Description of the plant, recommendations for growing antennae on a personal plot, tips for its reproduction, possible difficulties in growing, facts for the curious, types. Antennaria (Antennaria), or as it is also called the Cat's Paw, belongs to the family of herbaceous representatives of the flora, called Asteraceae or Compositae. The native lands in which this plant can be found in nature include areas of the Northern Hemisphere with a temperate climate, except for one species that grows in South America - Antennaria chilensis. He prefers to settle in mountainous areas where there are forests with coniferous trees. In the genus of species, there are up to 50 units, of which 10 grow in Russia, and some of them are listed in the Red Book.
| Family name | Astral or Compositae |
| Life cycle | Perennial |
| Growth features | Herbaceous, ground cover |
| Reproduction | Seed and vegetative (cuttings or division of the rhizome) |
| Landing period in open ground | Seedlings or cuttings, planted in early spring or after flowering |
| Disembarkation scheme | At a distance of 25 cm |
| Substrate | Sandy, light alkaline |
| Illumination | Open area with bright lighting |
| Moisture indicators | Stagnant moisture is harmful, watering is absent or moderate |
| Special Requirements | Unpretentious |
| Plant height | 0.1-0.5 m |
| Color of flowers | Whitish, silvery, pinkish, red |
| Type of flowers, inflorescences | Baskets connected in shields or heads |
| Flowering time | Summer |
| Decorative time | Spring-summer |
| Place of application | Borders, rabatki, rock garden, rockeries |
| USDA zone | 3, 4, 5 |
Among florists, you can hear how Antennaria is called "scrofula" or "immortelle", but the most common term is Latin transliteration or Cat's foot. The last name comes from the plant's inflorescences, which resemble the pink pads of a cat's paws.
All antennae are perennials of a herbaceous or ground cover form, occasionally they are found in the form of semi-shrubs. Dense clumps can form through shoots. Branches have the ability to root quickly. Since the spread of the outlines is large, the plants differ greatly in height. On average, branches can rise from 10 cm, reaching half a meter. Shoots often have a soft tomentose pubescence of a whitish color.
Basal foliage is mainly collected in basal rosettes. The shape of the leaf plate is lanceolate or spatulate. Also, like the shoots, the leaves have white-tomentose pubescence, which muffles the green color of the leaves, and they are presented with a spectacular silvery shade. The leaves themselves are fleshy.
Peduncles repeat the color of foliage, powerful. A large number of them appear. Dense inflorescences form at the tops of the flowering stems. They represent a basket, which can vary in diameter in the range of 2-8 mm, and in it there are from 20 to 100 buds. Flowers are always unisexual. Women look threadlike, men look like a tube. The shape of the flowers is round, the color is whitish or pinkish. From such baskets, the formation of more complex inflorescences occurs - shields or heads. The flowering process occurs in the summer and can last up to 30–40 days.
After pollination, the fruit ripens in the form of an achene, equipped with a modified flower calyx (pappus), which looks like a tuft and consists of thin hairs with notches. These formations allow the seeds, driven by the wind, to fly away from the mother plant for long distances. In the cat's paw, asexual reproduction takes place - apomixis, which allows the formation of a large number of varieties that are very different from each other.
In the garden, it is recommended to decorate rockeries or rock gardens with the help of such plants. Antennaria will also be a great addition to heather plantings, as a curb plant or in mixborders. If you cut off the flower stalks with inflorescences, then they can come in handy when creating winter dry bouquets.
Recommendations for growing antennae in a personal plot
- Choosing a landing site. Since the plant in nature prefers dry mountainous areas, flooded with sunlight, then in the garden, find an area on which the sunset or morning sun rays will shine. In a flowerbed with a southern location, it is better not to plant a plant, since it is too hot there at noon. The shade will also inhibit not only growth, but also flowering. If the landing site is in partial shade, then the Antennaria bushes will generally adapt, but their shoots will begin to stretch strongly towards the light source and the entire curtain will acquire a ragged outline.
- Choice of substrate. Antenaria grows best on poor soil with low acidity. Soil mixed with river sand is suitable for looseness. If you break this rule and apply a fertile soil mixture, then the branches of the plant will begin to stretch strongly due to the large amount of nitrogen and organic matter.
- Landing a cat's paw. There are rules that are used when planting both seedlings and antennae. The hole is dug out of such a size that it corresponds to the size of the root system, while the bush should not be deeply buried. The distance between the plants is maintained at about 25 cm. If the immortelle is placed in a rocky garden or rockery, or in other decorative compositions, then mulching is recommended. This material will be stone chips or gravel. This will protect against weeds for the first time.
- Watering. The cat's paw is a very unpretentious plant and it always has enough natural rainfall. But until its shoots have not formed curtains in the form of pillows, it is necessary to moisten the soil in the hot season. Here it is only important to remember that the plant does not like the flooded substrate. If the inflorescences are collected or cut for a bouquet, then regular watering will be needed.
- Fertilizers for growing this plant, which prefers depleted soil, are not used, since they can simply destroy the cat's paw.
- General advice on care. Since this ground cover does not suffer from a drop in temperature in winter, no shelter is required. However, the only problem is that the bushes of the antennae tend to degenerate, and also creep around, filling all available places. If such cushion thickets are not rejuvenated and separated, then they acquire "bald spots" and their appearance will become loose and rare. Separation is recommended every 2-3 years, when spring comes. In this case, the delenki can be both large and smaller. It is also important to remove dead shoots that reduce decorative effect. After the plants (seedlings or cuttings) have been planted in a permanent place in the garden, the first time it is necessary to remove weeds. But if you mulch the soil with stone chips, you can get rid of weeds for a long time. Conifers (compact spruces, pines or junipers) are considered to be "neighbors" for planting a cat's paw; antennaarium also looks good next to heather, barberry, cereals and euonymus. It acts as an excellent background for bulbous or annual representatives of the flora. Sometimes landscape designers use cat's paw plantings to design support walls, areas intended for gardens formed on terraces, using a dry and lightweight substrate. If there are stepping paths in the country house or it is worth filling the gaps between stones or slabs, then Antennaria will come in handy here too. When creating a carpet lawn that will be resistant to trampling, then they use the plantings of this ground cover. It is customary to plant immortelle bushes along the path, where there is a low curb.
Tips for breeding antennae from seeds, rooting and planting layers
Plants easily propagate by rooting leaf rosettes that form on the sides of the mother bush or by planting cuttings. You can sow the harvested seeds, but this method is the most laborious.
When propagated using seeds, they are sown in a peat-sand mixture poured into seedling boxes. This is done in the spring. The container with crops is covered with glass and placed in a cool place. Make sure that the soil does not dry out. After a short period, you can see the first shoots. The growth rate of young antennae is rather low and their size is very small. They are transplanted to a permanent place in the garden when summer comes. In this case, the distance is maintained at about 20-30 cm between seedlings.
When the plant has grown strongly, then with the arrival of spring or at the latest in June, separation can be carried out. But if you didn't have time, don't be sad, such a period comes again when the antennae stopped blooming. For this, side sockets are suitable, which are not too small in size. They are planted with a rhinestone in a prepared place. If you want to carry out cuttings, then the best time for such an operation is April. Here a healthy shoot is selected and buried in the soil. Then, when you can see that he began to develop independently, such a layer is carefully separated from the mother bush and planted separately. If all the rules are followed, then by the end of the growing season, dense bushes are formed from such seedlings, resembling grayish-green pillows.
Possible difficulties in growing a cat's paw
Antennaria is distinguished by its resistance to diseases and attacks of pests, but for this it is necessary to choose the right landing site and prophylactically spray with insecticidal preparations. If this is not done, then aphids, spider mites or caterpillars can cause problems. Treatment with Aktellik, Aktara or Fitoverm is recommended, you can take other products with a similar spectrum of action.
If the planting site is damp and shady, then the cat's foot will suffer from spotting, rot, powdery mildew, rust. Treatment with fungicides and transplantation to a new place are required. If symptoms of nematosis infection are noticed, then such bushes cannot be saved and it is better to burn them so that other representatives of the flora do not suffer.
Facts for the curious about cat's paw and flower photo
People's healers have long known about the medicinal properties of antennae, it is not for nothing that the people call it immortelle. So the funds made on the basis of parts of a cat's paw are used to treat bleeding in almost all parts of a person - uterine and nasal, hemorrhoidal and intestinal, gastric and pulmonary. For drying, both inflorescences and the aerial part (stems and foliage) are used.
The collection of Antennaria herbs begins when the flowering is in progress and the weather is clear and dry. As soon as the dew disappears from the grass, you can start harvesting. Drying is carried out in rooms where there is no direct sunlight and there is good ventilation. When cutting flower baskets, those that have not yet fully blossomed are selected. If the size of the inflorescences is small or there are crumbling flowers in the basket, then it is better not to use such material. Dry the herb with care, spreading it out on a soft mat or clean sheet. The layer should be thin, the temperature during drying is maintained at about 40-45 degrees. You can store dried grass and antennae inflorescences for a year if you place them in a wooden or glass container, hermetically sealed with a lid.
The medicinal properties of the cat's paw are explained by the presence of saponins, tannins, sitosterol and vitamin K, as well as resinous components in the aerial part.
Types and varieties of antennae
Antennaria dioica (Antennaria dioica) is also called dioecious cat's foot. This perennial plant has original outlines. In winter, it does not die off, and even under a snow cover its greenish-gray foliage is well preserved and looks attractive against the background of an alpine hill left without vegetation. Creeping shoots, can easily root when in contact with the soil. Through the branches, bushes are formed in the form of pillows, of a loose shape, resembling large bumps. Their height is 15 cm with a diameter of about 25 cm. Whole tomentose leaves are part of the root rosette. Plump snake-like multiple creeping shoots take the owl from it.
If the weather is very hot and dry on summer days, then the foliage begins to curl, which does not particularly negatively affect the general appearance of the plant. The flowering stems are straight, they grow the stem-enveloping leaf plates of a linear shape.
When blooming, small flower baskets are formed, in which female and male flowers are combined. Their petals are pink or reddish. From such baskets, more complex capitate or corymbose inflorescences are subsequently collected. The flowering process begins in late spring and can take up to two months. Seeds ripen only in August.
Among flower growers, the following varieties and garden forms of dioecious antennae are considered popular:
- minima having a height of up to 5 cm, the inflorescences have a pale pink color;
- rosea has a more saturated color of foliage and flowers with a bright pink tint;
- rubra rarely exceeds 15 cm in height, while the color of the baskets is reddish;
- tomentosa foliage with so much pubescence that it seems completely white;
- grade "Aprica" differs in the snow-white color of the inflorescences;
- variety "Roy Davidson" is the owner of bright green foliage and inflorescences are painted in lilac-pink color.
Antennaria alpine (Antennaria alpina). It is a perennial ground cover plant, the shoots of which colorfully spread over the soil surface and at the same time make up lush bushes. Such bushes grow into dense clumps. Their height does not exceed 15 cm. Due to pubescence, the foliage seems to be bluish, and the inflorescences-baskets are painted in a pinkish-purple tone. From the peduncles, racemose inflorescences can be collected. Each such brush contains 2–5 inflorescences. The flowering process begins in early summer and lasts all three months.
Antennaria plantaginifolia or Cat's foot plantain. This variety is more rare, such bushes are somewhat similar to plantain in their appearance. In size, this species is the largest, since its shoots can reach a length of 40-50 cm. They are very densely covered with lanceolate leaves. Leafy plates are oval, large in size, gather in a root rosette and resemble an overgrown and cultivated plantain.
Inflorescences also differ in size. Flowers begin to bloom between May and June. They are made up of baskets of white or dirty pink flowers. Just like its "medicinal counterpart", the plant can grow in places where other representatives of the flora do not get along, for example, on neglected or uncultivated soils. It can grow rapidly in the garden, drowning out other flowers. Easily tolerates winters without shelter.
Antennaria carpathian (Antennaria carpatica). The foliage is narrow, grayish-silvery. From the shoots, real "carpets" are formed, reaching 10–20 cm in height. The flower-bearing stems are tall with a bare surface, devoid of foliage. They are crowned with pink inflorescences. The plant is listed in the Red Book.
