Content
- The buds of hornbeam
- The hornbeam bears winter and flower buds
- Leaf or flower buds?
- Buds open with the leaves
- On the buds hornbeam and red beech differ
- Tips
The hornbeam has male and female buds
The buds of hornbeam
Hornbeams start their buds in the summer. Until budding in spring, they look like small thickenings. At the position of the buds, the hornbeam can also be distinguished from the European beech. Worth knowing about the buds of hornbeam.
The hornbeam bears winter and flower buds
The buds of the hornbeam, from which later the leaves and flowers grow, are already created in the summer. They are brown or reddish brown and have small hairs on the side. The arrangement on the branch is alternate. They are very close to the shoot.
This so-called winter bud encapsulates with dandruff and sets a resting phase until it sprouts. It is very hard and can hardly be detached.
In the spring the scale armor jumps up and is thrown off. Underneath lies the actual bud from which the leaf sprouts.
Leaf or flower buds?
The leaf buds are about 5 to 8 millimeters long and taper sharply.The flower buds are slightly longer than the leaf buds. They are not quite so sharp for that.
The scales of the leaf buds are significantly larger than those of the flower buds. These look very filigree and suggest the later flowering in the form of a kitten.
The buds also play a role in cutting. At each shoot, at least three buds, also called eyes, must remain if the hornbeam is to branch well.
Buds open with the leaves
The flower buds open at the same time as the leaves begin to bud. The hornbeam carries both female and male flowers, it is so einhäusig and needs for pollination no second hornbeam in the area.
The pollination is done by wind and insects.
On the buds hornbeam and red beech differ
In the beech, the end buds are at the top of each shoot. A hornbeam only has sham-end buds. They are slightly laterally offset on the shoot.
Tips
Hornbeams, which are often cut as a hedge, rarely bloom, as the flower buds are removed when cutting. Single hornbeams, which are allowed to grow unhindered, produce male kitten-shaped flowers and the inconspicuous female flowers in winter.