2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Molucella (lat. Moluccella) - a tall herbaceous annual, which is a member of the Yasnotkovye family. The first mention of this beautiful plant dates back to 1570.
Description
Molucella is a herbaceous, fast-growing, branchy annual, the height of which can reach ninety to one hundred centimeters. She has not just a lot of stalks, but a lot. They are all erect, round and fleshy. And the leaves of this green beauty are characterized by a rounded shape and have jagged edges.
The small flowers of the molucella are colored white and boast a surprisingly pleasant, but at the same time, rather weak aroma. Each flower is immersed in a pale green bell-shaped or funnel-shaped cup, and these cups, in turn, are collected in several pieces into graceful spike-shaped inflorescences. The beautiful mollucella usually begins to bloom at the end of June, and its luxurious flowering continues until autumn.
Each molucella fruit is formed by four small nuts (one gram contains up to one hundred and eighty nuts, that is, in order to get about a hundred new plants, you need to take only one or two grams of such fruits). And the tetrahedral seeds of this plant are painted in discreet grayish-brownish shades - their ripening almost always occurs in August.
In nature, there are currently about thirty varieties of molucella, and one of the most famous and widespread varieties is considered to be smooth molucella. By the way, sometimes mollucella is called Irish bells.
Where grows
The birthplace of the beautiful molucella is the Mediterranean. Quite often, it can be found in Turkey, as well as in the Caucasus and on the Syrian territory.
Usage
Molucella is grown primarily as an ornamental garden plant. It is often used in mixborders, as it is a great green background for a wide variety of flowering plants. Not less often, molucella is also used for cutting - this beauty looks very original and impressive both in elegant summer bouquets and in dry winter compositions. If the molucella is planned to be turned into dried flowers, then you can cut it off for this purpose until its cups begin to turn yellow. Then the plants are tied into small bunches, after clearing their stems from all the leaves. And this plant can be grown as an indoor plant.
Growing and caring
Mollucella is very thermophilic and extremely drought-resistant, so it can grow both in shade and in bright sunshine. And it is recommended to plant this plant on nutritious, rather loose and well-drained soils.
Moderate watering is necessary for molucella - they can be plentiful only in the heat, but even in this case, it is extremely important to try in every possible way to avoid stagnation of water that is unsafe for this plant. In addition, about once every couple of weeks, the molucella should be fed with high-quality complex mineral fertilizers.
Mollucella is usually propagated by seeds, planting them in the southern regions with the onset of April directly in open ground. In other areas, you first need to plant seeds for seedlings - this event is held at the end of March. As a rule, already after ten to twelve days, the first shoots can be observed. And after all the sprouts hatch on the surface, they must be thinned out, leaving a distance of twenty to twenty-five centimeters between them. In nature, this plant in most cases reproduces by self-sowing.
As for various pests and all kinds of diseases, molucella is very resistant to them.
