Boxwood - an evergreen tree or shrub - is rightfully considered a long-liver. "Even boxwood does not remember," they say in Abkhazia about the events of bygone days. According to some experts, the age of relict boxwood forests is 30 million years. And this despite the fact that, according to official data, boxwood lives for 500 years. This plant is resistant to climatic whims and pests too tough … At least, it was considered so until 2012, when seedlings from Italy, infected with larvae of boxwood fireweed, were brought to Sochi.
Handsome but dangerous
Probably each plant has its own legend, and so does the boxwood. Once Saint Khyzr instructed a raven to sprinkle people's heads with water from a paradise spring and thus give them eternal life. But the crow decided to use such a gift for herself. She took water and flew into the boxwood grove. Sitting on a tree, the bird began pouring water on its head, but missed, and everything spilled onto the boxwood. So he became an evergreen long-liver.
Boxwood, which in Greek means "dense", has about 30 varieties that grow in different parts of the world. On the territory of the Russian Federation, Colchis boxwood is mainly found. In the Republic of Adygea, the boxwood reserve occupies 200 hectares. A lot of wild-growing boxwood can be found in the Krasnodar Territory. True, in recent years, the area of box trees here has significantly decreased. Before the Olympics, during the construction of the Adler-Krasnaya Polyana road, several thousand boxwood trees were destroyed. And no one’s hand trembled. But boxwood grows only a few millimeters per year, and its trunk diameter increases by only 10 centimeters in 100 years.
The plant looks more like a bush, which sometimes grows up to 2-3 meters in height. But sometimes it looks like a tree with a twisted trunk. The well-developed root system of the boxwood makes it resistant to any winds, even in the mountains. In addition, he feels comfortable under the crowns of other trees, since he does not need a lot of sunlight. The moss covering the branches and trunk of the boxwood accumulates moisture well and protects from frost in winter.
However, it should be remembered that this long-liver is very poisonous, and all its parts. The trunk, branches and leaves contain about 70 alkaloids. They make the plant invulnerable to pests. Therefore, despite the fact that boxwood is an early honey plant, it is dangerous to use its honey (creep) But boxwood wood is very valuable due to the fact that it is hard like bone. And everything of value, as you know, is guarded. So boxwood is listed in the Red Book.
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Iron tree
Since ancient times, people have used boxwood in ornamental gardening. Due to its density, living boxwood hedges hold their shape for a long time and are practically impenetrable. No wonder in ancient Greece and Rome boxwood was called an iron tree. Its wood on a cut resembles amber in color and, despite its high density, strength and weight, does not sink in water (like ivory). This is also confirmed by the Georgian legend about how the giant Eramkhut, angry with his enemies, hit the ground with a boxwood stick, and it went into solid soil, like a porridge, for a whole yard.
Most often, boxwood wood was used and continues to be used for the manufacture of chess pieces, figures for playing shogi, small dishes, smoking pipes, musical instruments. Even Homer in the Iliad mentioned that the yoke for Priam's bulls was made of boxwood, and Ovid wrote about the boxwood flute of the goddess Minerva.
In the 19th century, boxwood began to be used for woodcuts, and in all newspapers in the world. And this led to the almost complete extermination of the valuable plant. Today boxwood is quite difficult to buy - the cost is high.
What we have, we do not store
When, during the Olympic construction, a relict boxwood that survived the Ice Age was cut down, new planting material was brought from Italy, and with it the larvae of a fireweed butterfly feeding on boxwood. In two hours, 20 moth caterpillars are able to eat a three-liter jar of boxwood leaves. With such an appetite, they could not help but inflict a crushing blow on the boxwood grove. In just a year, nothing remained of the evergreen boxwood. And the caterpillars switched to the Colchis boxwood growing in the yew-and-boxwood grove.
There were so many gluttonous insects that the crunch of the leaves they were eating was heard. Caterpillars and spider webs hung from the trees everywhere. The forest died overnight. We urgently had to look for ways to solve the problem. But … Treatment with pesticides did not give results, since boxwood grows under large trees, which makes it difficult to spray them. And the resort area again. Birds also did not become helpers - they do not eat these pests because of the alkaloids they contain. In addition, the climatic conditions of the region contribute to the active reproduction of fire flies. An attempt was made to set predatory wasp wasps on fire, which seal the caterpillars of pests in the cells of nests under construction. But the wasps hunted any other caterpillar except the firefighter. Neither specially bred entomoparasitic fungi nor pheromone traps helped.
By 2015, the moth had destroyed almost all the boxwood thickets of the Black Sea coast and moved to Abkhazia. According to forecasts, the boxwoods of Adjara and Turkey will continue on its way. So, having survived the Ice Age, boxwood could not resist a small but gluttonous caterpillar. And if scientists in the near future do not figure out how to stop the parasite, our descendants will be able to see boxwood only in botanical gardens.
Impassable maze
The fashion for boxwood labyrinths with an area of several hectares appeared in the Middle Ages. The most famous of them is the 10 hectare labyrinth in Villa Pisani in Italy, created in the 18th century.
According to some reports, Napoleon once got lost here, arguing with one of his associates that he would find a way out in an hour.
The history of the creation of this labyrinth for many years has managed to acquire legends. According to one of them, the villa belonged to a wealthy doge and his wife. For a long time they lived in peace and harmony, and then the owner of the villa fell seriously ill. The wife was already preparing for the worst when a monk came and suggested how to make their souls inseparable after death. This required building a maze of boxwood.
During the day, the best Venetian masters did their work, and in the evening the monk performed special rituals to keep the master's soul in a certain place. In the last minutes of his life, the Doge was taken to the labyrinth, where he died. His widow went there every day, and returned with a serene expression on her face. Once she went into the maze and did not return. The search did not yield any results.
Since then, the villa has changed many owners, among whom was Napoleon, who was captivated by an unusual labyrinth. The first meeting between Hitler and Mussolini took place here in 1934.
Another boxwood labyrinth, built in the 19th century, is located in Hungary, in the Andrássy castle. As conceived by the architect, when viewed from above, it resembles a giant squid. And it’s just as difficult to pass as Italian.