Helms Fat Woman - Water Beauty

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

The Helms fat woman grows in the waters of Australia, New Zealand and England. It is noteworthy that this plant, artificially inhabited in England, perfectly took root in the English open spaces and rather quickly began to displace other crops. Most often, the Helms fat woman can be found along the edges of slow-flowing rivers and in shallow swamps. In addition, this beauty is excellent for keeping it in aquariums. Although it is rarely cultivated, the design of aquariums will certainly benefit from the presence of the beautiful Helms fat woman

Getting to know the plant

Fat Helms is a rather small plant up to thirty centimeters high with ground-creeping or underwater-erect branching stems. And the arrangement of the fleshy sessile leaves is cross-opposite. Sharp leaf blades can be both linear and lanceolate. In underwater specimens, their width reaches one centimeter, and their length is one and a half centimeters, and in terrestrial plants, the width of the leaves is two millimeters, and their length is only one centimeter. The veins on the leaves are hardly noticeable, and the leaves themselves are painted in light green tones.

The flowers of the fatty Helms are bisexual, single, often reaching four millimeters (with pedicels - three). Each flower is endowed with four carpels, four triangular white petals, a short pistil and four green sepals. The delicate flowers also have four stamens, all of which are shorter than the petals.

How to grow

Fat Helms grows well in cold water aquariums. In principle, it can also be in a tropical vessel, but only for a fairly short period and if the water temperature does not rise above 23 degrees. If the thermometer rises higher, the luxurious plant will get sick and die rather quickly. The Helms fatty woman also develops quite well in terrestrial form, and it can be grown both in humid greenhouses and paludariums, and in the most ordinary room conditions.

The characteristics of the soil, as well as the water parameters, are of secondary importance for the development of the Helms bastard. If its shoots branch abundantly, it means that the plant is developing well. In favorable conditions, the Helms fat woman often forms decorative thickets of amazing beauty. It is not necessary to change the water in aquariums, and absolutely any substrate can be used. Most often, when growing the Helms fatty woman, a nutritious soil with a substrate in the form of gravel or pebbles is used. It is not forbidden to use sand. And the best parameters for the full development of this beauty are considered to be temperature in the range from 20 to 23 degrees, acidity in the range of 5, 0 - 8, 0 and hardness from two to twenty degrees.

Lighting for the fatty Helms needs good, therefore, it is recommended to place this water beauty in small groups and only in the foreground. At the same time, it is desirable that the species growing in the neighborhood do not create a shadow - Helms' fat woman is very sensitive to shading and tolerates it very badly. Artificial lighting for this beauty is organized using fluorescent lamps. Their most optimal power is considered to be 0.5 W / l.

Reproduction of the Helms fatty occurs mainly vegetatively. In greenhouses and paludariums, it reproduces by separating young shoots from the rhizomes or by cutting the stems. Cuttings are usually planted in water-filled, nutritious fine-grained soil. And already a week and a half later, the formation of the root system begins in young plants. Young shoots also adapt very quickly under optimal conditions.

The fatty Helms does not require any special conditions for keeping - for this, aquarists love her very much. And this marsh plant is transplanted exclusively as needed.