2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Urut, also called pinnate, is ubiquitous, but the largest number of its varieties can be found in distant Australia. Eleven species of this freshwater beauty are well established in China. As a rule, this aquatic inhabitant grows at a depth of fifty to two hundred centimeters in ponds and lakes. But at a greater depth, due to lack of lighting, it, alas, will not be able to grow. The only exception will be very clean lakes, rather poor in plankton. Urut is great for decorating coastal areas of water bodies
Getting to know the plant
Urut belongs to the family with a rather interesting and funny name Slangberry. This plant can be both a perennial and an annual, both monoecious and dioecious. Urut grows slightly protruding from the water or being completely submerged in a body of water. From its creeping rhizomes, new shoots supplied with leaflets depart.
The stalks of this green inhabitant of the waters are very long - sometimes their length reaches one and a half meters. The stalks are weakly branching and very elastic, which makes it possible for them not to break - under the strong onslaught of a turbulent current, they slightly bend, and then return to their original position.
The main distinctive feature of uruti is considered to be feather-shaped leaves collected in whorls of three to four pieces. Urut differs from other aquatic vegetation precisely in a similar structure of leaves. Also, heterophyllia is characteristic of this underwater plant - the leaves of the same green beauty located outside the water are slightly tougher and smaller than the leaves growing in the water column. Moreover, the uruti leaves are not dissected. Their color can be either green or brownish.
One more truly unique property can be noted in uruti - it is the only plant submerged in water with medium-sized generative buds protruding above the water.
Fancy green inflorescences of uruti are rather thin and therefore inconspicuous. Each inflorescence is formed by two or four small unisexual flowers (a little less often bisexual). Bisexual flowers, like male ones, include from two to eight stamens. And just like female flowers, bisexual flowers are endowed with lower ovaries dismembered into four compartments (sometimes into two), on which four scars are quite clearly visible. Also, petals are often missing in female flowers. The flowers of this plant are usually pinkish and bloom from July to August.
Uruti fruits are four-lobed schizocarpies, with only one seed in each lobe.
On the territory of Russia, you can find only two types of this water beauty - whorled and spiky. This is due to the fact that its other varieties are very unstable to cold weather.
Using uruchi
A number of varieties of uruti - caudate and sequential flowered, variegated and worm-like, whorled and Brazilian - are used for cultivation in aquariums.
Seeds with fruits of uruti serve as food for various waterfowl participating in its vegetative and seed reproduction. The urut, which has adapted to the territory of Sochi, is an excellent shelter for tiny fry of mosquito fish - larva-eating fish.
It is also possible that one day this plant will become a source of cellulose in the production of modern biofuels.
How to grow
All varieties of Uruti reproduce vegetatively. In order for it to grow better and form more abundant and luxurious shoots compared to its relatives growing in the water column, experts grow it at high humidity on rather damp soils. Also on sale you can find seedlings grown in water. Vegetation grown outside the water is gradually adapted to water - for this purpose, the seedlings are placed in soil enriched with nutrients, and every day the water level begins to increase by one centimeter until it reaches its maximum level in the container in which the plant is placed. With this method, urut grows well and quickly.
You can grow this unpretentious plant as a coastal plant, planting it to a depth of ten to forty centimeters. It will grow well in partial shade or in open, sunny areas.
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Urut
Urut has very long stems that can even reach one and a half meters in length. Moreover, such stems are supplemented with leaves, which will be quite deeply dissected into threadlike lobes. In the water, however, such stems, together with leaves, form a very dense lace of thickets.
Underwater Home Garden
Looking at the aquarium, we often pay attention not only to the fish, but also to the smooth, as if enchanted, swaying of underwater plants, slowly echoing the movement of the water. If you are not yet ready to take responsibility for the fish, but underwater plants fascinate you, then try to have a garden in an aquarium
