Gloriosa

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

Gloriosa (lat. Gloriosa) - a flowering plant belonging to the Columbus family.

Description

Gloriosa is a herbaceous and climbing plant endowed with horizontal rhizomes. Its leafy and distinctly branched shoots can grow up to two meters in length. These shoots cling to the supports with tendril-shaped ends of the leaves. The successive sessile leaves of gloriosa can be either opposite, or collected in three pieces in small whorls. All of them have a narrow ovate-lanceolate shape and thin, spiral-like twisting, like antennae, tops.

The spindle-shaped and non-wintering gloriosa tubers located underground in most cases boast a V-shape. They are rather fragile, covered with a rather silky skin of a golden-brownish hue, are devoid of roots (the development of gloriosa roots occurs near the bases of the stems, in the root collars) and have one growth bud each.

The bisexual actinomorphic flowers of gloriosa sit singly on long pedicels located in the leaf axils. Gloriosa blooms for a very long time, usually throughout the summer. And the fruits of this plant have the form of polyspermous opening capsules.

Where grows

Gloriosa is a plant native to southern and tropical Africa and Asia. Subsequently, she was successfully acclimatized in Australia and Oceania. And now it is widely cultivated in completely different countries. On the territory of India, gloriasis can often be found in the Western Ghats, however, due to the fact that the local population is actively collecting it for treatment with traditional medicine, its number is gradually decreasing.

Usage

Most often, gloriosa is used for vertical landscaping or it is grown as a container plant. No less often it goes for cutting - luxurious flowers do not fade in vases for five to seven days!

Growing and caring

Gloriosa grows well in sunny, bright areas - it can be grown both in warm protected areas of the garden and on balconies. The earthen mixture in which it is planned to plant a beautiful plant should be sufficiently loose and as nutritious as possible, and the pot should be quite large. Gloriosa needs abundant watering, but it is important to ensure that no water stagnates in the pallets.

Gloriosa is fed with complex liquid fertilizers - the same ones that are usually purchased for feeding indoor plants. This must be done every two weeks, until the very middle of August.

As soon as the beautiful plant fades, and its leaves begin to slowly turn yellow, the number of waterings is immediately reduced, and when the aboveground parts of the gloriosa begin to dry out, they are completely stopped, and the stems are cut off. It is perfectly acceptable to store a pot of tubers at room temperature, but the thermometer in this case should not fall below twelve to fourteen degrees.

Gloriosa reproduces both by tubers (vegetatively) and by seeds, while its seeds are capable of not losing their germination for six to nine months.

In February-March, the tubers are thoroughly examined, trying not to damage the growth buds, after which healthy specimens are planted to a depth of seven to ten centimeters in a fresh substrate. And in order to achieve the greatest decorative effect, several well-developed nodules can be planted in a common pot, the diameter of which is within twenty-five to thirty centimeters. Then the container is placed in a bright and warm place and watered once. As for constant watering, they begin to be produced only after the shoots appear. And since the shoots are characterized by a fairly rapid growth, it is recommended to immediately start tying them to the supports installed in the pot. In this case, plastic nets, wire arches, all kinds of grilles and bamboo pokes are perfect as supports.