Nitraria tangutorum seed

LATIN NAME: Nitraria tangutorum

COMMON NAME: Tangut Nitraria

The Tangut nitraria is a handsome, low, spreading, much-branched, spiny, deciduous shrub of the dry, sandy places, and its fine, narrow or fleshy, pale-green leaves and its small, white or yellowish, star-like flowers, followed by the small, round, red or purple, fleshy, edible berries, have made it a treasured and fine plant of the dry regions. It grows as a low, spreading, much-branched, spiny, deciduous shrub, reaching up to one metre and a half or so, with the many slender, thorny, sprawling branches bearing the alternate, narrow or fleshy, pale-green leaves and, through the warm months, the small, white or yellowish, star-like flowers, followed by the small, round, red or purple, fleshy, edible, few-seeded berries. It is a species of the flowering shrub in the nitraria family, and it is native to the dry, sandy places of the central Asia, while it is treasured for its fine, edible berries and its fine, soil-holding form, and it is known as the Tangut nitraria.

In the nitraria family it is the red-berried, sand-holding shrub of the central Asian dry lands, a plant that feeds both the birds and the sandy ground.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The Tangut nitraria holds a place in the dry-land food papers of the central Asia, where the small, round, red or purple berries are studied for their fine, sweet value as a fruit of the dry lands. The land scientists have also studied the low, spreading, much-branched growth that holds the drifting sand, and the botanists have mapped its place in the nitraria family and the dry flora of the region. It is a plant of the dry-land, useful kind, and the growers of the dry garden keep it in their catalogues.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the dry garden, the Tangut nitraria is the red-berried shrub that holds the sandy slope. Its star-like flowers feed the insects, its red or purple berries feed the birds, and the low, spreading, tough growth keeps the sandy ground in place. The berries have served as a fine fruit of the dry lands, and the shrub grows well in the sharp, sandy, well-drained ground of the open, sunny spot. Red-berried, tough and soil-holding.

These are hardy, willing seeds — sow them just under the surface of pots of sharp, sandy, free-draining soil, water them in, keep the pots in a bright, open, dry spot and water them sparingly once they are up, and the first shoots will show themselves in time.