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Thanks to the popularity of coniferous plants, the number of cultivated species of tuja today is estimated at tens and hundreds. More often on the plots are grown thuju western, however, the eastern part deserves no less attention.
Until recently, plants with this name were of the same genus with thuya, but due to a number of differences in structure, growth conditions and reproduction, they were isolated in a new community consisting of one species of thuja, or rather the eastern biota or Biota orientalis.
Biota or Thuya Oriental: a description of the species
The change in the official classification brought to life one more name, which comes from the name of the subgenus of this culture, a plow-head.
The native land of the plant is China and other Asian regions, where the biota grows in the form of large bushes, and sometimes trees with a fairly wide crown. Adult specimens, capable of living in the wild for several hundred years, reach a height of 18, and their diameter thus reaches 12 meters.
The peculiarity of the eastern thai is flat with numerous branching shoots, covered with needles. On the trunk of the branch are located radially and upward, therefore from the side they give the impression of thin living plates.
Green, scaly needles in length does not exceed a millimeter, densely covers the shoots, the ends of which are crowned with cones, unlike those that mature on the western. As you can see in the photo, the east was decorated with greenish-bluish horn cones up to 15 mm long, which by the time of maturation they become brownish-red, dry up and open in the middle of autumn, freeing seeds.
Green, with a dull patch of pine needles biota in the winter become brownish-brown, but do not die. Their life lasts from 3 to 5 years, after which the needles fall off, revealing light shoots.
In culture, the eastern pyramidal form is often used. There are many varieties of this plant, differing in the shade of needles and the size of the bush.
Planting of biota, eastern thui and caring for conifers
In comparison with the western thuja, its eastern counterpart is more heat-loving. In the central part of Russia, the culture seriously freezes or completely dies, and if it survives, it loses the density of the crown, darkens.
In southern areas, for example, on the Black Sea coast and in the Crimea, the plant feels wonderful, reaches considerable sizes, pleases with a fluffy crown and excellent decorative.
Fans of coniferous cultures who wish to decorate the area with a thuje eastern can plant the shrubbery in a container. In this case, the biota will grow in the open air in the summer, and for the winter the thermophilous beauty will have to be transferred to the roof.
Like other cultures of the Cypress family, the plane-flyer is light-loving, but it also takes root in the shade. True, in this case, the crown is more sparse, which worsens the perception of pyramidal varieties. And plants with decorative golden needles in the shade can become completely green.
Planting and caring for the eastern one does not burden even the beginning gardener. The culture is undemanding to the composition of the soil and the presence in it of a large amount of organic matter. Cultivated sandy loam and loam are suitable for cultivation of biota. The soil should be loose enough for active development of the root system and drained to prevent stagnation of water and decay of the underground part of the plant.
Annual fertilizing is needed only for young specimens before the age of five. At this time, the drought-resistant shrub is watered regularly, as the surface of the stump circle dries. After 6 years, the eastern biota is watered only during hot arid periods.
Plants of this species are not afraid of transplantation. Deepening of the root neck for thuya plosvetochnochnika is not fatal, as for thuya western. On such a mistake gardener shrub will respond by the formation of new roots and shoots, becoming more dense and gaining additional nutrition and support.
As follows from the description, the eastern part reproduces both by seeds, and by layers, and by cuttings. In this case the seedlings retain the features of varietal parent plants.
Common varieties of eastern, biota
Sorts of biota eastern are not so much as those of its western neighbor Tui. The existing varieties differ in size, shape of the crown and color of the needles. Individual hybrid plants as a result of the lecture received greater winter hardiness than species, so they can grow to the north of the natural range.
Among the popular varieties is Tuya Oriental Aura Nana with a dense ovoid crown, to 10 years of age, shrubs reaching a height of 70-80 cm. The peculiarity of the Aurea Nana biota is golden needles, which in the autumn begins to cast all shades of bronze, and in the spring it becomes bright and yellow again.
Depending on the variety, in the landscape design oriental tuyas are used as large tapeworms, part of group plantings or the basis for creating a living decorative fence.
