Distinctive features of anreder, advice on growing, transplanting and reproducing a flower, difficulties in cultivation, interesting facts, species. Anredera is a member of the Basellaceae family, which includes 10 more plant species. The native habitat is considered to be the territory of South America - the lands of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina, you can also find anredera in the Mexican expanses. Most often, you can see this liana-like shrub on the edges of forests, which are free from dense and high stands, along roads or along the coastal areas of waterways. Some of the species are endemic, but many are spread over large areas.
A synonym for the name of the plant is Boussingoaltia or "Lamb's Tail", which is explained by the structure of the plant's inflorescences.
The plant has a perennial life cycle and a herbaceous form of growth, with liana-like stems. Their length in the natural environment can reach up to 6 meters. The root has a tuberous pineal shape and is the beginning of several shoots at once. On the maternal tuber of the plant, daughter small nodules are formed, the same formations appear in the leaf axils.
The stems are densely intertwined and have a high growth rate. Whole twisting "beards" and "hats" can form from them.
The leaf plates are arranged in succession on thin shoots. The leaves are heart-shaped, broadly oval, with a thick surface. The color of the leaves is rich green or dark emerald. The length of the leaf plate reaches 7 cm with a width of up to 3 cm.
From small flowers, racemes or spike inflorescences are collected. The plant is mono- or dioecious - when female and male buds can grow on the same bush at the same time. The color of the flowers is white, milky, greenish-white or cream. In the bud, 5 petals are connected, and a single pistil, surrounded by five stamens, grows above them. Due to the fact that the legs of the stamens are long, the flowers seem to be fluffy. And naturally, the inflorescences of the same branchy waterfalls are surrounded by green foliage. The plant has a delicate pleasant aroma, which is strongly audible in the evening and at night. The flowering process begins at the end of summer and can continue until the first frost.
It is used for landscaping balconies or pillars of terraces, but preferable on sunny sides. In the strip of Russia, it is customary to grow anredera as an indoor culture. If you correctly position the supports in the flowerpot, then you can create whole green walls and phytochirms from Bussengoltsia.
Recommendations for growing anderers, care
- Lighting. Anredera loves good lighting, can tolerate direct solar streams for a short time, therefore, it is better to grow it on the windows of the south-east and south-west locations, window sills of east and west orientation are suitable. Shading will be required on the southern windows, otherwise the leaves will burn - they will turn yellow. There will not be enough light in the northern direction of the windows and you will have to illuminate the bush.
- Content temperature the flower should be roomy (vary between 20-26 degrees) - it is not adapted to cool content and may start to hurt. It is important that as soon as it gets colder, remove the pot with the plant from the balcony or loggia, since the plant does not tolerate even a short-term drop in temperature. It does not tolerate the action of drafts. As soon as the stems dry out, after pruning, the heat indices decrease to 10–17 degrees - this means that the plant enters winter "hibernation", such a cold wintering will ensure the subsequent abundant flowering of the anredder. Tubers will need to be stored in sand or substrate until the end of winter, while the indicators are kept at 10-15 degrees.
- Watering. Anredera loves regular and abundant wetting of the substrate, but this operation is carried out only after the top layer of the soil has dried (if you take a pinch, it should crumble). As soon as the flowering process is over, the moisture is drastically reduced. In the autumn, as soon as the shoots dry out, you will need to cut them off and stop watering. The soil in the flowerpot should be moist all the time, but waterlogging should not be allowed, as the tubers will begin to rot, and the plant can be exposed to various fungal diseases. Water for irrigation is taken soft at room temperature (approximately 20-24 degrees). If tap liquid is used, it will need to be filtered, boiled and then settled for several days. It is best to use river water or collected rainwater.
- Pruning anreders. The plant does not require enhanced molding, only if the shoot is very elongated, then it is recommended to shorten it.
- Air humidity. Bussengolzia normally tolerates dry indoor air. There is no need for spraying.
- Fertilizers it is necessary to make it twice a month, when the greenery begins to grow (it is possible and more often). A complex mineral solution is used, and it is also recommended to add organic matter. But when flowers appear, it is recommended to refrain from organic fertilizers. Since the roots of anredera are located close to the soil surface, fertilizing the plant is very important for its health and beauty.
- Transplantation and selection of a substrate. The plant will need to change its container and soil in the spring, before the anredera releases its first shoots. This change is carried out only when the roots have filled the entire provided pot. Another signal for transplanting is the tubers that have appeared above the surface of the soil. Pots must be selected larger in width than depth (the roots are shallow in the substrate). Small holes are made in the bottom of the container so that moisture that is not absorbed can not stagnate in the pot. A layer of 1-2 cm of drainage material is poured there, and then the soil mixture is laid. The substrate should be loose, and with good air and moisture permeability. Since the root system of the flower is mainly located close to the surface of the soil, the soil must necessarily differ in nutritional value. The land for replanting is mixed from universal soil for deciduous crops, river coarse sand and peat soil (in proportions of 2: 1: 1). Watering should be increased after transplanting only when the growth of young shoots begins.
- Rest period. With the arrival of autumn days, the branches of the anredders begin to dry out, and it is recommended to cut them right at the root, flush with the soil surface. The pot with the plant is placed in a dry and cool room. During the dormant period, watering stops, but if only the "wintering" is cool, when the conditions are warm, then it will be necessary to moisten the soil, but rarely. With the beginning of spring, the unredera comes out of hibernation. At this time, you will need to transfer the flowerpot with a flower to a warm and well-lit place and water it gently. Shoots will quickly resume growth and will soon turn green again.
If the variety is not deciduous, that is, in the autumn-winter period, the foliage on the shoots remains, then the branches are not cut off. It is undesirable to transplant such a plant, since there is a high probability of branch breakage.
Bussengoltia breeding tips
You can get a new bussengoltia plant by planting seeds or tubers.
If a decision is made to sow seed, then this operation will need to be carried out at the beginning of spring and until its middle. The seeds are placed on peat-sandy soil and lightly powdered with sand. Then you will need regular hydration. The container must be covered with a piece of glass or wrapped in polyethylene, this will create conditions with the necessary indicators of heat and humidity. Germination proceeds quickly, but the container with crops is not placed in direct sunlight, since the seed material will simply boil from the increased temperature. As soon as the seedlings grow up, and there are 4-5 leaves on each sprout, you will need to dive them into separate containers, into boxes or greenhouse soil. They are planted in the following substrate: sod soil, peat soil, river sand (all parts are equal).
But best of all, the unredera can reproduce with the help of tubers. This operation is combined in the spring with a plant transplant. In this case, you will need to remove the bush from the pot and separate the newly formed tuberous roots. Before placing them in the substrate, it is recommended to carry out the treatment with a weak solution of potassium permanganate (the powder is dissolved in such an amount that the liquid has a light pink tint). Each of the nodules is planted in the above-described substrate in separate pots.
You can use the cuttings method. The upper parts of the shoots with a length of at least 10 cm are cut from the plant and quickly planted in a sandy-peat mixture. You can wrap them in plastic wrap or place them under a glass jar. As soon as new shoots appear on the branches, it will be necessary to transplant into pots with more nutritious soil, which is suitable for further growing an adult unredera.
Difficulties in cultivating unredera
If the plant is kept at high substrate moisture and low temperatures, this will lead to damage by fungal diseases. In this case, the tuberous roots begin to rot and the anredera dies.
Also, if the conditions of detention are not observed, damage to the mealybug, aphids or spider mites may occur. Firstly, it is necessary to carry out a regular inspection of the flower, and if pests are noticed, then urgently take action. From the symptoms of infection, one can distinguish:
- yellowing and deformation of the sheet plate;
- the appearance of plaque in the form of small white lumps of cotton wool on the back of the leaves and in internodes;
- the formation of a sticky and sugary plaque is the discharge of a harmful insect, if you do not take measures, then sooner or later the plant will be affected by a sooty fungus that feeds on plaque;
- crawling green or black small bugs.
Secondly, urgent treatment of the vine with soap, oil or alcohol solution is necessary. It is applied to cotton wool and pests and their formations are manually removed. If these funds do not bring the desired result, then you will have to spray with insecticides.
It is interesting that sometimes the whitefly annoys the anredere, but it appears unexpectedly, like a locust and also quickly disappears.
Interesting facts about anredder
The genus is divided into two parts Anredera and Tandonia and most often in the sources you can find the name of the first representative in the form - Boussingualtia, and this is true, but does not agree with the International Complex of Botany Nomenclatures. All this is due to the fact that the genus Anredera and its only species Anredera scandens, whose formation took place in 1789, merged with the genus Bussengolzia (it was described only in 1825, and it includes more representatives of the flora and it is better known), but according to the principle of priority, "victory" went to the little-known monotype Anredera.
This plant in Asia and South America is called the "poor man's potato" because the tuberous roots have the usual starchy taste. The leaf blades are also edible and taste very much like spinach.
Tubers and leaves of the Anredera cordifolia variety are actively used in diseases of VLT, liver and are used as an anti-inflammatory drug. In many countries that make up Latin America, it is customary to prescribe aerial parts of the plant (leaves and tubers) for early healing of wounds, relief of toothache, and also as a remedy for asthma and bronchitis.
Types of unredera
Anredera cordifolia (Ten.) Stennis). In the scientific literature, it is found under the synonymous names Boussingualtia baselloides Hook., Boussingualtia gracilis Miers. Boussingualtia gracilis Miers var. preudobaselloides Haura. Native growing lands are in Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, where the plant chooses tropical forests for its growth.
This perennial herbaceous liana-like flower can stretch from 3 to 6 meters in length with its shoots. The rhizome is very fragile, pineal tuberous. Leaf plates are alternately located on the shoot and have a cordate-wide oval outlines. In length, they vary from 2.5 to 7 cm with a width reaching 2-3 cm. The top of the leaf is pointed, the surface is glossy. Small flowers are collected in inflorescences, originating from the leaf sinuses. They can be simple and branched, in the form of panicles or brushes. The flowers are painted in whitish or milky shades with a delicate aroma.
Interestingly, in the plant, small nodules form in the axils of the leaves, and they retain their viability, even if the shoots have dried out more than a dozen years ago. If whole thickets have formed from the anreder, then, according to calculations, up to one and a half thousand of these nodules can crumble to the surface of the soil.
There are several countries in which this variety is considered a quarantine weed, as it can easily "strangle" any less vigorous plants and even trees. For the first time this variety was brought to England in 1835 and began to grow in culture, but if you come across a different variation of this plant, then everything else is only synonyms or the varieties are incorrectly identified.
Often mentioned in collections, the species Anredera basselloides, which differs from Anredera only in the shape of its leaf blades, is heart-shaped, but the true variety, which grows endemic in Ecuador and Peru, is not grown indoors and is unknown.
Anredera vesicaria (Anredera vesicaria) acts under the general name Sacasile. This and the previous variety can be found in the United States. Most often they are cultivated to create spectacular and aromatic phytowalls. This plant is considered to be native to the states of Texas, Mexico and Central America, you can see this anredder in the West Indies, Florida and Venezuela. Likes to settle along roadsides, fences of construction sites and can climb with his climbing shoots to a height of up to 500 meters.
It is a herbaceous liana-like plant with clinging stems. Their length sometimes reaches 8 meters. The leaf plates are evergreen, simple and with a glossy surface painted in a rich green color. Their shape is ovoid and are attached to the shoot with petioles 3–18 mm long. Leaf sizes vary from 2–16 cm in length with a width of 0.5–9 cm.
Small flowers are painted in a cream shade and reach 2 mm in diameter. They collect large and long racemose or panicle inflorescences measuring 70 cm in length. The flowers emit a very intense and pleasant aroma. The flowering process stretches from August to September. The fruit after flowering is the drupe.
The first to describe this variety was Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet de Lamarck. But in 1807, the unredera was classified in botanical taxonomy by Karl Friedrich von Gertner.
Anredera spicata (Anredera spicata). The plant is very different from other varieties in a different shade of flower buds. They are painted in a pinkish tone, and at the end of the flowering process, their petals turn black.
For more information about the room unredder, see this video:
