Today we will talk about medicinal plants swamps Swampy soil is a favorable environment for the growth of a number of plants: various shrubs, herbs, berries.

They grow in very moist soil, as well as in reservoirs.

One of the medicinal plants adapted to swamp conditions is sphagnum moss. This is a soft, porous plant. During the war, moss was used to replace bandages and cotton wool, which were often in short supply. Sphagnum accelerated the healing process of wounds, had a disinfecting effect, and cleared pus.

Calamus common

Common calamus grows on the outskirts of swamps and along the banks of reservoirs. The rhizomes of this plant are used in medicine. Preparations from this plant are useful for gastritis and stomach ulcers. Symptoms for which calamus is used are heartburn, nausea, vomiting, flatulence.

On its basis, drugs are also prepared that are used for bronchitis, pleurisy, nephrolithiasis and cholelithiasis, and neuroses. Calamus preparations are used to improve memory.

For scabies and diathesis, a decoction is used externally in the form of lotions, rinses, and baths. Old wounds are sprinkled with powder from the root of the plant.

Ledum

This plant uses young shoots collected in August-September. In general, all aboveground part has a bactericidal effect. A decoction of wild rosemary is an enemy of staphylococci, dysentery bacillus and many other pathogens.

Lotus

The beneficial properties of this plant were known back in Ancient Greece. Lotus leaves are included in recipes for many medications and dietary supplements. Lotus preparations help with gastrointestinal diseases. Some varieties of this flower are useful for liver and kidney diseases.

It is used in the preparation of tonic teas. These remedies give vigor and energy. Lotus oil helps fight acne and makes the skin smooth and elastic. To obtain a remedy for burns (ointment), mix lotus leaves, roasted until black, with petroleum jelly. Proportion – 1:4.

Hemlock

Hemlock belongs to poisonous plants. It contains toxic alkaloids. Some of the poisons go away when the plant dries out. But still, hemlock requires special treatment, and it should be used as prescribed by a doctor. Hemlock preparations eliminate pain of various origins and stop the development of tumors. Hemlock has anti-inflammatory and anticonvulsant effects and is considered a strong immunostimulant.

Three-leaf watch (trifole)

An infusion is prepared from the leaves of this plant and is used for decreased appetite. The infusion helps improve the production of gastric juice. It is taken for flatulence and gastritis (with low acidity!).

The leaves of the plant have a choleretic effect. This plant is often included in choleretic, diuretic, laxative and sedative preparations.

Sabelnik

This plant is very valuable. The rhizomes of cinquefoil contain a large amount of tannins. It also contains valuable essential oils and flavonoids. Sabelnik contains carotene, carbohydrates, mineral salts, and ascorbic acid.

Preparations of cinquefoil have anti-inflammatory, wound-healing, and diaphoretic effects. With their help, stomach diseases, diarrhea, rheumatism, and tuberculosis are treated. Sabelnik is also used in steamed form. In this case, they treat mastitis and hemorrhoids.

Blueberry

The composition of this berry includes very important organic acids, as well as tannins, natural sugars, vitamins and minerals. Blueberries help improve stomach function and activate digestion.

Blueberries are included in the diet as prescribed by a doctor for the following diseases: gastric catarrh, dysentery, enterocolitis, as well as pyelitis and scurvy.

Of course, each of us knows. The swamp is an impenetrable deceptive space that draws in and does not allow the traveler who finds himself here to escape.

Popular belief claims that tall swamp grass hides insidious creatures - kikimoras, merman and mermaids, who do not allow anyone to escape. But in reality the swamp is amazing world, in which dozens of species grow medicinal herbs, and also so tasty and healthy berries and mushrooms. This is a storehouse of peat and reliable storage water reserves for rivers and lakes. Let's go to the swamp and see what grows on this waterlogged land.

How are swamps formed?

Swamps arise in two ways: in the process of overgrowing a reservoir or as a result of swamping of land. Overgrowing of ponds, lakes and oxbow rivers is the most common phenomenon in our natural conditions.

And if the banks of a reservoir are low and flat, then it will be overgrown in concentric circles. At the greatest depth (usually about 6 m), the bottom will be covered with a thick carpet of algae, at shallower depths a natural water filter - hornwort - will settle, and angustifolia pondweed will stick out its spike-shaped inflorescences above the surface. Even closer to the shore, water lilies will open their snow-white petals, and more modest yellow egg capsules will sway nearby. Their rhizomes are hidden in the mud at a depth of up to 4 m, and their wide leaves float on the water.

At a depth of 1.5 m, reeds, horsetail, as well as large and small sedges grow. Due to the fact that the water near the shore warms up well, marsh grasses here are very diverse. These are susak, arrowhead, barnacle, buttercup, sitnyag, chastuha, marsh iris - their growing belt adjoins the very shore.

Sediments from the remains of these plants lead to the fact that the reservoir becomes shallow over time, and the plants move closer and closer to the center, closing in a tight ring around the open water. Eventually, the time comes when the pond turns into a sedge bog.

What types of swamps are there?

Depending on which marsh grass or other plants predominate in a particular marsh, they are divided into different types.

• These can be (they are also called peat). The main plant on them is sphagnum moss, which forms peat cushions during the growth process.
• There are also swamps with a predominance of sedge. Besides it, other herbs also grow there. Such swamps are called grassy or, in other words, lowland.
• And the swamps, where they grow not only perennial herbs, but also various trees and shrubs are classified as forest.

In addition, they are divided, depending on their location, into high, low and transitional.

Lowland swamps and grasses growing on them

Lowland swamps are characteristic of river floodplains. They are, as a rule, rich in mineral salts, and the ash content of peat and the degree of its decomposition are the highest here. Marsh grass thrives in this landscape and is very diverse. Sedge, horsetail, hemlock, cinquefoil, whitewing, chastuha - this is just a small list of plants inhabiting lowland swamps.

With the first rays of the spring sun, the marsh marigold reveals its bright colors in the lowland swamps. There are more than 40 species of this primrose in nature. The fleshy rounded leaves and dense petals of the named flower have a pearlescent sheen that attracts in early spring insects trying to climb a bud heated by the sun. And this, in turn, greatly increases the marigold’s chances of successful pollination. Marigold is used as a medicinal plant to treat whooping cough, herpes and bronchitis. This plant has proven itself well for painful menstruation.

By the way, while admiring the marigold, we must not forget that this flower is unsafe, or more precisely, poisonous, and improperly prepared infusions from it can turn out to be toxic.

About marsh cinquefoil and whitewing

Not only the marigold can boast of its medicinal properties. The marsh cinquefoil grass also grows here - this is a real storehouse of useful things. Its rhizome contains large quantities tannins, and the plant itself is rich in carbohydrates, mineral salts, ascorbic acid, carotene, as well as flavonoids and essential oils. All this makes cinquefoil very useful as an anti-inflammatory, wound-healing and diaphoretic agent.

The cinquefoil overwinters with the help of a creeping rhizome located deep in the soil, which produces shoots with feathery leaves and large flowers, in the form of pointed five-leaf leaves, painted blood red.

Many marsh herbs are used as medicinal plants, but calliper, which blooms in the marsh until mid-summer, cannot be classified as one of them. This one is amazing beautiful flower, sparkling with lacquered leaves and looking like a small calla lily (which, by the way, it is a close relative of), is very poisonous. Moreover, absolutely all parts of it are poisonous, starting from the root, the flour from which, nevertheless, in the hungry years, the peasants after special processing added to rye flour, ending with bright red, fleshy berries.

How does a lowland swamp turn into a raised swamp?

No matter how a swamp arises, it first goes through the stage of lowland, well-supplied groundwater. Over time, grass begins to grow on the hummocks and around the stumps. This gradually increases the surface of the swamp, and it is slowly lifted away from the groundwater.

Now the elevated parts of this landscape can only receive water from the atmosphere in the form of rain and snow. And those plants that can tolerate a lack of minerals will be able to settle here, for example, cranberries, perennial marsh grass - cotton grass, cassandra, etc. Such a swamp will now be classified as transitional. Gradually, its entire surface will be cut off from groundwater, and the swamp will turn into a raised swamp.

Raised bog plants

Raised bogs most often form on watersheds. Water supplies here are replenished mainly by precipitation, and because of this, mineral salts in peat are present in much smaller quantities than in lowland swamps. The dominant plants on their territory are sphagnum mosses. In addition to them, there are wild rosemary, rosemary, cassandra, blueberry, cloudberry, round-leaved sundew, various sedges and other marsh herbs.

One of the most popular plants in marshy areas is cloudberry. By the way, this is the name of both the plant itself and its fruits. In ancient times it was known as swamp amber or royal berry. Similar in shape to raspberries, cloudberries still have a special sweet and sour wine taste and spicy aroma. Unripe berries are red, and ripe ones become orange, almost transparent, looking like an elegant piece of pure amber.

Vitamin C in this berry is 3 times more than in the famous orange; in terms of vitamin A content, cloudberries are superior to carrots. And in terms of healing qualities, it has no equal among marsh plants.

Wild rosemary herb

Forms lush thickets on raised and transitional bogs evergreen shrub from the Heather family - wild rosemary. This plant is also medicinal, but you need to be extremely careful with it - wild rosemary is very poisonous! With its strong, intoxicating, camphor-like odor, it causes dizziness, nausea and headaches.

This poisonous swamp grass is harvested only with the help of mittens and respirators. But properly collected wild rosemary is an effective expectorant, enveloping and antitussive agent. In addition, it has hypotensive, sedative and antispastic properties.

Sundew rotundifolia

Perhaps the most surprising inhabitant of raised swamps is This swamp grass - a carnivorous plant whose leaf blade is covered with a large number of glandular hairs, with a drop of sticky liquid at the tip of each.

Droplets, so similar to dew, shining in the rays of the morning sun, attract the attention of potential victims. They contain sugar and seem like a great treat, but are actually sticky goo.

This marsh grass has unusually sensitive leaves that react to even the slightest touch of an insect and immediately begin to move, generously clinging to it with sticky “dew.” The movement of the leaf is directed towards the center, the immobilized victim slides there and ends up next to the digestive villi. The edges of the leaf gradually close together, and the entire leaf turns into a kind of microstomach. After all that remains of the insect is exoskeleton, the leaf straightens again, waiting for a new victim.

A little more about marsh herbs

As you have probably already seen, the marsh herbs, photos of which are posted in the article, not only have medicinal qualities, but can also be poisonous. This is in flora is the main means of self-preservation - bitter taste, pungent odor, as well as a high content of resins, acids and essential oils. And those forced to live in especially difficult conditions, most often turn out to be poisonous. In addition to the ones mentioned above, poisonous ones also include common beetle, horsetail, mystic grass and marsh triostrena, buttercup, and many others.

But let us repeat once again - this does not prevent them from being medicinal and saving people from many serious illnesses. The main thing is to be vigilant and in no case exceed the dosages indicated for preparing medicinal infusions or herbal decoctions that the swamp generously gives us.

All swamps are formed when there is an excess stagnant water. They are most widespread in the northern part of the forest zone, since cold summers and high humidity promote their development.

Swamps are especially well developed in Western Siberia, which is facilitated by its flat terrain; in mountainous Eastern Siberia There are few peat bogs. Peat bogs are significantly developed in Kamchatka.

Raised peat, or sphagnum, bogs are formed in place of spruce or pine forests, sometimes in forest meadows, usually in depressions and basins with stagnant moisture, which prevents the penetration of air oxygen. Here, dying plants do not rot, as was the case in dry soils, but turn into peat. The peat layer can be very thick—several meters. Peat bogs are typical for the forest zone; their southern border in the European part runs approximately from the Baltic states through the south of the Minsk region, the north of the Chernigov region, through Smolensk to Moscow-Gorky. Peat moss is found in isolated small areas further south, but does not enter the steppe zone.

To the north of the taiga zone, in the tundra, peat bogs are very common.

In peat bogs, plants are placed in special conditions existence. Sphagnum moss Every year its tops grow by several millimeters, and thus the level of the entire swamp gradually rises, which is why it received the name “upland”. Plants have adapted to this in different ways: shrubs grow roots higher up the stem, grasses, stretching out, bring their wintering buds to the surface of the moss cushions in the spring. Groundwater is located under a layer of peat and is often inaccessible to plants. Therefore, plants absorb water from moss cushions, which absorb atmospheric moisture - rain and dew, absorbed by the moss like a sponge. In this regard, these swamps are wet only in rain and cloudy weather, and dry out in drought. On a continuous carpet of peat, or sphagnum, moss (from the Greek “sphagnos” - sponge) grow a few low shrubs - wild rosemary, berry bushes - blueberries, blueberries, lingonberries, cloudberries, cranberries, crowberries; herbaceous plants very little. The sundew is a peculiarly insectivorous plant. On some peat bogs, low, stunted and crooked pines and dwarf birch grow; spruce does not survive here.

Grassy, ​​or lowland, swamps look completely different, wet and in drought. Here, groundwater is available to plants. Lowland swamps are usually formed by the overgrowing of more or less large river oxbow lakes and drainless lakes, and are also found around river mouths or along their banks. This process can occur from the bottom, through the gradual deposition of dying underwater and coastal plants. Reservoirs are inhabited by plants that float, such as duckweed, or, at shallow depths, take root at the bottom. Some species grow under water, others bear leaves and flowers on long petioles that float on the water - white water lilies and yellow capsules. In shallow water coastal strip reeds and reeds form a belt, or calamus, cattails and other plants settle here. The marshy land is inhabited by sedges, cotton grass, buttercups, iris, cinquefoil, water pepper, etc. All this vegetation gradually moves onto the reservoir and reduces or completely covers the water surface. Along the mouths large rivers sometimes reeds and reeds occupy a large area. In other swamps, sedges and cotton grass predominate.

Reservoirs can also become overgrown from the surface by forming a floating carpet along its edges, and in the center - floating islands that gradually grow together (rafts). In this carpet, rhizomes and turf of aquatic plants are intertwined, its thickness gradually increases and unsteady swamps - bogs - appear.

There are many grass swamps in the northern forest zone and tundra; they are often found in more southern forests and in the steppe zone. In some forests, black alder swamps develop, which are flooded with water in the spring. Sometimes meadows become swamped, and then under the influence of unfavorable environmental conditions meadow grass are replaced by swamp ones.

Many medicinal plants are collected in the swamps. Peat moss, cranberries, blueberries, cloudberries, lingonberry leaves, wild rosemary branches, and sundews are harvested in the high bogs. In lowland swamps and reservoirs - trefoil watch, marsh calamus; in wet meadows and along rivers - water pepper and succession.

Lesson-expedition on the topic "Medicinal plants of the swamp community." Natural history, 5th grade

Target: introduce students to the diversity of medicinal plants in the swamp community.

Tasks:

• find out the features external structure, beneficial features medicinal plants of the swamp community;
• learn to recognize medicinal plants in herbarium specimens and photographs;
• develop cognitive interest in medicinal plants of your area;
• bring up careful attitude to plants.

Lesson format: lesson - expedition.

Teaching methods:

• reproductive,
• partially search,
• research.

Equipment:

• expedition participant's herbal notebook(Annex 1) ,
• information card and blanks for filling out the table(Appendix 2) ,
• multimedia projector, presentation disc(Appendix 3) ,
• herbariums and postcards of medicinal plants from the swamp community,
• epigraph on the board,
• glue sticks,
• to demonstrate the experiment, dry sphagnum moss,
• glass of water,
• tokens with the names of medicinal plants of the swamp.

During the classes

1. Org. moment (greeting, getting ready to work).
2. Goal setting and motivation (explanation of how the lesson will proceed, goal setting).

Teacher: Today our lesson on the topic “Medicinal Plants” will be unusual. I invite you to become participants in a scientific expedition. To find out where it will take place, guess the riddle:

Everyone goes around this place:
Here is the land.
It's like dough;
There are sedges, hummocks, and mosses.
No leg support.

Students: this is a swamp.

Teacher: So, the route of our expedition will pass through the swamp.

People have long created legends about the swamp. What pictures do you imagine when it comes to a swamp? (In this word one hears something frightening, ominous. Others see in it something mysterious, fabulous, etc.)

Appeal to the epigraph

The swamp is a special world, living its own special life, having permanent inhabitants and temporary guests, its own voices, its own noises and, most importantly, its own secret... (Guy De Maupassant)

There are many unsolved secrets of the swamps; they are studied by swamp scientists. We will also try to reveal the secrets of some plants - their external biological features, healing properties. The expedition route will pass along the eastern edge of the swamp in the vicinity of our native village of Novobureysky. Until 1900, this territory was a continuous swamp. As a result of construction and land drainage, only small areas remained of it. ( Appendix 3 . Slides).

1. Updating knowledge

Teacher: To check the readiness of expedition participants for research work, let's remember what is called a swamp? (Students give their definition, then turn to the dictionary in their notebook).

A swamp is an area of ​​excess moisture where moisture-loving plants grow and peat accumulates.

What plants are found in the swamp? (Sedge, marigold, iris, sundew, wild rosemary, wild rosemary).

Teacher: Right. The swamp is characterized by low plant species diversity. What is this connected with? (Not all plants can grow in conditions high humidity). Let's get acquainted with medicinal plants - typical representatives of the swamp community.

1. Learning new material

Teacher: For its unusual trifoliate leaves, this plant is popularly called “three-leafed”. This is a three-leaf watch ( slide).

And this is a primrose plant. As soon as the sun warms up, yellow, inconspicuous flowers appear, which are located in a kind of plate of bright greenish-yellow leaves. The plant got its name due to its use in folk medicine in the treatment of spleen diseases. This is the spleen ( slide).

This plant is known in science as a predator. Its entire aerial part is used for dry coughs, as an antipyretic. This... (Slide of sundew rotundifolia).

The famous berry plant, blueberry, also grows in the swamp. Unfortunately, you won’t see it on our route. Why? (Students express their guesses).

Due to annual fires and grass mowing, this plant disappeared from the swamp community in the vicinity of our village.

Sphagnum moss - amazing plant, having unique properties. (Experiment demonstration: place dry sphagnum moss in a glass of water).

What happened to the dry moss? (Sphagnum absorbed water like a sponge). This happens due to empty dead cells. During the Great Patriotic War Sphagnum moss was used instead of cotton wool as a dressing material. Not only does it absorb water, but it also has antibacterial properties.

In addition to the listed medicinal plants, in our swamp there are also: valerian officinalis, swamp whiteweed, knotweed, marsh cinquefoil, marsh chickweed, marsh cudweed, loosestrife.

Please note that many plants have the specific name “swamp”, which indicates their typical habitat. (Slides).

And now our expedition group faces important work in processing the collected information. In your notebook, fill out the table “Medicinal plants of the swamp.” Use information cards and ready-made blanks for this. (paste them into the required column of the table). Be careful, pay attention to the screen where the medicinal plants of the swamp are depicted.

Medicinal plants of the swamp

1. Consolidation and application of knowledge

Didactic game “Guess it!”

Students take turns drawing tokens with the names of the medicinal plants of the swamp, without showing them to anyone. Give a brief morphological (external) description of the plant. The rest of the guys must guess what medicinal plant we are talking about, find and show it on the herbarium or on postcards.

1. Self-control

Solving the crossword puzzle (work in a phytotebook).

1. Summing up the expedition

Our correspondence expedition through the swamp in the vicinity of the village of Novobureysky has ended. We have revealed to you the healing secrets of the plants living in this amazing community. Currently, in our swamp, in the vicinity of the village of Novobureysky, more than 30 species of different plants grow. Such a large species diversity is due to the fact that environmental conditions and the appearance of the swamp change over time. Increasingly, in the swamp you can find various weeds, meadows, and forest plants.

In the future, we will go out into the swamp more than once, and in practice we will identify medicinal plants and expand our knowledge about them.

If you have to collect medicinal plants, do not forget the rules for collecting them. Remember, some medicinal plants used in large doses are poisonous. For example, wild rosemary causes dizziness, sundew causes paralysis of the nervous system.

And, of course, when visiting the swamp, do not allow such a picture to happen.... ( Appendix 3. Slides of a fire, pollution of a swamp with household waste).

1. Reflection

Expressing judgments about one's own achievements. For example,

• I liked the lesson...
• During the lesson I remember...
• I was surprised when...
• I learned in class...etc.

1. Homework:

§ 41 (textbook of natural history 5th grade. V.M. Pakulova, N.V. Ivanova).

I invite you to take part in the competition of traditional healers. Create it yourself or find it ready-made recipe treatment of various diseases with the help of medicinal plants of the swamp. Best Recipes we will send it to the newspaper “Aibolit”.

Thanks everyone for your work. Good health to you!

Literature:

1. Ryzhkova N.P. Medicinal plants Far East. - Blagoveshchensk, - 1994. - 216 p.
2. Russkikh R.D. Forest Robinsons. -Izhevsk, “Udmurtia”, 1973. - 168 p.
3. Sokolov S.Ya., Zamotaev I.P. Medicinal plants. - M.: “Vita”, 1993. - 512 p.

Swamps, with their excessive moisture and high acidity, are not the most comfortable place to live. And yet a whole series plant species managed to adapt to these conditions. Who is included in the plant communities of swamps? And what are swamps?

Swamps are widespread throughout to the globe. They occupy large areas in different climatic zones ah, in each of which there are waterlogged areas with an established special type of swamp vegetation. That is, there is no separate zone of swamp climate; swamp plants in tropical and temperate latitudes differ significantly in their species diversity.

Within each climatic zone, there is also a very large difference in swamp landscapes: in origin, environmental conditions and associated plant groups. Let's stop at the swamps of temperate latitudes, richly represented in the zone of summer-green deciduous and boreal coniferous forests.

Formation conditions

In the temperate zone, huge areas of swamps are found in Eurasia and North America.

One of the most extensive swamps is located in Siberia - Vasyugan (54,000 km2).

Also, significant swampy areas lie in the north-west and central parts of Russia, Belarus, Finland and Scandinavia.

In any of the climatic zones, the formation of a swamp is associated with excessive and stagnant moisture, which has a few reasons. First of all this humid climate, in which more precipitation falls than moisture evaporates from the land surface, and under certain terrain features, moisture stagnates or water flow is completely absent. The flat terrain with small depressions and close standing groundwater causes waterlogging. This is facilitated by the characteristic heavy soils compacted bare horizon, the so-called ortshtein, which prevents water from seeping down the profile. Exacerbates the situation in large temperate areas permafrost(soils that do not thaw even in summer), which also serves as a waterproof layer.

There are options

According to the origin and method of moisture entry and nutrients The main types of swamps are distinguished:

• lowland (topogenic)
• riding (ombrogenic)
• transitional, which have features of the first two.

There are also flat swamps that arise when water bodies become overgrown, and swamps aapa-type, which are characteristic of the subarctic climate on flat topography or underlying permafrost substrate.

Thus, in nature there are many types of swamps - from classic lowland and upland through many transitional variants, differing in the characteristics of the relief and underlying rocks, the initial complex of soil and plant conditions and the history of their origin. The species composition of bog plant communities depends on a gradient of several environmental factors.

Lowland marshes

Lowland marshes- as their name suggests - they form in floodplains, along the banks of lakes and artificial reservoirs, as well as in relief depressions, often of glacial origin. They feed on groundwater and runoff surface waters. Thus, lowland swamps constantly have an influx of water, usually rich in nutrients, the composition of which determines the range of plant species of a particular swamp community.

Plants of lowland swamps prefer fairly rich soils and at the same time are able to withstand prolonged flooding with water. In relation to soil and air moisture, they belong to hygrophytes, and in relation to soil richness, most of them belong to eutrophs.

Among tree species representatives of the genus should be identified Willow, often a shrubby growth habit, and black alder (Alnus glutinosa). Of the herbs found three-leaf watch (Menyanthes trifoliata), swamp napper (Epipactis palustris), marsh cinquefoil (Comarum palustre), swamp calligraphy (Calla palustris), broadleaf cotton grass (Eriophorum latifolium), sedges, reed grass. The predominant group of mosses is hypnotic moss, in particular species of the genus Drepanocladus (Drepanocladus), Paludella (Paludella), Calliergon (Calliegon), Scorpidium (Scorpidium) and etc.

succession

Swamps are interesting because in the history of their formation you can clearly trace the stages succession(change) of plant communities, sometimes this process occurs over several years and can literally be observed: for example, swamping of the shore of a pond, an oxbow lake in the floodplain of a river or a small lake. Larger-scale swamping processes do not occur so quickly and depend on many reasons, in particular periodic long-term climate fluctuations and hydrological changes, anthropogenic impacts to nature (building roads, draining water, draining).

Overgrowing of a reservoir

Down up

In nature, the change in vegetation of bogs usually occurs from lowland to raised peat, i.e., from a richer composition of moisture-loving and eutrophic species to a more specialized group of plants adapted to life on high-moor peatlands poor in nutrients. This happens due to a gradual increase in the height of the peat cushion from year to year, the accumulation plant residues under conditions of waterlogging and the associated lack of oxygen, as well as due to increased acidity surrounding water. At the beginning of the formation of the ground cover of sphagnum moss, the process of swamping is in the stage of a transitional swamp.

Vegetation changes from eutrophic to mesotrophic: it grows from woody fluffy birch (Betula pubescens) in a depressed state, willow pentastamen (Salix pentandra), low birch (Betula nana) a lot. At higher elevations you can find abundance wild rosemary (Ledum palustre), of herbs predominate angustifolia cotton grass (Eriophorum angustifolia) and sedges, but in a different set of species - hairy sedge (Carex lasiocarpa), yellow sedge (Carex flava) etc. Hypnosis mosses are gradually replaced by representatives of the genus Sphagnum (Sphagnum).

The bog grows upward, the connection of plant roots with the layers of rich lowland peat weakens. Subsequently, in the most elevated part of the peat cushion, conditions for an oligotrophic, or raised, bog develop. There is no recharge from groundwater and surface water flowing down from the relief; nutrition and water supply occurs only through precipitation.

From forest to swamp

Another type of swamping - from forest to swamp - also occurs in several stages, and the eutrophic stage can fall out or immediately, with a certain topography, go along the upland type - in conditions of moisture and minerals supplied exclusively from the atmosphere. Then typical raised bogs– dominance of sphagnum mosses, which are able to exist without a substrate. Forming a dense cushion, they grow upward, while their lower part constantly dies off with the formation of acidic peat, which is poor in ash substances.

In addition to sphagnum, a limited range of species grows in such conditions, most of which are oligotrophs. From woody plants - mainly Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) in a depressed state. A special group of specialized shrubs and shrubs from the heather family includes common podbel (Andromeda polyfolia), bog myrtle (Chamaedaphne calyculata), cranberry (Oxycoccus) and some others. Herbaceous plants are often found

(Eriophorum vaginatum), marsh sedge (Carex limosa).

Raised bogs

Sphagnum is coming

The microclimate of raised bogs is very different from the surrounding forest areas. The level of evaporation from the surface of swamps is higher than from the flat surface of water, so the air is saturated with vapor. Areas of raised bogs are open to the sun and winds; strong temperature changes are observed during the day; in the spring they last longer, and in the fall frosts begin earlier. No less important is the environment-forming role of sphagnum, which is an example of a strong edifier, i.e. a plant that determines the living conditions for other organisms.

The roots of grasses, shrubs and single pines are found both in the living sphagnum moss itself and in the peat formed from it. The root-inhabited layers of moss and peat are oversaturated for most of the year with stagnant, i.e., immobile, and therefore oxygen-poor water. We repeat, high-moor peat is also poor in nutrients, but it is rich in organic acids, which determine its strongly acidic reaction.

A layer of sphagnum moss is a good insulator: when on hot sunny days the hummocks in the swamp can dry out and become very hot, the peat and water below remain cool (as do the rivers flowing from the swamps). Most likely, this set of conditions led to the formation of a group of oligotrophic species from the family heather, in which a xeromorphic leaf structure is observed, despite excess moisture.

Heather is often found in swampy forests

Many plants of upland bogs have, thanks to which they become accessible organic matter, which are in excess in surrounding water. In oligotrophic swamps there are interesting - sundews (Drosera), butterwort (Pinguicula) And sarracenia (Sarracenia), which in their own way solved the problem of lack of mineral nutrients. Sphagnum moss quickly grows upward, and to counter this, some types of bog plants form long rhizomes, while others are able to constantly form new adventitious roots every year.

Target: introduce students to the diversity of medicinal plants in the swamp community.

Tasks:

• find out the features of the external structure, beneficial properties of medicinal plants of the swamp community;
• learn to recognize medicinal plants in herbarium specimens and photographs;
• develop a cognitive interest in the medicinal plants of your area;
• cultivate a caring attitude towards plants.

Lesson format: lesson - expedition.

Teaching methods:

• reproductive,
• partially search,
• research.

Equipment:

• herbal notebook of the expedition participant (Appendix 1),
• information card and blanks for filling out the table (Appendix 2),
• multimedia projector, presentation disc (Appendix 3),
• herbariums and postcards of medicinal plants from the swamp community,
• epigraph on the board,
• glue sticks,
• to demonstrate the experiment, dry sphagnum moss,
• glass of water,
• tokens with the names of medicinal plants of the swamp.

During the classes

1. Org. moment (greeting, getting ready to work).
2. Goal setting and motivation (explanation of how the lesson will proceed, goal setting).

Teacher: Today our lesson on the topic “Medicinal Plants” will be unusual. I invite you to become participants in a scientific expedition. To find out where it will take place, guess the riddle:

Everyone goes around this place:
Here is the land.
It's like dough;
There are sedges, hummocks, and mosses.
No leg support.

Students: this is a swamp.

Teacher: So, the route of our expedition will pass through the swamp.

People have long created legends about the swamp. What pictures do you imagine when it comes to a swamp? (In this word one hears something frightening, ominous. Others see in it something mysterious, fabulous, etc.)

Appeal to the epigraph

The swamp is a special world, living its own special life, having permanent inhabitants and temporary guests, its own voices, its own noises and, most importantly, its own secret... (Guy De Maupassant)

There are many unsolved secrets of the swamps; they are studied by swamp scientists. We will also try to reveal the secrets of some plants - their external biological characteristics, healing properties. The expedition route will pass along the eastern edge of the swamp in the vicinity of our native village of Novobureysky. Until 1900, this territory was a continuous swamp. As a result of construction and land drainage, only small areas remained of it. (Appendix 3. Slides).

1. Updating knowledge

Teacher: To check the readiness of the expedition members for research work, let's remember what is called a swamp? (Students give their definition, then turn to the dictionary in their notebook).

A swamp is an area of ​​excess moisture where moisture-loving plants grow and peat accumulates.

What plants are found in the swamp? (Sedge, marigold, iris, sundew, wild rosemary, wild rosemary).

Teacher: Right. The swamp is characterized by low plant species diversity. What is this connected with? (Not all plants can grow in high humidity conditions.) Let's get acquainted with medicinal plants - typical representatives of the swamp community.

1. Learning new material

Teacher: For its unusual trifoliate leaves, this plant is popularly called “three-leafed”. This is a three-leaf watch ( slide).

And this is a primrose plant. As soon as the sun warms up, yellow, inconspicuous flowers appear, which are located in a kind of plate of bright greenish-yellow leaves. The plant got its name due to its use in folk medicine in the treatment of spleen diseases. This is the spleen ( slide).

This plant is known in science as a predator. Its entire aerial part is used for dry coughs, as an antipyretic. This... (Slide of sundew rotundifolia).

The famous berry plant, blueberry, also grows in the swamp. Unfortunately, you won’t see it on our route. Why? (Students express their guesses).

Due to annual fires and grass mowing, this plant disappeared from the swamp community in the vicinity of our village.

Sphagnum moss is an amazing plant with unique properties. (Experiment demonstration: place dry sphagnum moss in a glass of water).

What happened to the dry moss? (Sphagnum absorbed water like a sponge). This happens due to empty dead cells. During the Great Patriotic War, sphagnum moss was used instead of cotton wool as a dressing material. Not only does it absorb water, but it also has antibacterial properties.

In addition to the listed medicinal plants, in our swamp there are also: valerian officinalis, swamp whiteweed, knotweed, marsh cinquefoil, marsh chickweed, marsh cudweed, loosestrife.

Please note that many plants have the specific name “swamp”, which indicates their typical habitat. (Slides).

And now our expedition group faces important work in processing the collected information. In your notebook, fill out the table “Medicinal plants of the swamp.” Use information cards and ready-made blanks for this. (paste them into the required column of the table). Be careful, pay attention to the screen where the medicinal plants of the swamp are depicted.

Medicinal plants of the swamp

1. Consolidation and application of knowledge

Didactic game “Guess it!”

Students take turns drawing tokens with the names of the medicinal plants of the swamp, without showing them to anyone. Give a brief morphological (external) description of the plant. The rest of the guys must guess what medicinal plant we are talking about, find and show it on the herbarium or on postcards.

1. Self-control

Solving the crossword puzzle (work in a phytotebook).

1. Summing up the expedition

Our correspondence expedition through the swamp in the vicinity of the village of Novobureysky has ended. We have revealed to you the healing secrets of the plants living in this amazing community. Currently, in our swamp, in the vicinity of the village of Novobureysky, more than 30 species of different plants grow. Such a large species diversity is due to the fact that environmental conditions and the appearance of the swamp change over time. Increasingly, in the swamp you can find various weeds, meadows, and forest plants.

In the future, we will go out into the swamp more than once, and in practice we will identify medicinal plants and expand our knowledge about them.

If you have to collect medicinal plants, do not forget the rules for collecting them. Remember, some medicinal plants used in large doses are poisonous. For example, wild rosemary causes dizziness, and sundew causes paralysis of the nervous system.

And, of course, when visiting the swamp, do not allow such a picture to happen.... (Appendix 3. Slides of fire, pollution of the swamp with household waste).

1. Reflection

Expressing judgments about one's own achievements. For example,

• I liked the lesson...
• During the lesson I remember...
• I was surprised when...
• I learned in class...etc.

1. Homework:

§ 41 (textbook of natural history 5th grade. V.M. Pakulova, N.V. Ivanova).

I invite you to take part in the competition of traditional healers. Create your own or find a ready-made recipe for treating various diseases using medicinal plants from the swamp. We will send the best recipes to the Aibolit newspaper.

Thanks everyone for your work. Good health to you!

Literature:

1. Ryzhkova N.P. Medicinal plants of the Far East. - Blagoveshchensk, - 1994. - 216 p.
2. Russkikh R.D. Forest Robinsons. -Izhevsk, “Udmurtia”, 1973. - 168 p.
3. Sokolov S.Ya., Zamotaev I.P. Medicinal plants. - M.: “Vita”, 1993. - 512 p.