2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Muehlenbeckia (lat. Muehlenbeckia) - plant-liana from the Buckwheat family.
Description
Mühlenbeckia is an evergreen shrub or perennial shrub, equipped with a huge number of spectacular climbing shoots. And its brownish or brownish thin twigs are very densely intertwined with each other. This plant can be both climbing and creeping. As for the length of the shoots, it ranges from fifteen centimeters to three meters.
The diameter of the rounded and very small petioled leaves of Mühlenbeckia almost never exceeds two centimeters. All leaves are arranged alternately on the stems, and their shape can be either broadly ovate or round, however, sometimes there are lobed leaves with rounded or truncated bases. Slightly above the attachment points of the petioles, the stalks are covered with strong membranous sockets. By the way, in winter, when muhlenbeckia begins a dormant period, it partially sheds its miniature leaves.
The few-flowered axillary inflorescences of this plant are usually racemose, and the five-membered flowers formed on them can be both bisexual and unisexual. They are painted white (slightly less often they can be yellowish or greenish), and their diameter reaches 0.6 cm.
Where grows
Most often, you can see Mühlenbeckia in New Zealand and on the distant Australian continent.
Usage
Mühlenbeckia is used mainly as a climbing or ampelous plant (in the latter case, it is placed in hanging vases).
Growing and caring
Mühlenbeckia should be planted in bright areas, but in the summer it must be thoroughly shaded from too bright the sun. And in winter, the temperature of the content of muhlenbeckia should be around fifteen degrees.
Water this plant as the soil dries up, trying not to allow the earthen coma to dry out too much (so that the leaves do not start to fall off prematurely). However, do not forget that an excess of moisture is also dangerous for this plant. Water intended for irrigation should ideally be allowed to settle (purified water would be a good alternative), and its temperature should be between eighteen and twenty-two degrees. In addition, Mühlenbeckia simply adores regular spraying with water.
In the summer, a green pet is fed with full-fledged fertilizers (usually they begin to give fertilizing somewhere from mid-spring to early autumn), observing a two-week interval, and muhlenbeckia is usually transplanted with the onset of spring (and not every year), and it is better to do this in an earthen a mixture of equal parts of sand, peat, humus and turf. Transplanting is best done using the transhipment method, as its extremely vulnerable root system can be damaged very easily. Among other things, good drainage should be provided for the muhlenbeckia.
Reproduction of this plant occurs by ripe cuttings, which are placed in moss with sand or peat with soil heating up to twenty degrees. And when the cuttings take root, they are planted in pots, several pieces each. Mühlenbeckia can be propagated by seeds, but this method is used exclusively in the first two spring months. In this case, sowing seeds on the soil surface is carried out in a chaotic manner. As for the seedlings, they are usually grown in greenhouse conditions.
In general, Mühlenbeckia is quite unpretentious and requires a minimum of time and attention to care, which makes it an especially valuable acquisition in the eyes of many plant breeders. By the way, diseases and pests attack muhlenbeckia are also extremely rare!
