Arisema

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Arisema (lat. Arisaema) Is a relatively small genus of herbaceous plants, which belongs to the Aroid family. Another name is one-cover, in the United States, plants are called cobra at all. Natural habitats - tropical and mountain forests, deserts and semi-deserts, rocks (including limestone), savannas, meadows. Representatives of the genus can be captured both in the hot countries of Africa and on the territory of Russia, mainly in the Primorsky Territory, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.

Characteristics of culture

Arizema is represented by perennial evergreen herbaceous plants up to 2 m high, endowed with an underground stem, at the end of which there is a spherical tuber bearing stolons or small nodules. A feature of the representatives of the genus is the presence on them of underdeveloped (reduced, scaly) rigid bud leaves, which perform protective and storage functions.

The foliage from the vagina is formed in an amount of 1-4 pieces, it, in turn, has from 3 to 19 pinnately dissected leaves. Also in culture, species are known for which simple oval or lanceolate foliage is characteristic. The flowers are equipped with a straight cylindrical tube, it can have wide mouths and longitudinal stripes that are visible to the naked eye. The plate is concave inward or widened, rarely has a vertical elongated formation at the end. The pedicel is short, there may be tubercles on top.

Interestingly and surprisingly, the inflorescences of the culture in question are optical traps, due to which insects stay in the flower tube longer than on all others. The fruits are represented by red berries of an ovoid or reverse conical shape, they have a round tip. The seeds, in turn, are spherical or ovoid, hard, brown, rough to the touch.

Growing features

The representatives of the genus can hardly be called whimsical plants, on the contrary, they can boast of high resistance to unfavorable climatic conditions. They are actively developing without any problems in the same area for many years, even in the absence of frequent watering. However, the culture still puts forward some requirements for growing conditions. So, it is recommended to plant it on light, well-drained, moderately moist and nutritious soils. You should not even try to grow arizem on heavy, highly acidic, waterlogged, damp and saline soils.

Despite the fact that many types of arizem are resistant to cold weather, it is not recommended to plant them in areas that are not protected from cold northern winds, and even more so in lowlands with stagnant cold air, precipitation and melt water. For the winter, a good thick shelter is desirable, it is better if the material is natural, for example, fallen dry leaves or spruce branches. Heat-loving species for the winter should be transplanted into wide and deep containers and kept indoors until spring at a temperature of 2-4C.

It is also worth noting that at the base of the stem near the tuber, with frequent precipitation (especially in the spring and autumn period), quite a lot of water accumulates, which almost always leads to rotting of the tuber and, as a result, death. To prevent the decay process, it is very important to systematically huddle the plants. This procedure must be carried out for tall specimens, otherwise they may break in the base area. In addition to hilling and sheltering for the winter, arizema needs regular watering and fertilizing with complex mineral fertilizers (in early spring and in mid-summer).