Wonderful Prairie Flower. Acquaintance

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

Natural cereals have become popular in recent years with decorators. Look great in flower beds among annual and perennial herbaceous plants of other species. Their unpretentiousness makes them an attractive culture. Today we will get acquainted with a striking representative of this family - rod-shaped millet

Habitat, history of domestication

In the wild, it is found in the vastness of America from Canada to Mexico, Asia, Africa, and southern regions of Europe. Forms thickets on prairies, settles in forest glades, wastelands.

Naturalists of Germany who visited America were the first to notice this unusual plant. They brought seeds with them to their homeland, began to engage in its selection, ennobling the wild culture. The Germans fell in love with the tall panicles of dense bushes with colorful leaves. They have become the adornment of many gardens.

After 150 years, the plant returned to its homeland in a decorative form. Received recognition among American gardeners. More recently, it has become a popular flower in Russia.

Biological features

Perennial herbaceous plant from the Zlakovy family. In Latin, the genus is called Panicum. The rhizome is powerful, scaly, sod-forming. It grows slowly or quickly, depending on the characteristics of the variety.

Stems are erect, rigid, unbranched with pubescent or bare nodes. Height from 1 to 2, 5 meters. They keep snow cover well in winter.

Leaves are flat, linear, glabrous, 20-40 cm long. The top has a sharp end. In summer it is green or bluish, in autumn it turns brown, golden, purple or brown.

Small flowers are collected in a gorgeous panicle measuring 15-55 cm. Spikelets are bare, ovoid, no more than 0.5 cm, grouped on branches of the second order. When opened, they sometimes acquire a reddish or pink tint. The pericarps hold the grains tightly.

Flowering later August-September. Seeds fully mature in the middle lane, southern regions. 1 gram contains about 300 grains.

Habitat conditions

Winter-hardy perennial plant. Unpretentious care. Prefers open, sunny areas. Leaf brightness is most intense in open areas. Blue varieties easily withstand partial shade without losing their decorative effect.

It grows on soils of various types from quartz sandy to moist clays with a dense structure. Poor and moderately fertile lands are suitable for millet. On a substrate rich in organic matter, it grows well in width, while the bushes slightly lose their decorative effect, become loose, the color of the leaves turns pale.

Easily tolerates dry periods. Greets rainy weather with gratitude. At the same time, some tall specimens can lie down from gusts of wind in bad weather. Withstands short root flooding.

Application

Panicum rod-shaped has several directions of use:

• economic;

• floristry;

• landscape design

Let's dwell on each point in more detail.

Household purpose

Rod-shaped millet has a second name, broom millet. The Slavs in ancient times used it to make brooms, which they used to sweep living quarters. The seeds were threshed before use. The grain was fed to animals, the thick stems were tied in bunches.

In Western countries, panicum is used as an energy crop for the production of biological ethanol.

Floristics

Cut off the panicles at the beginning of flowering to reduce shedding of small seed beads. Tied in bundles of no more than 10 pieces. Suspended to dry in a ventilated room without access to sunlight.

Used as an addition to flower arrangements. Openwork panicles can be painted in different shades, giving the inflorescences an unusual decorative look.

We will consider the most beautiful varieties for use in landscape design in the next article.