2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Mikhenia (Latin Meehania) - decorative deciduous perennial from the Yasnotkovye family. This plant got its name in honor of Thomas Meehen, a famous American botanist.
Description
Mikheniya is a rather cute perennial, endowed with rooting creeping shoots and capable of forming rather low (from ten to fifteen centimeters in height) covers. The maximum height of the shake is capable of reaching thirty-five centimeters.
The short rhizomes of the plant are equipped with whip-like creeping shoots of a very impressive length rooting at the nodes. The opposite petiole cordate-ovate leaves of Mikhenia reach three and a half centimeters in width and five centimeters in length. At the bases, these leaves can be either rounded or truncated, their tops are always sharp, and at the edges the leaves are usually crenate. And below each leaf has pubescence in the form of soft hairs.
The bright purple flowers of the mischief gather in bizarre whorls and sit on short stalks. As a rule, each whorl has from two to five flowers, and these whorls, in turn, form thin spike-shaped inflorescences. The hairy foliated bracts of the ripple can reach fifteen millimeters in length. They are large enough, fringed and slightly toothed, or ovate-lanceolate, or ovoid. The length of obliquely cut bell-shaped cups usually does not exceed one centimeter - initially they are narrow, and then gradually begin to expand in the upper part. The cups of the Mikheniya are usually light green, slightly webbed, slightly ribbed and slightly pubescent along the veins. All of them are equipped with unequal, blunt and short teeth, on the tips of which there are soft spines. And the bluish-blue double-lipped corollas grow from three to five centimeters in length, and on the lower lip of each corolla there are dark stripes in the form of tiny specks. The flowering of Mikhenia can be admired from May to July.
And in July or August, the fruits ripen at Mikhenia - they are slightly pubescent, have an ovoid shape and reach three millimeters in length.
Where grows
The homeland of Mikheniya is considered to be the picturesque Far Eastern forests. She feels especially well in deciduous-mountainous, as well as coniferous-deciduous or damp coniferous forests. Most often, this beauty can be found in the East Asian states - Japan, Korea and China.
Usage
In culture, only one species is usually grown - nettle-leaved mikheniya. At the same time, this mikheniya is considered the rarest in the world representative of the numerous Lamiaceae family - since it is on the verge of extinction, the amazing plant was taken under appropriate protection. As a rule, in landscape design, the mixture is used exclusively as a ground cover plant. Moreover, this plant is endowed with the ability to protect soil from spraying and erosion!
Growing and caring
Michenia will feel best on forest soils, in moderately humid shaded areas. This amazing plant boasts impressive shade tolerance, shade loving and winter hardiness.
Towards the end of summer, the blinking is propagated by the rooted parts of the shoots, and with the onset of spring - by dividing the bushes. When propagated by cuttings, at the end of the summer season, the shoots of the mischief are cut into several segments, each of which should have two or three pairs of leaves. By this time, the formation of roots has already begun in the nodules of these segments, therefore, when planted in a wet and rather loose soil, the ripple takes root very quickly.
