The medicinal properties of plants have been known for many centuries and have been successfully used in folk medicine, prolonging human life. The Turkmen land is rich in healing flora and people studying it. Pharmaceutical folk knowledge is supplemented by legends about the magic power of cult plants, sometimes created on the verge of superstition. Such “evidence” can be found in ancient legends, fascinatingly told by the ethnographer Sergei Demidov in the book Plants and Animals in the Legends and Beliefs of the Turkmen. It cites little-known sacred stories.

The legend about bagshy Baba Gambar, the patron of all singers and musicians, whose life to some extent echoes the fate of the Populus pruinosa, or toraňňy, called “dutar gullagy” by the Ersary tribe, sounds exciting. According to the established tradition, anyone who wanted to become a professional singer or performer of melodies had to perform the song Şahy-Merdan in a certain sanctuary, playing the musical instrument, and then to stay in that place until morning. Only selected subjects in the dream state could see the images of a lion and a snake. Before those who did not succumb to fear, Gambar himself appeared and served him a drink. Here it was necessary not to blunder – to drink everything completely to become a singer, or to pour everything onto hands to become a musician. Another tree of Populus pruinosa grows near the sacred object Jigirdekli baba and has the status of sanctity. According to superstitious notions, whoever tries to cut its branches will immediately receive a blow on the arm from its owner – eýe. In the valley of the Chandyr River, among the hills, there is a silver or white poplar Akderekjan, named as its wild fellow. Near the sanctuary, there are two springs, and several trees grow, among which there are four or five trunks of this species. The people believe that the presence of this tree forms a spiritual aura around, supplies nearby objects with magic power, highlighted by mystical stories that have come down to us. After a series of strange, inexplicable events, aksakals arrived at that place with the aim of consecrating it and spent the night there. In a dream, one of them saw a woman whose silhouette exuded light. She said, “I am Akderek, and here is my place.” In the morning, the elders discovered an unknown grave sign.