2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Phytolacca (Latin Phytolacca) - a light-loving shade-tolerant perennial from the Lakonosov family. The second name is lakonos. In general, the name of this plant comes from the word "lacca", which is translated from the Latin language as "red juice" (inside its black fruits, there is indeed a bright red juice).
Description
Phytolacca is a herbaceous plant of rather large size and more than a meter in height. Its stems are characterized by annual dying off, and its large opposite leaves have a rich green color and boast a pointed ovoid shape.
Bisexual white or pink flowers of phytolacca form spectacular racemose elongated inflorescences located right at the tips of the shoots. And the fruits of this plant look like small purple-black berries. As a rule, phytolacca fruiting starts in August.
In general, the phytolacca genus has about twenty-five species.
Where grows
Phytolacca is a plant native to Bermuda and the eastern United States. Most often, you can meet this beauty in the subtropics or the tropics. As for the territory of Russia, only one variety of this plant is usually grown in its middle zone - American phytolacca. Sometimes this plant is found in the Caucasus.
Usage
Phytolacca inflorescences persist for a very long time and stand perfectly in cut, and they will look incredibly impressive in almost any arrangement. Also, this plant is planted in the background of luxurious mixborders or in equally colorful mixed borders along with various shrubs and flowering perennials. Phytolacca is perfect for placement in single plantings, as well as as a background for almost any flower beds. It will not be a rarity in botanical gardens either.
Phytolacca can boast of the greatest decorative effect during the period of its flowering and subsequent fruiting, that is, starting from July and approximately until October.
In no case should we forget that every single part of American phytolacca, including its unripe berries, is very poisonous! But berry phytolacca, or edible phytolacca, began to be actively cultivated in southern Europe back in the eighteenth century precisely for its juice - this juice was often used to tint various wines. In addition, young green shoots of some varieties of phytolacca are eaten by analogy with asparagus.
Growing and caring
It is recommended to plant phytolacca in light shade or in the sun, but only in areas that are reliably protected from piercing cold winds. But this beauty is completely undemanding to soils, nevertheless, it will feel best on cultivated garden soils, which are characterized by a moderate moisture regime.
Phytolacca is watered quite often, since its wide leaves very actively evaporate moisture. And in the fall, as soon as the first frosts hit, the phytolacca is cut off and carefully covered with humus or peat.
Reproduction of phytolacca usually occurs either in early spring with the help of rhizomes, or through freshly harvested seeds - the latter are sown in open ground without prior cleansing of pulp. Seed stratification is also not required in this case. After six months of dry storage, the germination of seeds increases markedly, and after that there is no longer a fundamental difference when exactly they are sown - before winter or in spring. As for fresh seeds, they usually sprout very elongated and extremely unimportant. Seedlings, on the other hand, will begin to bloom only from the second year, while their first flowering is almost always late, as a result of which the seeds simply do not have time to ripen. And pieces of rhizomes with buds can be planted both in early spring and in autumn.
