Parocia or Persian parocia (lat. Parrotia persica) is a deciduous tree from the family Hamamelidaceae. It can be up to 15 meters high, and the branches spread bushily from the short trunk almost at the bottom. Young trees have smooth bark, but it peels off with age and reveals a gray and white color. The buds are covered with thick hairs and are dark brown in color.
Parochial leaves are arranged alternately and grow on petioles 2 to 5 mm long. They have an egg-shaped shape, pronounced veins and wavy edges and blunt tips. Their face is dark green, while the reverse side is slightly lighter, but on both sides they are covered with hairs. In autumn, they change color to orange, yellow or red.
Parocia blooms with small, dark red flowers that look very interesting. The flowers are bisexual and do not have crown leaves, and they grow together in small flower heads. They begin to form already in February, before leafing occurs. The fruit of the parocia is a hairy, broadly egg-shaped capsule, inside of which are two elongated and dark seeds.
The following Parocia cultivars are used for cultivation:
- Parrotia persica ‘Horizontalis’ – has horizontally laid, wide and semi-hanging branches;
- Parrotia persica ‘Pendula’ – a cultivar with a compact crown and drooping branches;
- Parrotia persica ‘Select’ – differs from other cultivars only in that the edges of its leaves are edged in purple;
- Parrotia persica ‘Vanessa’ is an upright cultivar with a cylindrical crown.
In addition to Persian parocia and its cultivars, there is also Chinese parocia (lat. Parrotia subaequalis) which is originally from eastern China. There are five separate populations of the Chinese parish, two each in Zheijang and Jiangsu provinces and one in Anhui province. It is considered a critically endangered species because within the five known populations there are less than a hundred reproductive individuals.
Planting conditions: sunny or semi-shady place
Soil: moist, but well-drained because it does not tolerate water retention
Flowering time: March and April
Canopy: oval shape
Tree height: up to 15 m
Root: superficial
Planting and propagation of Parocia
Parocia can be propagated by seeds and cuttings, but since it is also a slow grower, propagation by cuttings is a better option. Places in semi-shade or those with constant direct sunlight are suitable for cultivation. It has no special requirements when it comes to the type of soil, but medium-moist, well-drained and slightly acidic soils suit it best. Does not tolerate water retention.
Well-rooted parocia seedlings can be planted in autumn or spring. They are planted in holes that are three times wider than the root ball. The seedlings should be handled carefully to avoid damage, and after you have planted them and returned the rest of the soil to the hole, pour them with two buckets of water and mulch the surrounding soil to retain moisture in the soil as well as possible. It would also be good to place some kind of support so that the trees grow upright. You can remove the support after two years, because the trees will take root well in about that time.
Seedlings should be watered regularly for the first few weeks, more precisely once a week or as soon as the top layer of soil dries. After the trees get stronger, they no longer need to be watered, possibly if a whole month passes without rainfall.
Cultivation and maintenance of parocia
Persian parochia is an excellent choice for parks and other public areas and medium and large gardens. It is easy to grow because it does not require any special measures when it comes to maintenance, and there are no significant problems with diseases and pests. It is resistant to drought, high temperatures, wind and urban pollution, and tolerates clay soils. It is not necessary to prune it, unless you want to achieve and maintain a special shape, in which case only those branches that do not fit into the imagined shape are removed.
Diseases and pests
Parocia does not have any significant diseases or pests, but it hosts the pathogen Phytophtora ramorum, which causes the sudden decay of oak trees. Therefore, before choosing a place and planting, care should be taken to ensure that there is no oak nearby, otherwise it could die.
Application of parochial
Parocia has very hard and dense wood that is used in carpentry. Besides its use in horticulture, it has no other significant application.
History of the parish
The natural habitats of the parocia are areas in the south of Azerbaijan and in the north of Iran, where it is considered an endemic species in the Alborz mountain range. It arrived in Europe sometime in the 19th century and has been cultivated as a decorative tree ever since.
Parocia was first described in 1830 by the French botanist Augustin Pyrame de Candolle, who classified this tree as Hamamelis persica or Persian witch hazel. Not long after, the German botanist Carl Anton von Meyer separated Parocia into a separate genus and assigned it a name Parrotia persica, in honor of the German naturalist Friedrich Parrot, who was the first to climb Mount Ararat, the highest peak in Turkey. The English name for this tree is Persian ironwood and it comes from the word Demirağac, which is used in Azerbaijan as the name of a parish, and in translation means iron wood.
White-leaved trees
Parocia is one of the many types of coniferous trees. What all species have in common is that the leaves that appear in the spring months change color from shades of green to warm red, yellow, orange or brown tones during autumn. Considering that the leaves fall from the trees before winter, we also call this type of trees deciduous trees.
Deciduous or deciduous trees differ in the height they can reach, the bark of the tree, the shape of the crown, the shape of the leaves, the type of roots, the appearance of fruits and flowers, etc. Most of these trees bloom in the spring with fragrant flowers that attract insects and thus pollinate. Fruits develop from the pollinated flowers, which are edible in some types of conifer trees, but not in others.
As already mentioned, the parochial tree is a decorative tree originating from the territory of Azerbaijan and Iran, and the species of conifers that are most common in our region are the oak, holm oak, elm, poplar, wild chestnut, hornbeam, ash, linden, elder, acacia, wild cherry, apple tree, plane tree, hazel, sweet chestnut, maple, alder, birch, willow and various fruit trees.
Photo: AnRo0002/Wikipedia