2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Barkeria (lat. Barkeria) - a genus of herbaceous perennial plants with pretty flowers, ranked by botanists in the Orchid family. Unlike most orchids with evergreen leaves, Barqueria sheds its leaves for the winter, shocking its owners, who do not know about such a "quirk" of the plant. They blame themselves for not taking good care of the plant, and therefore it decided to leave this house. But, the more attentive notice that the roots of the plant are alive. If you do not panic, but simply wait for spring, then a sprout will again appear in the world from the living roots, and everything will repeat itself according to the program set by nature.
What's in your name
The Latin genus name "Barkeria" honors the memory of an English lawyer who was both a keen and competent botanist. His name is George Barker (1776 - 1845). In his nursery, he was the first to cultivate orchids brought from Mexico in England.
In the literature on indoor or industrial floriculture, the Latin name of the genus "Barkeria" is reduced to four letters -"
Bark . Sometimes you can come across a synonym name “
Dothilophis , Assigned to the plants of the genus in 1838 by the American botanist, Constantine Samuel Rafinesque (22.10.1783 - 18.09.1840), a man with a difficult fate.
Description
Most of the species of the genus are epiphytic plants growing on the trees of the tropical forests of America. Much less often in the wild, you can find plants of the genus living on rocks or stony soil, that is, belonging to lithophytes.
Unlike most plants of the Orchid family, the thin leaves of Barqueria do not have a long lifespan, but prefer to fall for a well-defined period of drought in the warm forests of Central America, where they were destined to live. They retain this habit even when they grow in greenhouses and living quarters, retarding their development for the winter period and remaining almost lifeless until spring, which frightens flower growers who are not familiar with this feature of Barkeria. With the arrival of spring, the plant "wakes up" and pleases fans with new shoots.
Falling leaves are not the only characteristic of Barkeria. Plants of this genus are also distinguished by thick roots and the absence of pseudobulbs, although they belong to the sympodial type plants. True, some authors call the lower part of the stem, covered with leaf sheaths, a little more thickened than the rest of the stem, "long and thin pseudobulb", similar to the stem of a reed.
By virtue of their morphology (sympodial type of plant), orchids of the genus Barkeria are small or medium-sized plants. Their deciduous greenery is represented by linear-lanceolate leaves.
Leathery bracts protect the multi-flowered peduncle, covering it tightly. The peduncle demonstrates to the world an inflorescence-brush formed by numerous bright flowers: white, pink, lavender, bright purple, light pink with purple markings on the lip …
Varieties
The genus Barkeria consists of 17 plant species, which are native to the countries of Central America. The number of species in a genus can change, because once many species belonging to this genus today were listed, for example, in the lists of the genus Epidendrum (lat. Epidendrum).
From the wild, they have long stepped into greenhouses and human dwellings around the globe. They are also loved in botanical gardens, where, along with natural species, today you can find numerous hybrids.
Conditions for favorable growth
You can grow Barqueria in pots, but given that the plant has thick and long epiphytic roots that require a lot of air, it is preferable to use hanging baskets or the so-called "block planting".
In the summer, watering should be sufficient to maintain the desired humidity, periodically combined with mineral dressings. When the leaves fall off, we forget about watering until spring, but do not forget about providing dormant roots with bright light. The roots, which seem completely lifeless, will revive in the spring and delight with new flowering.
