Deodar - wood symbol of the Himalayas

About the author: Boris Konstantinovich Gannibal - St. Petersburg botanist, specialist in the study of plant communities of the arid zone of Eurasia, leads the scientific journal "Vegetation of Russia", as an expert on cultural landscapes advises such institutions as the famous summer garden in St. Petersburg, the estate of A.S. Pushkin in the Pskov region, as well as also The Hannibal estate adjacent to him. B.K.-a descendant in the 7th generation of the famous Hannibal from the encirclement of Peter the Great.

Almost anyone who is going to the Himalayas intends to see the tree that can rightfully be called the symbol of the highest mountain system in the world. This is the Himalayan cedar. More than once I saw him in botanical gardens.

In the fall of 2011, the first West Himalayan biogeographic expedition to SPBSU was prepared [1] . Now I, the geobotanic, had to see the cedar in his natural environment, to visit the historically established natural communities, to feel their spirit. With the hope of this, I went to India.

Among the family of pine cedar ( Cedrus ), it is not distinguished by a variety of species and is common exclusively in the mountains, in a rather narrow latitudinal zone (30–35 ° C.Sh.) from the Atlas mountains in North Africa to the eastern limit of its range in the Himalayas. In this strip, systematics distinguish between three close Mediterranean species - Setta, Cyprus and Lebanese cedars, as well as the fourth - Himalayan. All of them, in favorable conditions, can reach 50 m in height and diameter of the barrel 2-3 m (unless, of course, they live up to 1000 years). They can and tolerate frosts to –20 ° C.

I do not want to say banality, but I must admit that people do not always use the word “cedar”. “Cedar” nuts are good, but they give us a Siberian or Korean pine. Canadian “cedars” are called some types of thuja, in other places cedars are called junipers and cypresses.

The Himalayan cedar ( Cedrus deodara ) in India is simply called a deodar. This word has become its scientific species epithet, and translation from Sanskrit means the divine tree . Indeed, in India, the cedar is considered sacred, but for some reason its image is rarely present in the surroundings of various gods, in the murals of temples rich in plant elements.

Leaving the agricultural plains and finding ourselves in the mountains, we did not immediately see the trees that interest us in their natural landscape, and it is not surprising. After all, a high -altitude belt, in which areas of the deodar are reliably found, is located in the range of 1800–3200 m above sea level, and the advanced shilikan ridge (pre -Hymalaye) only in some places reaches the minimum high -altitude marks for the cedar. But gradually, single specimens of cedar began to come across along the road. They were distinguished by the tier structure of the crown, a characteristic flat peak, the bluish color of the needles.

We are in Shimle-the capital of Himal-Pradesh (L. Borkin wrote about it in the Trav-Hawk No. 175 [2] ). Amazing city! We leave the hotel in the morning to the street ... Everywhere between houses and a serpentine roads on steep slopes, cedars grow - individual giants and entire groves.

If you go to the main square and raise your eyes, you will see Jacuh hill among the continuous gender of the crowns of the cedar hill orange-red statue of Hanuman-the god of monkeys. The height of the monument is 33 m. There, upstairs, near the temple, like everywhere in the city, is full of monkeys. Often they sit right on the flat branches of cedars. But the history of this deity is rather botanical than zoological.

According to legend, Hanuman visited this mountain when he was looking for one medicinal plant for Lakshman (the hero of Ramayana), but did not know exactly what it looked. And he decided to simplify the problem - he became large and strong, cut the top of the mountain and brought it with all the contents of the patient: they say, choose. I had to act in about the same way, who did not know the local flora well: to collect almost everything in a row in the herbarium, in order to present to the specialists of the Botanical Institute in St. Petersburg.

In the future, the route was more common to us mixed coniferous forests, where, along with the cedar, spruce, fir and pine grew. In the early days of the expedition on the floor in the hotel, I laid out the branches of each of the collected species of conifers in order to demonstrate their features to colleagues. Let me remind you that the cedar, unlike pine trees, is not 2, 3 or 5 needles in a bundle, but as many as 2-3 dozen. In this regard, the cedar is similar to larch. And vertically upward cones make a cedar similar to fir.

We saw wonderful forest communities with a cedar in the estate of N.K. Roerich in the city of Nagar (Kulu Valley), where his birthday was celebrated. In the village of local merchants, it was possible to buy products from cedar cones. And on puddles we observed a well -known phenomenon to us - a pollen coating. But if our pine begins to scatter the disputes (pollen) abundantly at the end of May, then here a similar biological process falls on the beginning of October. The pollinators themselves represent a special sight - male strobels, in large numbers sticking up on flat branches and resembling New Year's candles.

Having got into the city of Manali a day and entering the branch of the local nature of the protection of nature in search of literature, we saw there an amazing cut of cedar, presented to visitors as a witness to historical events over the past 500 years.

There we were also advised to go to the Hindu temple of Khadimba (built in 1553 and has pagan symbols, including Scythian plots), where the rite of animal sacrifice is still being practiced [3] . It turned out that this gloomy building in the form of a pagoda is composed of cedar trunks, and it is located in a cedar forest dark from the closed crowns. However, right there, in the meadow among the forest, a duffel bazaar was organized, wedding celebrations are held.

It is interesting that although the most part of the range of the cedar of Gimalaysky is probably in India, significant in Nepal, but this plant has long been learned by Muslim culture and is now the wood symbol of Pakistan. A well -known example of the practical use of cedar is the Cathedral Mosque of Jama Masjid in the capital of Kashmir, the city of Srinar. Built in 1398, she burned and rebuilt several times. From the middle of the XVII century to this day, this is one of the largest mosques in India, containing more than 30 thousand people.

Muslims gathering for Friday prayer are located on the carpets between 370 huge ceiling stems from the Himalayan cedar.

A beautiful fast -growing and long -lived tree feels great in the gardens and the streets of the cities of the Caucasus and Crimea. The Himalayan cedar is not uncommon in London. Alas, he has not yet been able to survive in St. Petersburg.

TRV-hobby-information partner of SPBCU on the Himalayan project.

1. See also a three-hobby. 2015. No. 172–177 .

2. Borkin L.Ya. From the British Simla to Hindu Sarahan // Trv-hunger, No. 6 of March 24, 2015 .

3. See also Borkin L. Ya. Izvar, N.K. Roerich, Himalayas. St. Petersburg: European House, 2014. S. 179.