Description - an exotic flower, belongs to the Gesneriev family. The patterned, velvety foliage of the plant, framing bright flowers, has a glow effect. The "magical" properties of a sparkling flower have a scientific explanation. The villi of the leaves unfold the streams of light back to the source. In other words, light is reflected at the same point from which it came.
The dense foliage gives the plant a special appeal. As the old leaves dry out, a lot of young shoots - children, already appear at the base of the stem. It turns out that the outlandish deciduous cover frames the description constantly.
What does it look like
Botanical Description
The description refers to ampelous herbaceous perennials with a fibrous root system. The leaves, decorated with characteristic silver threads, are oppositely located on a shortened creeping stem.
The plant propagates by a mustache - creeping shoots. The “favorite” soil of the description is sheet land, peat and sand mixed in a ratio of 3: 2: 1.
There are two types of shoots:
- kurguzye with mixed opposite leaves;
- graceful, thin, elongated with daughter sockets.
The leaves of the description are large, elliptical in shape, sometimes ovate. The foliage of different types of plants can be wrinkled, velvety-pubescent or shiny, olive-green, copper-brown or silver in color, with veins of a contrasting tone or green with a copper or silver pattern.
For your information! There are a large number of plant hybrids, characterized by an unusual color of foliage. It can be chocolate brown, raspberry pink with silver streaks, light green with white and coral vessels, brown with pink-pearl veins.
Flowers
Flowers of all kinds of description are formed in the axils of the leaves. They are small, tubular, very beautiful, often solitary, have four stamens. Corollas of flowers are painted in white, red, yellow, golden and pink-purple.
At home, the enticement with bright red flowers takes root well. Perhaps that is why flower growers call the plant a fiery violet. In the wild, the blossom blooms yellow, white and orange. Hybrid flowers can be bright orange, lavender blue and light cream.
Note! The flowering period is all summer and early autumn.
Distribution area
Homeland of various types of description - tropical forests of South and Central America. The plant can be seen on the territory of the Antilles, in Colombia, Mexico and Brazil, in shaded areas with high humidity.
Important! Indoor description - unpretentious plant. It can grow and develop under artificial lighting. It is only necessary to ensure that in winter the daylight hours last at least 12 hours. Light, even artificial, strengthens the plant, prolongs its life. The room can be grown on a sunny window with an air humidity of 50% or less.
According to another source, overly bright lighting affects the size of the foliage - it turns pale, smaller, or even stops growing.
Specialist advice
In a room whose windows face north, the description can be placed in any part of the windowsill. If the window faces east, it will feel good in the right corner of the windowsill. With the plant in the western window, the florist must ensure that the flower pot is in the left corner.
The windowsill of the window facing south is the most unfavorable place. In the absence of an alternative, the description should be located in a wall-mounted flower pot at a safe distance from the window, 2-3 meters will be enough.
It must be taken into account that different types of plants are more or less dependent on lighting.
It is believed that the most convenient temperature for the description is 18-20 ° C at night and 22-27 ° C during the day.
Variety of species
The description of Tiger Stripe grows slowly, adapts well in arid zones and blooms profusely even if it has to exist in a very poorly lit city apartment.
Tiger Stripe
The flower strongly resembles the Tigrovaya description, which has spread widely throughout Moscow. You can distinguish one plant from another by foliage. The leaves of the Tiger Stripes are smaller with silver streaks, and the Moscow flower is pierced with veins of a golden hue.
Northern light
Episcia Northern Light (Aurora Borealis) is a hybrid of Episcia copper. Green foliage of the plant is covered with silver plaque and bordered with brown dots. Peduncles of the Northern Lights are colored in orange-red.
The variety Emerald Velvet has large, serrated, pubescent foliage of emerald-pearl color, stained with olive-brown velvety specks. Description Emerald Velvet blooms with delicate lilac flowers with a white core. From a distance, the flowers of the plant appear blue.
A miniature version of the description of the variety Silver Skies can be recognized by the silver coating that appears in some areas of the green leaves of the plant and the bright colors of carmine.
Note! Silver Heaven is often confused with a carnation.
The description of Luther or Blue Nile is an amazing combination of lavender blue with a yellow core of large flowers and fluffy brownish-green foliage. The middle vein of each leaf is decorated with a strip of olive-green hue.
Strawberry Patch, Strawberry Haze - the so-called hybrid grade of description Strawberry Patch. Small pointed leaves of the plant are painted in reddish pink. During flowering, it is covered with scarlet flowers with a yellow center.
Jim Bodnar (Jim's Red Trail) leaflets are dark brown and dark olive in color. The pubescent, rough foliage of the Red Trail is pierced by a red-pink mesh. The flowers of this decorative plant stand out in orange-red or pure red color with a bright yellow core.
Silver sheen
Silver Sheen's Episcia Cupreata Hybrid. Blooms orange-red. The foliage of the plant is wrinkled, painted in silver-green color and trimmed with a copper-colored edging.
Strawberry Mist leaflets are pale pink. In some places, through the pale pink surface, patches of light of a salad shine through. The flowers of the Strawberry Mist can be red with an orange core or orange with a red neck.
Raspberry blush
Raspberry Blush leaflets may be nondescript, dark green with pale veins or shiny, glossy with light purple veins. Blooms in red with a yellow core. Novice gardeners sometimes confuse this variety with the Pink Panther.
The large foliage of My Precious is painted in deep green. It is bumpy, glows with a glossy sheen and is decorated with silver-pearl veins. The yellow color of the flowers of the plant thickens at the pharynx.
The flowers at the Sea Foam are orange and the foliage is very light, large, silver-green with a pink tint in the center and red at the edges. Each leaflet is framed by a dark brown edging.
Velvety, dark green foliage of the Aloha Mauna Loa description with mother-of-pearl veins of bright pink color casts bright green closer to the center. The flowers of the plant are red-orange with a yellow center.
The pale green leaves of the Yellow Mist description are slightly pubescent, covered with silver coating along the central vein. During flowering, the plant is covered with bright yellow flowers.
The decoration of Lilacina Viridis is velvet, fluffy, emerald green foliage, silvery at the center and bordered with serrated fringe at the edges. The flowers of this variety are large, lavender-blue with a yellow neck and serrated, clove-flowered edges.
The coral red Ronnie flowers serve as a spectacular addition to the brown-chocolate foliage, pierced by silver-green veins.
Home Care Rules
The description perfectly survives at home. The vitality of the house plants is usually enough for a maximum of three years. It all depends on the conditions in which it grows. When a flower fades, it is easier to replace than to revive. Freshness and beauty, once left the epistemy, will never return.
Care Rules
Note! The rate of growth of a domesticated epilation depends on the resistance of a particular variety and the conditions in which the plant is contained. In most cases, the stem of the description, safely rooted in the pot, turns into a lush, luminous bush for six months.
Experienced flower growers recommend simultaneously planting a lot of cuttings and children in one bowl so that the planting material covers the entire surface of the soil.
Updating an already established and overgrown bush, amateur gardeners carry out in several ways:
- several cuttings taken from the top of a mature plant are planted in a separate bowl. Apical cuttings easily root and grow very quickly;
- propagated by sprouting leaves. The foliage of all plants belonging to the Gesneriev family quickly takes root. True, in the case of cuttings with leaves, the plant develops much longer than when propagated by apical cuttings. The leaves are rooted by immersing vermiculite or sphagnum in water or in a substrate mixture. Each leaflet should be inspected regularly to prevent putrefactive process in time.
Important! When reproducing the description in greenhouse conditions, it should be noted that the sheets immersed in the condensate quickly decay when the temperature inside the greenhouse rises to the maximum mark. Therefore, most gardeners prefer to germinate the plant outside the greenhouse.
Sprouted planting material is planted in wide containers of oval or round (diameter 15-30 cm) shape. Planting can be done in the soil mixture:
- first lay a sphagnum layer on the bottom of the vessel, after which the layers of soil, charcoal and sphagnum alternate;
- ground surface sprinkled with sand.
Dry air is detrimental to description. Especially affected in the arid microclimate are varieties whose foliage is very pubescent. Many gardeners, contrary to this opinion, believe that spraying is unacceptable, since too much moisture, getting on the root system, provokes the onset of putrefactive processes. In fact, the episode loves water procedures, but not as a full bath, but only to eliminate dust deposited on the leaves and flowers of the plant.
Flower growers
Florists who are fond of breeding epistemy fertilize plants of this species either with special fertilizers for the Gesnerievs, or with ordinary manure.
Watering Rules
Watering the plants is carried out so that water oozes from the drainage hole made in the bottom of the pot. The description is watered, after making sure that the soil surface is completely dry after the previous irrigation.
In summer, the recommended frequency of watering is 1 time in 2-4 days. If it is noticed that too much moisture has accumulated in the pallet, the excess is drained, thereby preventing rotting of the root system. At the same time, make sure that the earthen lump is not too dry.
During the winter months
During the winter months, the plant must be protected from drafts, primarily paying attention to the location of the pot. During the heating season, the plant must be removed from the heating appliances.
The watering schedule for the water in winter depends on the room temperature. In the cold season, the flower is watered from one to three times a week.
Experienced gardeners urge their inexperienced colleagues to refrain from spraying the essences. Over time, water procedures, of course, will become a habit and become a kind of ritual. But to begin with, a beginner must observe the plant, feel it ... Spraying inappropriately can result in the drying of the ends of the leaves, stunting, or other troubles.
This is the only caveat for growing flowers. In general, he is unpretentious in care and does not cause trouble.
