Hamedorea belongs to the family Palm or Arekovye and is an unpretentious slowly growing undersized palm. The birthplace of this plant is the foothills of South America, namely Guatemala, Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula.
Plant description
Hamedorea is often grown in offices, apartments and conservatories. And I must say, they are doing it very right. This indoor palm tree has significant phytoncide properties. Its leaves are able to purify the air even from benzene compounds.
Hamedorey care, of course, is required, but she is quite unpretentious and will not be capricious. In order to grow a plant as a frame culture, it is necessary to significantly remove it from the radiators and provide bright, but diffuse lighting.
Chamedorea is often called a bamboo palm. Most species belonging to the genus are multi-stemmed plants. Outwardly, the thin stems of the chamedorea resemble bamboo. Hence the name. The height of the home palm does not exceed 2.5 m. At the same time, only 1 or 2 leaves grow on chamedorea every year. It grows very slowly.
Indoor bamboo palm is a shrub with many bare jointed trunks up to 3 cm in diameter with short internodes. On each of them grows up to 7 cirrus longleaf leaves of dark green color. The length of the leaf in nature reaches two meters, at home, the leaf plate reaches 40 cm. Already at a young age, the palm begins to bloom.
Her flowers, resembling mimosa, are small, yellow in color, collected in panicled or spikelet inflorescences. It is interesting that the flowering of chamedorea can occur at any time of the year, the change of seasons does not affect this in any way. The bamboo palm is characterized by the ability to shade tolerance, which is another undoubted plus for its acquisition. At the same time, it blooms constantly and very abundantly, even with artificial lighting.
Hamedorea is a dioecious plant. Each individual produces male and female flowers that grow in the axils of the leaves. Male flowers resemble yellow balls, their inflorescences are spike-like, look like mimosa and have a pleasant aroma. Female ones grow single on a long peduncle, sometimes they have an orange color.
The fruits ripen, acquiring a roundness, with a diameter of up to 6 mm with black skin and juicy pulp. In the center is only one seed.
Varieties
The genus Hamedorea contains 107 different species. But at home only some of them are grown.
Hamedorea elegans
This species has many names: elegant chamedorea, neantha elegant, reed palm, elegant collinia. This is a low and very slowly growing palm tree. Its thin trunk of green color with age becomes chestnut. At home it grows up to 1.2 m, and in nature up to 2 m.
The leaves of the Hamedorea elegans, complex, cirrus and thin, are dark green in color. Small yellow flowers in paniculate inflorescences. The fruits are a dark berry about 5 mm in diameter.
When leaving at home, Chamedorea Elegans is undemanding. Likes spraying and humidity. Drying of its earthen coma should not be allowed. The unpretentious chamedoreya Elegans is ideal for apartment maintenance because of its compactness and shade tolerance.
Hamedorea Bridble
The difference from other varieties in Briddle chamedorea is in fragrant bright colors and rich color of leaves. In height, it grows to 1.5 meters. However, in a large tub, it can reach the mark of 2 meters.
When leaving at home, Bridble chamedorea is also not demanding. She needs daily spraying, watering and enough light, but without direct sun.
It is necessary to consider one feature when leaving, Chamedorea Bridble does not tolerate transplants. Therefore, special care must be taken with the root system when manipulating the plant, being careful not to damage it.
Hamedorea Metallica
This variety is considered the most unpretentious and shade resistant. The trunk of the Hamedorea Metallica is covered with lush foliage of dark green color, which has a characteristic metallic reflection.
The plant grows in height no more than two meters. Bushes of this variety are rich in a dense green crown, which is a sufficient decorative element for use in landscaping at home and in office premises. The leaves of this variety are dense, leathery and wide with a silver coating. The plant has one trunk, which becomes stiff with age and significantly thickens.
With improper care, the Metallica chamedorea flower sometimes begins to dry out at the tips of the leaves. This happens when watering is insufficient and the room is too dry. You can correct the situation by organizing frequent watering and spraying at least 2 times a day.
Hamedorea Plain
It is a bushy palm tree, which has many reed-like trunks. The leaves of one-color chamedorea are small in size and cirrus in shape. When planting in a wide capacity, this palm tree forms beautiful jungle thickets.
Hamedorea Stolononosnaya
This species has several shoots growing from one root. Palm leaves are large and fan-shaped. The resulting aerial roots provide an opportunity for propagation by processes.
Hamedorea Cascade
It is very interesting for its decorative appearance. Cascade Hamedorea has many trunks with thin leaves of dark green color. A distinctive feature in the care is that this species is harder than others to tolerate a lack of moisture and watering. In oppressed conditions, it ceases to grow. When there is enough moisture, the palm begins to grow rapidly and develop.
Home Care
As mentioned earlier, the departure of Chamedorea is undemanding. She feels great in the dimly lit halls of offices and in rooms with windows to the north. It will also be comfortable on the south side, it is only necessary to remove the plant from the window or use a thick tulle, thus providing it with diffuse lighting.
With proper care at home, a chamedorea flower can produce germinating seeds. For this, artificial pollination is used and the flowering of male and female plants is ensured.
Temperature mode
You should know that when leaving, Chamedorea prefers a moderate temperature regime. The optimum temperature in summer is 20-22 ° C for her, but somewhat lower in winter: 13-15 ° C, while she will calmly tolerate heat up to 30 ° C, but the plant will often need to be sprayed. The lower temperature limit, which chamedorrhea is able to endure without consequences for its health, is 12 ° C.
In the warm season, the bamboo palm tree loves to soak up the air, so it is transferred to a balcony or terrace, protecting it from drafts and direct sunlight. The room where the chamedorrhea is contained should be well ventilated.
Watering
When leaving at home, the palm tree Chamedorea prefers plentiful watering in the summer. Her earthen lump must be wet constantly. In addition to this, bamboo palm need frequent spraying with water at room temperature. The optimum humidity should be 50%, this is due to its tropical origin.
In summer, in especially hot weather, you can not only water the plant, but also place the container with chamedorea in a vessel with water and leave it for a while to saturate the soil and roots with moisture. Spray often, at least 2 times a day. And once a month, wear a palm tree under a warm shower to wash off the accumulated dust.
In winter, watering and spraying are significantly reduced.
Soil Composition Preferences
To ensure the optimal composition of the soil when leaving, chamedorea is planted in a ready-made soil mixture for palm trees, which can easily be bought at any flower shop.
But you can independently make up the necessary substrate. To do this, you only need to observe the correct proportions:
- clay-soddy light earth - 2 parts;
- humus-sheet earth - 2 parts;
- peat - 1 part:
- rotted manure - 1 part;
- sand - 1 part;
- some charcoal.
Top dressing
When leaving at home, chamedorea needs periodic top dressing, which is a complex mineral fertilizer or liquid concentrated fertilizer for palm trees.
It must be taken into account that only healthy, normally developing plants are fed. Sick and weak palms should not be fed with fertilizers. And if the chamedorea was transplanted, then it is not fed 6 months after this event.
In the spring-summer period (April-August), when the plant begins to grow and develop intensively, top dressing is applied once every 2 weeks, alternating mineral and organic fertilizers.
In the fall, a period of rest sets in, so you do not need to feed chamedorea. However, if the plant has not been transplanted for a long time, then feeding in the winter period is allowed, but not more than 1 time per month and with a complex mineral or organic mixture that is highly diluted in water.
Transfer
When leaving a palm, Hamedorea sometimes requires transplants. If this is a young plant, then it is necessary to transplant it once a year. An adult plant should be transplanted annually, but here it is permissible to do this at least once every two years. If chamedorrhea is a large tub plant, then it is transplanted once every 3-5 years.
These manipulations are carried out in the spring, in April-May. In the intervals between transplants, you should sometimes pour fresh soil into the pot or change the top layer to new soil, being careful not to damage the root system.
Transplanting chamedorea, it is necessary to provide it with good drainage. For this, a drainage layer of large expanded clay, chipped clay shards or broken red brick is placed at the bottom of the pot. Then put a layer of nutritious soil in the above proportions. An earthen lump with a plant is placed on this layer, and then a lump with roots is covered with fresh earth, filling it between the walls of the vessel and the root of the chamedorea. Do not feed the transplanted plant for several months!
When pruning, only old, dried or diseased leaves are allowed to be removed. In no case can they be broken off, only carefully cut off.
Breeding
With good care, the propagation of chamedorrhea can occur by growing from seeds, root cuttings and dividing the bush.
If it turned out to pollinate the flowering chamedorea correctly and get high-quality planting material, then propagation by seeds occurs as follows.
Seeds are deepened 1 cm into the soil and germinated in a greenhouse at a temperature of 25-27 ° C, while it is important to maintain high humidity and temperature, otherwise it will not germinate. Shoots appear in about a month or a little more.
A sufficiently developed plant begins to let layering. When this happens, young plants can be carefully separated from the parent along with the roots and planted in a separate pot.
The division of the bush can be done when transplanting an overgrown chamedorea. However, at home, bamboo palm trees rarely grow to this state.
Pests and diseases
The appearance of diseases in chamedorrhea can lead only to incorrect care. For example, with excessive or insufficient watering, palm leaves can dry out, which must be carefully cut, and healthy ones can be treated with fungicides to avoid fungal diseases.
With an inattentive attitude to the plant, scabies and spider mites may appear on it. Remedies from pests "Aktellik" or "Aktara" will help to cope with this.
Hamedorea from those plants that are not only beautiful, but also useful. Being close to the person who takes care of her and does it right, she makes his life easier, significantly improving the microclimate around, clearing the air of all kinds of chemical impurities.