Rdest - Aquatic Perennial

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

Rdest is also called a cosmopolitan plant. It is distributed throughout the world and grows in slowly flowing or stagnant brackish or fresh water bodies, forming quite extensive thickets. This plant amazes with a huge variety of leaf patterns that look great both on the surface and in the water column. Its spike-shaped inflorescences look no less original and elegant. And pondweed can be grown both in large reservoirs and in small reservoirs

Getting to know the plant

This bizarre plant belongs to the family of the same name called Pdestaceae. Individual parts or shoots of pondweed float freely either on the water surface or under it. And in the ground, the development of rather long rhizomes of this plant is noted.

Leaves of pondweed are sessile or petiolate, alternate. The size and shape of these leaves can be very diverse - from linear and threadlike to rounded and oval. All leaves can be either only underwater, or partly floating on the surface, and partly underwater.

The inflorescences of this aquatic perennial are ears of a brownish-green or grayish-green hue. Numerous small flowers are bisexual, can be either spaced or close. Perianths are formed by four folded rounded lobes, there are also four stamens. Rdest blooms approximately in July-August.

There are two options for pollination of pondweed flowers. In the first method, if the inflorescences are located above the water, the flowers are pollinated by the wind; and in the second method, when the inflorescences lie on the water surface, zoophilia and hydrophilia are possible.

The fruits of pondweed, consisting of four drupe-like lobes, are equipped with woody pericarp.

There are several varieties of pondweed: floating, cereal, alpine, flattened, comb, curly, pierced and shiny.

Fish, insects and aquatic mollusks feed on pond fish. In the dense thickets of this plant, fish often spawn, and decomposed pond, whose dying shoots sink to the bottom, becomes an excellent fertile silt. Among other things, pond is excellently enriches the water bodies in which it grows with oxygen.

Using pdesta

This plant was well known even to medieval Arab doctors, who widely practiced the use of pondweed leaves for various gastrointestinal ailments. Now all parts of this miraculous plant are used for medicinal purposes. Quite complex in composition, aromatic substances endowed this handsome man with anti-inflammatory and hemostatic properties, and the ascorbic acid contained in it perfectly helps in strengthening the immune system.

Rdesta compresses are used for various ulcers, furunculosis, abscesses and oncological tumors. Rdest helps well and relieve itching in a number of skin diseases. And in case of diarrhea, it is recommended to use an infusion of leaves and stems of this medicinal plant inside. To prepare the infusion, a tablespoon of dried herb is infused in a glass of boiling water for a couple of hours, and then three to four times a day, a miraculous infusion is taken in a tablespoon. Raw materials are harvested from June to August.

How to grow

Rdest grows well in organic-rich fertile soils. The immersion depth of this plant can be completely different: varieties of pondweed with floating leaves can easily grow aground, and varieties with submerged leaves for ease of location will require at least 20-30 centimeters in depth.

Pond grows equally well in slowly flowing and stagnant water, in partial shade, and in the sun. Cuttings of this plant are either planted in containers filled with fertile soil, or they are drowned at the optimum depth of the reservoir with a small weight.

Pond is propagated both by seeds and vegetatively, by segments of rhizomes and cuttings. The collection of seeds separating from plants is carried out at the end of August, when they float freely on the water surface. The collected seeds are rolled into small clay lumps and lowered onto muddy soil in ponds, to a depth of forty to ninety centimeters.

With regard to care, the growth of this plant should be periodically monitored. It may well hibernate at the bottom of a reservoir, shelter, or any special measures to ensure winter storage, it does not require.