnological Museum ).

Varieties (Selection)

Toxicity

Fresh, ripe fruits taste sweet with a bitter aftertaste. In Turkey, the laurel cherry is cultivated because of the fruit. These are eaten there as a dried fruit. The pulp can be recycled into jam or jelly. The seeds contain - as with almost all fruits of the genus Prunus - Prunasin, a cyanogenic glycoside. In the stomach, chewed seeds develop the poisonous hydrogen cyanide. After receiving sheets or up to 10 seeds can cause nausea, vomiting, tachycardia, and convulsions. With more than 10 seeds can enter the heart and respiratory arrest. When cooking, but the cyanide compounds are destroyed. Leaves and seeds contain more than Prunasin the flesh.

Diseases and frost damage

Although the cherry laurel is considered easy-care and home well acclimatized plant, especially the three diseases are often observed at the cherry laurel: powdery mildew, downy mildew and shotgun disease. Because it is a fungus of these three conditions, a treatment with an appropriate fungicide is often inevitable.

Although the cherry laurel is considered evergreen hedge plant and hardy in principle, damages are to be observed after the winters especially in the last years repeatedly. Contrary to popular opinion, however, is not the cold, the cause of a freezing plant, but is usually water shortage the cause. The Cherry Laurel evaporates just in fast rising temperatures much water on the leaf surfaces. If before severe cold has ensured that the soil is deep frozen, the plant can not adequately relate water from the soil to meet the water demand. The resulting brown leaves are a clear sign of this lack of water. Appropriate watering and pruning the brown leaves / areas can help.