Aronik Italian

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Aronik Italian (lat. Arum italicum) - a herbaceous flowering perennial plant of the genus Aronnik (Latin Arum), ranked by botanists as belonging to the Aroid family (Latin Araceae). A very ornamental plant with arrow-shaped variegated leaves and an inflorescence-cob, protected by the so-called “veil”. By autumn, inflorescences from small flowers turn into communities of bright red shiny numerous fruits that look like burning candles lost in the green leaves.

What's in your name

If the Latin name of the genus "Arum" is based on the ancient Greek name of the plants of the genus, then the specific epithet "italicum" indicates the place where the plant grows. Although Italian Aronnik can be found not only in Italy, but also in other countries of southern Europe. In addition, Aronnik Italian feels great in the Middle East and North Africa. It also grows in more northern lands, for example, in the Netherlands, Great Britain and the United States of America.

For the original structure of the inflorescence, surrounded by picturesque leaves, the plant is called "Italian lords-and-ladies" ("Italian lords and ladies"). There are other popular names, for example, "Orange Candleflower" (Orange candle-flower) or "Cuckoo pint" (Kukushkin's mug, and possibly Kukushkin's pintail).

Description

Depending on the living conditions, the height of the plant varies from 30 to 46 centimeters, reaching 60 centimeters in the most favorable conditions. At about the same size, the plant spreads out in width.

The basis of the perennial of Aronnik italia is a tuberous rhizome, from which adventitious thin roots extend into the soil, and petiole leaves from 10 to 40 centimeters long are born on the surface of the earth with a leaf plate width from 2-3 to 30 centimeters. The leaves are a natural work of art, delighting the audience with their bizarre arrow-shaped shape and the surface of the leaf plate painted with light veins.

During all three spring months, the plant displays its original candle-inflorescences, called by botanists the word "spadix" (spadix). Small flowers are located on a fleshy stem and are protected from external influences by a sheet-blanket.

A French naturalist named Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (1744-01-08 - 1829-18-12) noticed in 1778 that the inflorescence of Aronica italia produces heat when the ambient temperature drops. This makes the inflorescence attractive to insects, which can not only "dine", but also warm up by planning on it, while providing the plant with a service of pollination of female flowers.

In autumn, the female flowers turn into green berries, which become bright red as they ripen. One such berry contains up to four ovoid seeds.

Usage

Spring flowering of inflorescences-cobs with small greenish-white flowers, which are replaced by bright red shiny fruits; a picturesque "blanket" surrounding the inflorescence; The spectacular leaves of the plant make Aronnik italia an attractive decorative element in gardens and parks.

Varieties have been bred that surprise with the variegated colors of not only the leaves, but also the protective cover.

In spring, in combination with white, early blooming daffodils, the arrow-shaped variegated leaves of Aronica italia simply amaze the imagination, creating an atmosphere of a dream.

Aronnik Italian is often planted in collaboration with Hosta, because when the leaves of Khosta wither, the flower garden continues to be decorated with Aronnik leaves with bright fruits.

Numerous ornamental varieties of Aronnik italia have been developed, among which there is a prize-winner of the Royal Horticultural Society with the name “Arum italicum subsp. Italicum 'Marmoratum'.