looduskalender.ee

 

 

The editorial board of magazine „Eesti Loodus“ selects a Tree ot the Year, since 1996. Now we have reached the shrubs. Chosen for the coming year are the barberry and the spindle; no relatives of each other, botanically they belong to different families.

 

The barberry is known in West and North Estonia. The fruits of this shrub, growing in the limestone part of Estonia, are eye-catching in nature.

 

The spindle is probably familiar primarily to southern Estonians; its natural habitats are around the Koiva river and also in Saaremaa, the Sõrve peninsula. The spindle is grown as an ornamental species in parks but it naturalizes quite easily. We will introduce it in the next few days.

 

So everyone has a Tree of the Year, wherever in Estonia they live.

 

 

The well branching barberry grows a couple of metres high, more rarely three metres. The leaves are narrow and small, attached to the branches in bunches. Under the bunch of leaves we note a group of three needle-sharp thorns. Young shoots from this summer have only one thorn.

 

Of course the clusters of red, oval berries are eye-catching – strongly sour, juicy and quite edible. They contain wholesome acids and sugars and become tastier when night frosts have nipped them. You can pick some and taste them; the small oval fruit hides 2-3 seeds with hard shells.

 

Seeing the Latin name the red sweets „Barbariss“ come to mind.

 

For ornamental purposes the Thunberg’s or Japanese barberry / Berberis thunbergii / with splendid colours in autumn is used but its fruits are not edible.