Description of the representative of the karyote, agricultural technology for maintenance and care, advice on reproduction, diseases and pests, interesting facts, species. Cariota (Caryota) goes into an extensive genus of plants included in the Palm family (Palmaceae), or as it is also called Arekov (Aracaceae). Monocotyledonous representatives of the flora (in which there is only one cotyledon in the embryo), and also, by and large, these are tree-like representatives of the flora with an unbranched trunk. It is this genus of karyote that includes up to 130 varieties. The native habitat extends from Sri Lanka to lands in northeastern India, through Southeast Asia to the Solomon Islands, including New Guinea and areas in the northeast of the Australian continent.
The caryote carries its popular name "fish tail" due to the fact that its leaves are very reminiscent of the beautiful tails of tropical fish.
All types of karyota are large enough plants, which can reach 20-25 m in height, but there are varieties that do not exceed 7-8 m. When grown in a room, their sizes are much more modest - up to 1-1, 5 meters. There can be either one trunk or many, that is, a form of growth in the form of a bush. From other representatives of the palm family, this specimen differs in large dissected leaves with double-feathering. When opened, the leaf strikes with its asymmetry in a triangular shape and the division of the upper leaf lobe, as if it had been torn off. The color of the leaves is lighter in youth, but over time it becomes dark green, and sometimes even black. The petiole of some varieties also has a bizarre multicolor color.
It is not worth waiting for flowering when growing a caryote indoors, but in nature, after a 10-year period, the first inflorescences, consisting of multiple hanging branches, begin to appear from the leaf sinuses at the top of the table, resembling a large trimmed tail of a horse. Then the appearance of other inflorescences wave-like descends to the very bottom. This process lasts without interruption for 5-7 years, and while the buds in the lower part of the palm are blooming, the fruits are already ripening from above. In the “fishtail” palm, the fruits resemble berries with a diameter of about 1, 5–2, 5 cm, they are usually painted in reddish tones, but when ripe in some varieties, the color changes to black.
On average, the life cycle of a karyote is 20–25 years, but the first flowers and fruits appear when the palm tree reaches at least 12–15 years of age. They die off immediately after flowering and fruiting, but new young shoots grow in their place, if the form is artisanal. When a plant has only one trunk, then it dies completely.
Agricultural technology for the maintenance of karyote, home care
- Lighting should be bright, but diffused, windows facing east or west will do.
- Content temperature when growing a karyote it is necessary to keep it within the range of 20-24 degrees, and in the winter period not lower than 18 degrees. The plant is afraid of drafts.
- Air humidity must be elevated, therefore it is recommended to spray the leaves of the palm tree, wipe them with a sponge from dust and increase the humidity by all available methods.
- Watering for karyota. The soil is kept not overdried and not flooded. As soon as the top layer of the soil dries out, moistening is carried out in the spring-summer period, and in winter it should dry out by 3-5 cm. Only soft water with 20-25 degrees of heat is used.
- Fertilizers for palm trees "fishtail" should be applied in the spring and summer. Regular feeding 2-3 times a month. Complex preparations for palm trees are used. It is important that they have a balance of nutrients and trace elements in their composition.
- Transplantation and choice of substrate. You should change the pot and the soil in it for the karyote only if necessary, even when the palm is young, then this operation is carried out every 2 genera, and for adult plants - only once every 3-4 years. The transshipment method is used, without destroying the earthen lump, it is allowed to remove only a little of the top layer of the soil, but in such a way as not to hurt the roots. If the rhizomes are injured, it can lead to the death of the fishtail palm. A good drainage layer should be laid at the bottom. The flowerpot in height should exceed the width, with each transplant, the capacity increases by 5 cm on average compared to the previous one.
Any substrate suitable for indoor plants is taken. If the soil is with sufficient air and moisture permeability, then the karyote can accept any composition. The ideal is still considered ready-made soil for palm plants or make up a mixture of sod soil, river sand, humus and compost, taken in equal parts.
How to propagate a karyote on your own?
When karyote propagates, sowing of its seeds is used, as well as methods of vegetative propagation (division and cuttings).
When a clump of a palm tree has grown too much, then it is a real problem to divide it, there is a risk of losing the entire plant. The division is combined with the transplantation process. The rhizome needs to be divided with a sharpened knife and then the cuttings should be planted in prepared pots with soil. Then you should maintain a very high humidity until parts of the karyote take root.
When grafting, stem and leaf cuttings are not used, but offshoots are used, which need to be rooted. As soon as at least a few independent roots are formed on the maternal karyote in the root zone near the processes, the plant can be separated. These separated parts should then be rooted in clean, wet sand. At the same time, the temperature is maintained within the range of 20-25 degrees and the palms are placed under a hood so that the humidity is high. Plants are shaded from direct sunlight and sprayed regularly. After signs of rooting appear, they are transplanted into a pot to a permanent place of growth - the care is normal.
The seed material of this palm tree loses its germination very quickly, so the seed propagation method is rarely used. They can germinate from 1 to 3 months or not hatch at all. In the spring, seed is planted. Sandy-peat soil should be disinfected with fungicides. Seeds are soaked in a growth stimulator for a day before sowing. The seeding depth is 1–1.5 cm with a maximum container height of 15 cm. The container with crops is covered with plastic wrap or placed under glass, heat indicators should not be lower than 25 degrees. Daily airing of crops will be required. The container should be in the dark. As soon as the sprouts appear, the container is transferred to a place with diffused and bright lighting. The transplant is carried out only when the first true leaf appears on the young karyote. When transplanting, you need to try not to touch the roots and plant in a pot with a diameter of 5 cm. "Youngsters" are required even in the winter period of the first year of life to be kept in hotter conditions than adult specimens
Overcoming the challenges of growing karyote
If the conditions of detention are violated, the fishtail palm may be affected by spider mites, mealybugs, scale insects or aphids. For a start, you can wash the karyota under shower jets at room temperature, then the leaf lobes are treated with soap, oil or alcohol solutions, and if sparing agents do not bring tangible results, it is recommended to spray the plant with insecticides of a wide spectrum of action.
Also, due to the bay of the substrate, the palm tree can be affected by various rot and some wilting, as well as become infected with late blight and fusarium. The affected areas of karyota must be cut and destroyed, and then treated with fungicides.
If watering is not enough for the palm tree, then its leaves will begin to fall down and with low humidity in the room, this threatens to dry out the ends of the leaf lobes, and when the temperature drops and drafts, the leaves will begin to darken and fade.
Interesting facts about the caryote palm
All parts of the karyote contain a large amount of oxalic acid salt, which is called oxalate. If it comes into contact with the skin, it can cause severe irritation. It is customary to make sago (starch groats) from the stems of some varieties, and you can also get sugar and make palm wine. Due to the strength of the leaves, they are used as a raw material for making ropes, and the wood of the fishtail palm is also valued.
Since varieties of karyotes have the peculiarity of interbreeding with each other and at the same time magnificent plants are obtained, it is practically impossible to determine their exact appearance.
Description of karyote species
- Tender Caryota (Caryota mitis) or as it is also called soft Cariota. A plant forms many stems, and in nature they are capable of reaching 9 m in diameter at 10-12 cm, when grown in rooms only 1.5 meters, but the ability to spread out in breadth remains. The leaves of this palm are rather large, with an uneven-wedge-shaped shape, the lobes are asymmetric, the edge is serrated, the top has a dissection of more than half. In length, each leaf can reach almost 1, 2–2, 7 m. The size of each lobe in width is no more than 12 cm in length. The petiole is about 30-50 cm long, quite graceful in appearance. The stem, on which the inflorescence is about 60 cm in length, the fruits reach 1 cm in diameter, with a reddish tint. Each trunk of a palm tree is capable of forming flowers and fruits only once during its entire life period, therefore, as the fruits ripen, it dies off, and more and more new offspring will appear to replace it. The native habitat is found in the humid forests of East India and in the southern regions of the Indochina Peninsula, and can also be found in the Malay Archipelago.
- Caryota urens may also be referred to as the Wine Palm or Cutille Palm. This plant has only one trunk, and the leaf lobes have triangular asymmetric outlines, there is a dissection at the top, and the leaves themselves are of a narrower shape. Multiple buds are collected in the inflorescences, it has a powerful appearance, and in nature, the size can reach several meters. The fruits are large, red in color. It grows on the lands of Eastern India, Burma, Thailand and the territory of the Malay Archipelago, likes to grow in tropical rainforests, occurs on mountain slopes, while climbing up to 1500 m above sea level. The height of a single trunk can reach 9–15 m with a diameter of 30–45 cm. The length of leaves rarely exceeds 5–6 m with a total width of about 4.5 m. The leaf lobes have an irregularly triangular shape, their length is 15 cm and a width of 7, 5–10 cm. There is an uneven dissection at the apex almost to its half length. The inflorescence axis can be 3–4 m long. The fruit is rounded, only 1–2 m across, reddish. When the tree is already on the verge of its life cycle, the flowering process takes place. As soon as the fruits ripen on the panicle located at the very bottom, the monocarp species dies. That is, when a palm tree reaches the age of 12–15 years, its flowering begins, and then it continues for another 5–7 years, so the entire life span of this species is in the range of 20–25 years. The fruits have a juicy pulp containing calcium oxalate crystals, which can cause irritation on the skin and therefore the plant bears this name.
- Caryota albertii is an endemic Australian species (that is, the plant does not grow anywhere except in this territory, except for Cleveland). You can also find this palm in the Philippines, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, it is not uncommon in Eastern Indonesia. The plant is single-stemmed, growing in height up to 10–18 m with a trunk diameter of about 45 cm. On its surface there are traces of fallen leaves and the color of the trunk is dark gray. The leaves are 7 cm long, feathery, the color is dark green. The length of drooping inflorescences can be up to 2 m, they are shaded with yellow-cream tones. One inflorescence can contain flowers of both sexes. The diameter of the fruits is 5 cm, they are reddish, however, when fully ripe, the color often changes to black. As soon as flowering ends, the palm tree dies. It is used in the manufacture of cereals from starch (sago), the core of the trunk serves as the raw material.
- Cariota striped (Caryota zebrina). The native growing areas are in the lands of Papua New Guinea, where the plant is found in forests on mountain slopes. The tree has one trunk, reaching a height of 15 m, with a diameter of 40 cm. The surface of the trunk is covered with cracks. The leaves are 5–7 m long, with a width of up to 1.5 m. When the leaf lobes are young, the color is light, but then it becomes dark green almost to black, the surface is leathery. They can be located at a variety of angles, and this makes the palm look very untidy. When the leaves are young, their petioles are covered with patterns of stripes of light and dark tones, so this color gave the name to the species. Inflorescences do not exceed 2.5 m in length. Ripening fruits are black. As soon as flowering and ripening of the fruit ends, the palm tree dies.
- One-headed cariota (Caryota monostachya). Its stem does not exceed 1 m in height, with a diameter of 3 cm. It has simple spike-shaped inflorescences.
- Caryota rumphiana. The native habitat falls on the lands of the Australian continent and Southeast Asia. The trunk is powerful, 18 m high. The shape of the leaves is double-pinnate, they rarely exceed 4 m in length, the stipules at the tops have a dissection. The flowers are painted in purple or yellowish-green tones, from which inflorescences are collected in the form of bundles equal to 3 m in length. Berries have a bluish tone.
- Serpentine cariota (Caryota ophiopellis) is endemic to the island territories of Tanna, Vanuatu and Aneityum, but even there it is almost impossible to meet it. On the island, the nationality grows it because of its highly decorative characteristics. Likes to settle in the undergrowth of tropical forests. Moreover, the height of its trunk is 7-8 m. The leaves have a neat appearance. The leaf stalk is covered with a pattern very reminiscent of snakeskin, consisting of stripes of white, gray and black colors (in Latin, "ophis" means snake, and "pellis" means skin). The structure of flowers and fruits resembles Arenga, since the plant is considered a close "relative" of the karyote and it is believed that this particular variety is a link in the evolutionary process, located between the above-mentioned representatives of the flora.
- Big Caryota (Caryota maxima) is an endemic plant in China, Laos and Vietnam, and can also be found in Thailand and Sumatra. It has one trunk, reaching up to 33 meters in height with a diameter of about 30 cm. The surface of the trunk is smooth, but there are scars from fallen leaves on it. The leaves are feathery, green in color, drooping leaf lobes, equal in length to 5 cm. The inflorescences are massive with a length of 1.5 m. It has flowers of both sexes. The diameter of the fruit reaches 2.5 cm, the color is dark red or purple, the pulp contains oxalates. Wood of this variety is considered very valuable.
Learn more about growing caryote in the following video:
