Calligonum mongolicum seed

LATIN NAME: Calligonum mongolicum

COMMON NAME: Mongolian Calligonum

The Mongolian calligonum is a handsome, low, spreading, much-branched shrub of the warm, dry, sandy places, and its fine, narrow, linear or thread-like, bluish-green leaves and its small, inconspicuous, greenish or whitish flowers, followed by the small, round, dry fruits with the fine, bristly or winged ridges, have made it a treasured and fine plant of the region. It grows as a low, spreading, much-branched shrub, reaching up to three metres or so, with the many slender, arching, grey-green stems bearing the alternate, narrow, linear or thread-like, pointed, bluish-green leaves and, through the late spring, the small, inconspicuous, greenish or whitish flowers, followed by the small, round, dry fruits with the fine, bristly or winged ridges. It is a species of the flowering shrub in the knotweed family, and it is native to the warm, dry, sandy places of the central and eastern Asia, while it is treasured for its fine, tough, sand-holding ways, and it is known as the Mongolian calligonum.

In the knotweed family it is the thread-leaved, sand-holding shrub of the central Asian dunes, a tough plant that binds the drifting sand with its spreading roots.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The Mongolian calligonum appears in the dune-ecology papers of the central Asia, and the botanists have mapped its place in the knotweed family and the sandy flora of the region. The soil scientists have studied the deep, spreading roots that hold the loose, drifting sand, and the desert ecologists have watched the small creatures come to the low, arching growth and the small, dry fruits. It is a shrub of the sand-binding, desert-generous kind, and the growers of the dry-land reclamation keep it in their catalogues.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the dry garden, the Mongolian calligonum is the thread-leaved shrub of the sandy slope. Its small flowers feed the small insects, its dry fruits feed the desert creatures, and the low, arching growth holds the sandy ground. It has served the dune, the bank and the reclamation of the dry lands, and it grows well in the sandy, well-drained ground of the open, sunny spot. Thread-leaved, sand-holding and tough.

Sow the small, dry fruits at a shallow depth in pots of sandy, gritty soil, keep the pots in a warm, bright, open spot and water them sparingly, and the first shoots will be along in good time.