2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The ostrich is an incredibly attractive fern that can be found in floodplains and wet areas. It is mainly used as an ornamental plant - the ostrich is very well suited for cultivation both in coastal areas and in water bodies. It will also be a good solution for rock gardens. Moreover, it is realistic to cultivate it even in the open field, and young leaves of the ostrich can be eaten
Getting to know the plant
The ostrich, also called the ostrich fin, represents the Onokleevy family. It received its scientific name (Matteuccia) in memory of S. Matteucci, the famous Italian naturalist, and its popular name is due to leaves resembling ostrich feathers in shape.
This is a rather large herb with large, creeping and very long rhizomes, as well as plump and upright leaves. Infertile, doubly pinnately-divided leaves, also called sterile and reaching a length of 1.5 - 1.7 m, form a fancy funnel, in the middle of which there are smaller spore-bearing leaves. These leaves are equipped with cylindrical segments with sori located in them.
Externally, sporophylls are somewhat similar to ostrich feathers. At first they are light green, and a little later they acquire a dark brown color, which creates an excellent contrast with the sterile leaves. With the onset of autumn, they do not fade, like sterile leaves, but remain for the winter - often in places where the ostrich grows, one can observe how the dark brown tops of sporophylls rise above the snow surface. In spring, the edges of the sporophylls unfold and spores are released from them.
Old plants are distinguished by their aggressiveness - due to their underground stolon shoots, they are able to capture new territories in the shortest possible time.
In culture, you can find two varieties of this plant - the common ostrich and the oriental ostrich. The common ostrich is a very winter-hardy species, capable of reaching two meters in height. And the maximum height of the eastern ostrich is one and a half meters.
The use of the ostrich
This luxurious fern is mainly cultivated for landscaping purposes, and its fertile leaves are often included in winter bouquets. The ostrich goes well with other plants.
In a number of countries, young leaves of this plant are eaten, which look like not untwisted "snails". In the Arkhangelsk province, the ostrich was used as an insecticide to kill bed bugs. And in a number of regions, its rhizomes are widely used in folk medicine as a medicine - they are used to prepare medicinal decoctions.
How to grow
It is best to grow an ostrich in well-shaded areas, however, this plant will not die in sunny corners: it will simply be shorter and with a dimmer color. The handsome ostrich is also undemanding to soils - it can grow both on rich soils and on poor ones, the main thing is that the soil is always moist.
Reproduction of the ostrich occurs with the help of stolons (that is, vegetatively) and spores. For vegetative propagation, segments of rhizomes with a pair of buds (20-25 cm long) are taken. The ostrich is usually transplanted before the leaves grow back in early spring or during the ripening of the spores in the first half of August. Plants are planted at a distance of about fifty centimeters from each other.
Growing an ostrich from spores is considered to be more efficient. Spores that retain their viability for a very long period are formed in this plant in huge quantities. They are sown in containers filled with disinfected litter peat, after which the crops are covered with glass and systematically moistened. The spores will germinate in about 2 to 5 weeks, covering the entire surface of the wet substrate with delicate emerald sprouts. The grown seedlings dive at least twice into boxes filled with a mixture of equal parts of sand, heather earth and peat chips. Then the ostrich for growing is placed in pots for a couple of years, and after this time, a wonderful plant can be planted in the selected areas. The ostrich raised from spores is generally more resilient and powerful.
The ostrich is also quite unpretentious in care: in a dry period, it should only be provided with watering, and if it grows excessively, divide the plant.
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Ostrich is one of the plants of the family called Onocliaceae, in Latin the name of this plant sounds like this: Matteuccia. As for the name of the Onocliaceae family itself, in Latin it will be like this: Onocleaceae. This plant is a fern that is intended for cultivation in water bodies or in coastal areas.
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