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Arrowroot puts the leaves down. Arrowroot: care, types and varieties. Video: ampelous arrowroot

In honor of the Venetian physician Bartalameo Maranti got its name adorable indoor plant arrowroot. These exotic beauties were brought to our latitudes from the humid tropics of Africa and America. And in England it is called a prayer plant. It is not difficult to guess why such a name.

Why arrowroot leaves move

Arrowroot flower

The pattern on the leaves of the arrowroot flower is geometric. The color of the stripes and spots on the leaf ranges from light green to almost black. The color of the veins is also varied - from white to crimson.

In the evening, beautiful arrowroot leaves rise up, they can even curl up into a tube. The leaves seem to stretch for the gentle rays of the setting sun. In the morning, the leaves of the plant drop and unfold. During the day, the leaves also turn more than once, trying to catch more light from the sun's rays or any other source of light.

This plant also plays the role of a barometer: a few hours before a thunderstorm, the leaves rise up.

The leaf mobility is provided by the leaf cushion. This is such a special thickening between the cutting and the leaf blade. It is for such a leafy half that you can accurately identify arrowroot among other plants.

Arrowroot flower as a psychotherapist

The Venetian physician mentioned at the beginning of the article wrote many works on the effect of indoor plants on a person living in an accelerated rhythm of life. Nowadays, the rhythm has accelerated so much that indoor plants are simply needed in the interior of modern houses and apartments, which would have a positive effect on the psyche of a physically and morally tired person. The soft greens of the arrowroot indoor plant, the pleasant outlines of the leaves serve people a good service: they soothe and create a unique coziness at home, help to get out of stress, and reduce psychological stress.

Reproduction of indoor arrowroot flower

This houseplant propagates very easily by cuttings or by dividing the rhizome. The flower is propagated by cuttings from March to September. The stalk must be cut below the point of attachment of the sheet and put into water. In the soil, the stalk of arrowroot takes root, too, but worse. There should be 2-3 leaves on the handle. The ideal rooting temperature is 22-24 degrees.

The plant propagates by the rhizome in the spring when transplanting - the bush is divided into 2-3 parts, each of which is seated separately.

Interesting facts about indoor flower arrowroot

In the tropical regions of Africa, arrowroot reed is grown. It has economic value. Its tubers are used to produce starch. It is not grown as a houseplant.

The arrowroot flower is considered a plant of Aquarius. It protects them from colds, promotes the resorption of blood clots.

If you suffer from insomnia, then put arrowroot in the bedroom of your house.

Arrowroot looks great in the florarium. glass vase any shape, indoor fountain and, in fact, arrowroot. Sconces with energy-saving lamps or table lamps are used as a light source.

Maranta is a perennial herb about 20 cm high. The name is given in honor of Bartalomeo Maranta, a Venetian physician. The root system is tuberous. Shoots can be straight or creeping. Leaves are linear-lanceolate, oval-rounded, oblong-elliptical. The color is spectacular: bright spots and veins are located against the general background (from white to dark green).

Why is arrowroot called a prayer plant?

With sufficient lighting, the leaf plates are located almost horizontally, and with unfavorable factors they rise up and close, like palms. Hence the second name - praying grass. Another popular name is the Ten Commandments, since one species of this plant has 10 spots on the leaves.

Favorable living conditions contribute to flowering, but it does not have any special decorative effect. Small flowers of white, light pink or light yellow color bloom on a thin peduncle. most often, the peduncle is cut off even before the flowers bloom, because after flowering the arrowroot sheds its leaves and goes into dormancy.

The plant belongs to the Marantaceae family, the genus has about three dozen species. Homeland is the swamps of South America.

Caring for the arrowroot plant at home

Site selection and lighting

Lighting is necessary diffused. Feel good in light shading. Avoid direct sunlight. If the lighting is very bright, the size of the leaf plates will decrease and the color will fade. Arrowroot grows well under artificial lighting: use fluorescent lamps, provide 16 hours of daylight.

Temperature regime

The plant loves warmth, it is painful to drafts and sudden changes in temperature. In the warm season, the optimal temperature range is 22-24 ° C. During the dormant period (October-February), the temperature must be reduced to 18 ° C, the maximum temperature decrease is possible up to + 10 ° C.

How to water

In the warm season, abundant is necessary, keep the topsoil moist, but do not allow waterlogging. Reduce watering with the onset of autumn. During a cool winter, it is enough to occasionally moisten an earthen lump to prevent hypothermia of the roots.

Air humidity

The plant needs high humidity. Spray the arrowroot regularly; if the air is dry, do it twice a day. Periodically place the pot with the plant on a pallet with damp expanded clay, moss, pebbles, avoiding the bottom of the pot in contact with water. To provide additional moisture and simply cleanse the plant of dust, occasionally bathe under a warm shower, and do not forget to protect the earthy ball from water ingress (cover with a bag).

Perform all water procedures with softened, warm (room temperature) water.

Why do leaves dry

Despite the application of all measures to maintain moisture, the tips of the leaves in indoor conditions can dry out. The arrowroots feel best in florariums, terrariums, mini-greenhouses.

Top dressing

In the spring and summer, it is necessary to feed every 2 weeks, alternating complex mineral fertilizers with organic ones.

Transfer

How to transplant arrowroot photos

Plants spend every 2 years in the spring. Choose shallow, plastic pot(it holds moisture better), each time increasing the diameter by 1-2 cm. Withered and dried leaves must be cut off. Be sure to lay a drainage layer at the bottom, consisting of expanded clay, ceramic fragments, coarse sand.

Priming

A soil with a slightly acidic reaction is required. The following compositions are suitable: leaf, peat soil, humus in equal proportions or garden soil, sand, peat in a ratio of 3: 1: 1.5. You can add a little coniferous earth, charcoal, dry mullein to any soil.

If you grow a flower on hydroponics or an ion-exchange substrate, feeding and transplanting will not take 2-3 years.

Pruning

How to split an arrowroot bush

Arrowroot is carried out in a vegetative way: by dividing the bush and apical cuttings.

Divide the bush during transplantation. Plant the strips in small pots with soil, as for adult plants. For successful rooting, cover the plantings with foil and place in a warm place (air temperature at least 20 ° C). When the plant grows, the shelter must be removed.

Propagation of arrowroot cuttings

Reproduction is carried out from the end of spring and summer. Each stalk should have 2-3 leaves. Root in water - roots will appear in 5-6 days. Plant young plants in accordance with the transplant rules.

Diseases, pests of arrowroot

The arrowroot leaves curl and turn yellow, the tips of the leaves dry out

Yellowed leaves with dry tips, their curling, falling off, slowing down the growth rate of arrowroot indicate dry air - do not forget about spraying, put the plant pot on a pallet with humidifiers (moss, pebbles, expanded clay). A completely exhausted arrowroot can be bathed in a warm shower, and then covered with a plastic bag to maintain high humidity. Such a "bath" is able to reanimate an overdried flower. But do not forget to drop in, water-spray the plant. When you see that the arrowroot has come to life, remove the bag, but do not admit the same problem in the future: put a humidifier next to it or keep the beauty on a pallet with wet pebbles.

The second possible problem- compressed, dried earthen lump... If the plant has not been transplanted for a long time, the earth can become very compacted from perennial watering, so that even during watering it will not be moistened: water will run down the walls of the pot, bypassing the roots of the plant. Check how moisture permeable the soil is. If the problem is evident, urgently transplant the plant with a soil replacement.

If the leaves wither, the stems rot- watering is too vigorous, or the air temperature is low. urgently need to transplant: rinse the roots under water, carefully examine, cut off all suspicious, rotten parts of both the root and the aerial part. Soak the roots in a phytosporin solution, treat the green part and plant in a disinfected pot with fresh soil, cover with a plastic bag until it is used.

If the light is too bright, arrowroot leaves fade, and when exposed to direct sunlight, brown spots (burns) appear. In this case, you need to choose a place for the flower with diffused sunlight.

Pests

The arrowroot plant can be attacked by spider mites. It settles on the underside of the leaf plate, envelops the plant with cobwebs white, the leaves are covered with dark drying spots. It is necessary to carry out the treatment with insecticides, repeating the procedure after a week. It is better to prevent the problem than to solve it: to avoid pest damage, keep the plant clean, spray it regularly, do not place it near heating systems.

Types of arrowroot with photo and name

Arrowroot bicolor Maranta bicolor

It has oval or ovoid leaves. The color of the leaf plate: the main background is light green, stripes of a darker shade extend from the central vein. The species requires very careful maintenance and is best suited for growing in a greenhouse.

Arrowroot tricolor or tricolor Maranta Tricolour

The most unpretentious and popular type in home floriculture. The leaves are dark green with a lighter border, the veins are colored dark red and become darker towards the edges.

Arrowroot white-veined or white-veined Maranta Leuconeura

Dark green leaves with pink veins and a strip of silvery white running down the center. The shape of the leaf plate is oval, the length reaches 15 cm. It is unpretentious in care.

Arrowroot reed Maranta arundinacea photo

The bush reaches a height of about 1 m.The leaves are monochromatic green, oblong-oval, reaching a length of about 25 cm. indoor growing not common. The roots of the plant are used for the production of starch, which is an alternative to corn.

Differs in original flowering, which are purple flowers, collected in paniculate inflorescences. When they fade, a honeycomb bed is exposed, forming a kind of cone. Leaves are oval or ovoid, light green color with darker stripes. The care for the species is standard.

Maranta kerchovena maranta leuconeura kerchoveana

A kind of white-necked arrowroot. Able to reach a height of 25 m. Oval-shaped leaf plates are attached on short petioles. The top is painted bright green with brownish strokes creating a feathery pattern. The plant loves warmth, shade, regular water treatments.

Arrowroot massange aka black arrowroot maranta leuconeura Massangeana = Black Maranta photo

In the center of the oval sheet plate there is a wide strip of white-yellow hue, spots depart from it dark brown, the edges of the leaves are dark green, the veins are silvery.

The benefits of the plant

Arrowroot is used for culinary (starch production) and medicinal (treatment of intestinal anemia, anorexia, insomnia) purposes. The plant is rich in calcium, folic acid, vitamins PP, B9.

Signs and superstitions about arrowroot

It is believed that the plant is capable of absorbing aggression, protecting the house from quarrels and disagreements. According to feng shui practice, the tricolor arrowroot energy prevents colds and is able to purify the blood.

Arrowroot is a very interesting, but unfortunately demanding plant. But if you are ready to satisfy her whims, she will thank you with very beautiful leaves. It is even difficult to say what other indoor flowers can compete with arrowroot in the quirkiness of painted patterns on the leaves. Above - dark green spots and white stripes on both sides of the central vein, below - bluish-green leaves.

Description of arrowroot

Most often, on our windowsills, white-veined arrowroot and its types are found. But her flowers are inconspicuous, they are formed between the leaves. The arrowroot also has one interesting feature: in the evening she lifts her leaves up and folds them together. In the morning, the leaves straighten out and fall again. For this, the British call it the Prayer plant - a plant that prays.

The plant got its name in honor of the physician Bartolomeo Maranta. The homeland of the plant is the tropical rainforests of Brazil. Therefore, it loves very much wet air(up to 90 percent). Arrowroot is often recommended for growing in the so-called "bottle gardens", where it is created high humidity... They also recommend sprinkling arrowroot often, but only with a fine spray, since large drops of water leave traces on the leaves.

General rules for caring for arrowroot at home

The plant is afraid of drafts and temperature changes. In winter, in rooms where arrowroot grows, the air temperature should fall at least 12 degrees, preferably 16-18, in summer the most optimal temperature is 23-24. To preserve the beauty and brightness of the leaves, you must adhere to several rules.

Since excessive lighting can lead to fading of the color of the leaves, the plant must be shaded. At the same time, excessive shade also negatively affects its color.

If the tips of arrowroot leaves become dry and brown or the leaves fall off, this may signal excessive dryness of the air. Yellow-brown tips indicate a lack or, conversely, an excess of nutrients. In drafts, the leaves curl and dry out.

Maranta (Maranta). © Steven Rodriquez

Water the plant with moderately soft water, about room temperature; in winter, watering should be limited. From an excess of moisture in a plant, roots can rot. Dry and withered leaves must be removed. To prevent the bush from stretching, it is cut off. At the same time, the cuttings are cut off together with the nodule from which the leaves grow. This promotes more intensive new leaf formation.

So for successful cultivation arrowroots are needed: penumbra, high air humidity, rich soil, spacious enough pot.

Also, the plant does not tolerate the presence of lime in the soil.

Little secret: add a couple of pieces of charcoal to the soil mixture for planting arrowroot. In the spring and summer, once every two weeks, it should be fed with flower fertilizers. Arrowroot shoots are creeping, so it is better to plant it in wide containers. Transplanted every 1-2 years in the spring. The plant itself is compact, growing only up to 30 cm tall.

Maranta (Maranta). © elka52

Reproduction of arrowroot

Propagated arrowroot by dividing the bushes and stem cuttings with 1-2 internodes. The leaves are cut off by a third and the cuttings are planted in a box of sand. After about 2-3 weeks at a temperature of 20-24 degrees, they start up roots. You can also root them in water. Good drainage is also needed.

Arrowroot is a plant that is demanding in terms of maintenance and care, but the beauty of its leaves, if they are healthy and well-groomed, will pay off all your efforts.
In places of natural habitat, large arrowroot leaves are used by local residents to make wicker baskets, and rhizomes containing starch are used for food. Rhizomes are also used for making diet food and thickeners for jellies and sauces.
Arrowroot can not stand the direct sun and requires special, tropical conditions.

From the information contained in our article, you can find out:

what conditions are necessary for arrowroot;
how to care for this tropical beauty;
how to solve the sometimes arising problems of arrowroot.

Listen to the article

Planting and caring for arrowroot

Bloom: decorative deciduous plant.
Lighting: penumbra.
Temperature: in summer - 22-24 ˚C, in winter - 16-18 ˚C.
Watering: the soil should be slightly damp all the time.
Air humidity: increased. It is recommended to spray the leaves daily in the heat and keep the plant on a pallet with moist sphagnum moss.
Top dressing: from March to August twice a month with a weak solution of complex mineral fertilizer for deciduous plants.
Rest period: from October to February.
Transfer: in the spring, once every two years.
Reproduction: vegetative - cuttings and dividing the bush.
Pests: mealybugs, false scutes and spider mites.
Diseases: from improper care, stem or root rot may develop, and the leaves may lose their decorative effect.

Read more about growing arrowroot below.

Plant arrowroot (lat.Maranta)- a representative of the genus of perennial grasses of the Marantovaya family. The genus includes about 25 species growing in tropical belt America. The plant was named after Bartolomeo Maranta, a medieval physician and botanist. Arrowroot has other names - prayer plant, praying grass, "ten commandments" (according to the number of specks on the leaves of one of the arrowroot species) and arrow-shaped root. Arrowroot flowers are decorative deciduous plants, and not at all flowers in our usual view, but their leaves are a real masterpiece created by nature.

Arrowroot flower - description

The indoor arrowroot flower is a plant with a tuberous rhizome, its leaves are elliptical, basal or two-row located on the stems. The colors of the leaves are varied and incredibly beautiful: the background color varies from almost white to dark green, and bright spots, stripes and veins stand out against the background. The upper side of the leaf is much brighter than the lower one, and this is especially striking when the arrowroot flower makes its "prayer": in the evening it picks up the leaves and slightly folds them so that only the plain underside of the plates is visible, and in the morning it lowers and unfolds its beautiful leaves, the kind of which every time is admirable.

Indoor arrowroot blooms with white, cream or lilac asymmetrical three-membered flowers, collected in apical spike-shaped inflorescences. Blooming arrowroot is not God knows what a spectacle, so it is better to remove the flowers immediately so that the plant does not waste its energy. The arrowroot fruit is a single-seeded capsule. In height, an arrowroot houseplant rarely grows above 30-40 cm, so it can be kept in any, even the smallest room, although natural plant species sometimes reach 150 cm in height.

After this article, they usually read

Arrowroot are perennial herbaceous plants with erect or creeping shoots and tuberous roots. The plants are named after the Venetian physician Bartalomeo Maranta (16th century). There is one more popular name - "10 commandments". One of the arrowroot species has 10 specks on the leaves, and therefore the inhabitants of England try to have such a flower in every home. We will tell you about the features of growing arrowroot at home in the article.

Botanical description of arrowroot

Arrowroot (Maranta) is a genus of plants in the family Marantovye. About 25 species are known in the genus. The arrowroot family ( Marantaceae) has about 400 plant species that belong to 30 genera. The homeland of arrowroot is the swampy forests of Central and South America.

Arrowroot are short plants that rarely grow above 20cm. They are notable for the spectacular color of the leaves, on which brightly colored veins and spots stand out against an even background. The general background of the leaves varies from almost white to dark green, almost black. Leaves are linear-lanceolate, oblong-elliptical, oval-round.

Arrowroot leaves have the ability to change their direction: leaf blades under favorable conditions are located almost horizontally, and with a lack of lighting or other unfavorable factors, they rise up and fold together. Because of this feature, arrowroots are called "praying grass."

Arrowroot requirements for growing conditions

Shine: bright diffused, the plant can tolerate some shade.

Temperature: in the spring-summer period - + 22 ... + 24 ° C; in the autumn-winter period - + 18 ... + 20 ° C.

Watering: plentiful, warm soft water.

Air humidity: high.

Top dressing: the plant needs fertilizing with both organic and mineral fertilizers.

Dormant period: forced, from October to February.

Features of growing arrowroot

Arrowroot - enough shade-tolerant plants, develop well in diffused light. IN winter time plants also want bright diffused light. They do not tolerate direct sunlight during the spring and summer months. The size and color of the leaves depends on whether the plant is successfully protected from the sun. If the light is very bright, the leaves lose their color, and the leaf blade also shrinks. Arrowroot grows very well under artificial lighting with fluorescent lamps for 16 hours a day.

Arrowroots are quite thermophilic. In summer, the optimum temperature is + 22 ... + 24 ° С; overheating is also dangerous for plants. Watch the temperature of the soil - it should not fall below + 18 ° C. From October to February, during the dormant period, the optimum temperature for keeping arrowroot is + 18 ... + 20 ° С; in no case should the temperature drop below + 10 ° С. The plant is very sensitive to temperature changes and drafts - they must be avoided.

Watering for arrowroot requires abundant, warm soft water. The soil should be kept moist and during the growing period should not be allowed to dry out between waterings. In autumn and winter, watering is somewhat reduced, and in cool conditions it is necessary to allow the surface of the substrate to dry out. It is important to ensure that the soil does not become waterlogged and that the root system does not cool down.

Arrowroot prefers high humidity. It requires regular spraying throughout the year. Spray with well-settled or filtered water. For arrowroot, you need to choose a place with the maximum humidity.

With dry indoor air, spraying is necessary at least once, and ideally twice a day. To increase moisture, the plant can be placed on a pallet with damp moss, expanded clay or pebbles. In this case, the bottom of the pot should not touch the water.

Periodically arrowroot can be washed under the shower. This procedure removes dust and moisturizes the leaves of the plant, while during washing, you should close the pot with a bag so that water does not get into the substrate.

Often, in spite of the measures to increase the humidity of the air, the tips of the leaves dry out in the plant under indoor conditions. Arrowroot grow well, as already noted, in mini-greenhouses, florariums, terrariums.

The plant needs fertilizing with both organic and mineral fertilizers. Arrowroot is fed in spring and summer 1 time in 2 weeks with a strongly diluted solution mineral fertilizers as well as highly diluted organic fertilizer.

The arrowroots are transplanted, on average, after two years, in the spring, while the pot is taken a little more than the previous one, better plastic (it holds moisture better). Dried and wilted leaves are cut off from the plant so that young shoots grow better.

For planting arrowroots, use shallow pots ( root system in plants, small); it is necessary to arrange good drainage in them, consisting of shards, expanded clay or coarse sand.

The plant prefers a slightly acidic soil (pH about 6), it can be made from leafy, humus, peat soil (1: 1: 1) or from garden soil, peat and sand (3: 1.5: 1). It is useful to add dry mullein, crushed charcoal and some coniferous earth to this mixture.

When grown in a hydroponic culture or on an ion-exchange substrate, arrowroot forms powerful large-leaved low plants, not requiring transplants, transshipments and feeding for 2-3 years.

Reproduction of arrowroot

The best way to get a new plant is to propagate the arrowroot by dividing the bush at the right time for replanting. The separated parts of the plant are planted in small pots with soil, prepared as described above.

To root the separated parts of the plant, the pots are covered with foil and kept in a warm place. It is desirable that during this period the air temperature is not lower than +20 degrees. When the plants take root and start growing, the film can be removed and further looked after, as mentioned above. Usually, if these conditions are met, rooting of arrowroot takes place without problems.

You can propagate arrowroot with apical cuttings. To do this, in late spring or summer, cuttings with 2-3 leaves from new shoots of the plant must be cut and placed in water. Arrowroot cuttings take root in about five to six weeks. They take root well in greenhouses with high temperature and humidity. The cuttings that have given roots are planted in a peat-based planting substrate.

Arrowroot diseases

If you see that arrowroot leaves turn yellow, their ends are brown and dry, plant growth is slowed down, then most likely your flower does not have enough moisture and the air around the plant is too dry. It is necessary to increase the humidity of the air, spray the arrowroot more often, put the pot in wet peat or on pebbles with water in a pan.

Too dry air can lead to curling and falling of arrowroot leaves, as well as damage to the plant. spider mite... A spider mite is a very small red "spider". It appears on the underside of the leaves and envelops them with thin white cobwebs. It is destroyed by spraying and washing the leaves, especially from the underside, with water, a weak tobacco infusion with soap, dusting (on fresh air, outside the rooms) ground sulfur or the plant is treated with ready-made systemic insecticides.

When processing arrowroot leaves with infusions, after 2-3 hours, the leaves must be washed with cool water. The treatment of the plant will have to be repeated several times until the pests are completely destroyed. To avoid being hit by a spider mite, the plant must be kept clean, sprayed often, and kept away from central heating batteries.

If the plant is kept in the cold and watered too hard, then diseases are inevitable for arrowroot. In this case, the flower will wither and rot the stems and leaves, if the conditions of detention are not changed, the arrowroot will die.

Arrowroot are demanding on the light regime. In too bright light, the leaves lose color. Leaves may burn if exposed to direct sunlight. Arrowroot need diffused light. From direct sunlight, the arrowroot flower should be shaded.