Anchar is a tropical tree or shrub? Description, habitat. Anchar is the tree of death

The point here is not about the terrible tree-lyudode,often figured in numerous legends of antiquity and even in more modern newspaper sensations. The botanists, who carefully surveyed the inaccessible and the most remote corners of the planet Earth, did not encounter anything terrible, in the way that was described in the works.

In this article we will talk about whether there really is an Anchar tree, where it grows and what its features are.

The native land of the plant is the East Indies and the Malay Archipelago.

A bit of history

For a long time this tree was not very well known. For a long time it was believed that the Anchar was a "tree of death."

The very first message about the Anchar was printedin 1783 in a London magazine with the words of an Englishman who worked as a surgeon on the island of Java. They were told that, according to local rumors, this tree is so poisonous that around him within a radius of 15 miles all life dies. And besides, the extraction of the poison of this tree is equated with the death penalty (it was extracted mainly by convicts). It turned out that the information is completely false, but the image of the "tree of death" has since been preserved among readers and began to spread rapidly. So anchar became legendary.

And G. Rumpf (Dutch scientist-botanist) added an unfortunate glory to the tree. He was sent to the colony (in Makassaru) in the middle of the 17th century to find out which plant the natives give poison to, which they use for poisonous arrows. Rumpf for 15 years, just fished the necessary information for him from local residents. As a result, the result was a report on this allegedly poisonous tree.

Anchar is a tree to which many poets have devoted their poems (for example, AS Pushkin).

A lot later the amazing plant was morehas been studied in detail. Even the first researchers, who knew about the terrible stories about the "tree of death," were very impressed by the fact that the birds sit on the branches of this plant carelessly and calmly.

Over time, it turned out that the branches, and othersparts of the tree are harmless for both humans and animals. Dangerous is only its juice, flowing from the places of damage. In ancient times, the natives used poisonous resin to lubricate the arrowheads intended for the enemies.

Today, the terrible definition of the "tree of death" is no longer applied to this plant. And what does the Anchar tree look like? About this a little further in the article.

Anchar (tree): description

Anchar is a genus of plants (the mulberry family),related to evergreen trees or shrubs. It turns out that he is a close relative of mulberry and ficus. There are some poisonous types of anchara.

It should be noted that both the appearance and the growth environment of this tree are not similar to what is represented in the famous poem.

There is a tree-like juniper arch,often in the form of a tree with knotty, coarse-grained and fairly hardwood. It occurs in the mountains on stony soils and rocks, where grass usually does not grow. This plant is not poisonous, but it looks unusual for Europeans. There is an assumption that the poet could confuse these two plants or simply put them together and presented in the form of a terrible tree, which carries death.

The height of the slender trunk of the Anchar tree is 40 meters. The crown is small, rounded, with simple leaves 10-20 cm long.

Its flowers are small, closely and densely bored into the inflorescence with goblet swathe around.

The oviposition consists of many small fruits, sitting very tightly and each having its own juicy perianth.

Properties

Anchar is a tree containing in its leavesjuice, when hit on the body can appear only an abscess on the skin. The strongest poison of antiarin can be obtained only with a special distillation of the acacia juice (the scientific name of the tree is "antiaris"). Just the natives owned this way of making poison lasting more than one week.

Among other things, despite not very goodthe reputation of the tree, the local population widely uses its thick beautiful and rather elastic bark for making clothes and rugs. The craftsmen get a dense white fabric, suitable for sewing pants and shirts.

About the title

Its generic name (Antiaris toxicaria) was invented by the Frenchman J. Lescheno (traveler, naturalist and botanist). He also described this plant.

In translation from Javanese language, anchar is a poison.

In fact, this horrible, according to the stories, the tree was tall and beautiful, growing on the islands of the Malay Archipelago, but more it is spread in Java.

For a long time this plant was referred to the family of nettle.

Habitat

It is known that in the tropics there is no, as described inpoem "lonely growing" on the sands of trees. What is the rainforest? This set of the most diverse vegetation, trees, entwined with various lianas. Anchar in the desert does not grow, especially since the soil for it is needed not meager. He grows in a friendly neighborhood with another vegetation, which from this does not suffer at all. There are, however, certain "valley of death" in Java, composed of accumulations of products of volcanic activity of these places (sulfur vapor and carbon dioxide). Perhaps Pushkin's Anchar grew up in the midst of one of such valleys?

Botany subdivided several types of anchar,Growing in India, on the island of Sri Lanka, and throughout Malaysia (the milky millet juice of these places is very toxic), up to the Philippine islands. Non-poisonous Anchar ("sackwood") grows in India. The bark of the latter is used for making strong bags for everyday use.

Application

As noted above, in itself is not dangerous анчар. This juice is poisonous. And almost all its subspecies are related to such, especially poisonous poison. It was his juice that the natives in Java poisoned arrowheads. Anchar juice was poisoned at the end of the last century by arrows for the "sarbakan" (wind gun), and those who were engaged in the extraction of this juice could easily suffer.

The poison is grazed (or boa-upas and boon-usas) - this is juiceMilky, in the distillation of which with alcohol produces a well-known antiarin. This is a very strong poison, crystallizing in colorless shiny leaves of the plant.

There is another subspecies - anchar bennett, growingon the island of Vitu and containing in its fruits beautiful carmine paint. In its bark there are excellent bast fibers, from which they make crafts. Also, they make bags in Ceylon and in the East Indies.

On the properties of poison

In the middle of the 18th century, a poison made oflactate juice, called "Makassar" was part of the collection of the British Museum (London), and then in the XIX century, its chemical composition was also investigated.

The investigated antiarin is a glycoside, close toglycoside of digitalis and other cardiac plant glycosides, very quickly affecting the heart muscle. There are in the juice anchara and others, but less studied poisons.

Conclusion

Anchar was rehabilitated. This was due to careful scientific research.

A lot of time passed before the treemanaged to thoroughly study and dispel a terrible, wrong idea about him. The poison extracted from it in old times has served a bad, gloomy service, but there is also useful in this tree that was noted above.

Thus, the Anchar does not spread death around itself. On the contrary, next to it grow beautifully and bloom wonderful vines, trees and other plants.