2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Faucaria (lat. Faucaria) - perennial succulent from the Aizovy family.
Description
Faucaria is a perennial succulent equipped with shortened stalks and fleshy short rhizomes. Gradually, this amazing plant grows quite strongly, forming clumps consisting of a huge number of stems.
Faucaria leaves are equipped with sharp denticles and jagged warts at the edges. Each leaf rosette includes three to six pairs of leaves, which are most often arranged crosswise. Green leaves can be either pale or dark, with small strokes or with a characteristic slightly whitish speck.
For single flowers of faucaria, very impressive sizes are characteristic - their diameter often reaches six to seven centimeters. Each flower is endowed with a huge number of petals, painted in a wide variety of yellow shades. During the day, these flowers bloom, and with the onset of night they close. Moreover, the life span of each flower is from six to eight days.
Where grows
Under natural conditions, faucaria can be found in the South African desert landscapes.
Usage
Most often, faucaria is grown as an independent houseplant.
Growing and caring
Even beginner growers will be able to grow faucaria, however, if it is planned to grow it as an ornamental deciduous plant, it will not hurt to know that cold wintering is necessary for its full flowering. It is advisable to place a beautiful plant in cold rooms, installing pots on the southern windows. Faucaria will grow no worse on the veranda or on the balcony. And it is usually planted in a soil mixture with acidity in the pH range of 4, 5 - 6, formed by clay-sod and solid sheet soil in combination with a sand-gravel mixture (all components are taken in equal parts). Suitable for growing faucaria and ready-made earthen mixture for succulents.
Faucaria is very photophilous and perfectly tolerates exposure to direct sunlight. In the spring and summer, it is recommended to water it no more than once a week (the only exception is extreme heat and the placement of faucaria in the sun), and even less often in winter. At the same time, both a decrease and an increase in the volume of irrigation should in no case be too sharp. Do not forget that this plant categorically does not accept waterlogging, especially if it is kept in the cold. If the stalks of the faucaria are elongated, this is evidence that in the summer it was sorely lacking in light, and in the winter it was watered too often. As for spraying and dressing, the beautiful faucaria usually does not need them. True, for purely hygienic purposes, experts advise from time to time to wipe the surfaces of the leaves.
In winter, this succulent is recommended to be kept at a temperature of ten to twelve degrees, and in summer it will feel great at twenty-five to thirty degrees. By the way, in summer faucaria is able to withstand any temperature fluctuations without much difficulty.
Anyone who grows faucaria needs to ensure that the soil in the pots is always loose enough so that no dense, airtight crusts appear on it. But this succulent tolerates tightness very well, so there is no need to transplant it too often - that is why it is transplanted no more often than once every two years. Faucaria reproduces mainly by stem cuttings, however, sometimes some growers resort to seed propagation.
