Each of us, even being very far from indoor floriculture, will easily recognize and name this flower. Of course, the difficultly pronounced scientific name of Sansevier is not just what he will say, but only a botanist or a passionate flower grower will remember. Whether it’s "mother-in-law's tongue", "pike tail"! Everyone will remember these names!
In kindergarten, school, in offices and workshops, this ornamental plant grows and does not require special attention and care. From what places did the
pike tail cross to us
? The birthplace of the plant - so unpretentious and decorative - where is it located? We will try to answer all the questions.
How many names does he have?
Let's start with the official language of almost all terms - Latin. Sansevieria (sansevier) - this is how the name of this representative of the decorative fauna actually sounds. The flower was named in honor of the philanthropist and lover of botany, the Italian aristocrat Raimondo de Sangro, Prince von Sansevierio, who lived in the 18th century.
The pike tail is the name given to this plant by the people who examined in stripes on the leaves of one of the species a drawing similar to the color of a river predator. Another bright epithet that has taken root with us is mother-in-law's tongue. Most likely, here we should draw a parallel with the long tongue of the heroine of such anecdotes so popular with us. It is difficult to find any other reason for the emergence of such a name, except for the indestructible sense of humor of the Russian people.
However, in the search for interesting and at least somewhat accurate characterizations of sansevier, our people are not at all original. The Germans call this plant African hemp, the British - the language of the devil, or leopard lily, the Americans - snake skin, which indicates the popularity of the species in different countries.
Where is his homeland?
Tropics and subtropics - this is where the pike tail feels great and perfectly develops. The homeland of the Sansevier plant is the tropical regions of Africa, most of its western regions. Modern researchers quite often discover new types of sansevieria in Uganda, Kenya and neighboring states.
Today, this plant is widely distributed in Sri Lanka and India, tropical Asia and the island of Madagascar, in South Florida. As a rule, in nature, sansevierra grows with curtains, forming impenetrable thickets on the river banks. It can adjoin both with huge spreading baobabs, and with low acacias of different species and succulents. This flower can grow on any poor soil with low humidity - about 40%. That is why those conditions in which other indoor
flowers cannot exist
, the pike tail transfers without problems.
How is it used?
In many countries, this flower is cultivated and used for both decorative and industrial purposes. The leaves of the pike tail contain technical fibers that are unique in their properties, for the sake of which it is grown in large volumes. In addition, sansevier is widely used in folk medicine in many African and Asian countries.
Beautiful and healthy
Following the Asian and African healers, who widely used the pike tail in their practice, the beneficial properties of this plant were also noticed in our country. Saponins (plant glycosides) contained in its leaves have anti-inflammatory and mucolytic, adaptive and immunostimulating effects. In addition, scientists have found that sansevieria significantly reduces the number of pathogenic microorganisms in the air of the room where they are located, and can also reduce the content of harmful synthetic substances such as trichlorethylene and benzene.
Botanical characteristic
Sansevier, or Sansevieria, is a genus of evergreen herbaceous stemless perennials. According to different scientific schools, it belongs to different botanical families: asphodel, agave or dracen. Such a divergence of views is not fundamental, since all this is a family of liliaceae, but only "broken up" into smaller groups. Today, the genus Sansevieria is usually attributed to about 60-70 different species and many different varieties.
Like many other indoor plants, the pike tail, whose homeland is arid tropical areas, has a well-developed underground creeping rhizome. Rigid leaves form a basal rosette and in some species can reach 1 meter in length (or more). As a rule, leaf plates are pointed and can be both vertical and almost horizontal. The color of the leaves varies from light green to brown, with various stripes and spots. In the past few decades, silver and gold-colored houseplants have come into fashion. The pike tail, whose homeland is tropical countries, did not escape such a fate: the efforts of breeders brought forth varieties of this plant with unusual leaf colors. Sansevieria flowers are pale green, collected in cylindrical inflorescences on a long and straight peduncle. In nature, a fruit-berry is formed, with 1-3 seeds, but fruit bearing is extremely rare in indoor floriculture.
Variety of species and forms
Today, many types and forms of flower with such an interesting name - pike tail are cultivated in indoor floriculture. The homeland of the plant, as has been mentioned many times, is tropical and subtropical regions, but only a few species grow there, from which many modern forms were obtained.
Despite the fact that there are about 70
types of sansevieriae in nature, only about 10 are cultivated in indoor and decorative floriculture, of which the following are most beloved:
- Sansevieria trifasciata is a three-lane sansevieria, the most popular variety with a three-color color. The most common varieties among gardeners are Laurenti (with a golden border around the edge of the xiphoid leaf), Prain (without such a border) and Craigil with a wide cream strip on the outer edge.
- Sansevieria grandis is large, on the leaves of which stripes of darker and lighter shades of green alternate, and the edge is framed by a thin strip of reddish color.
- Sansevieria hiberica - wintering, with hard leaves decorated with stripes of a reddish hue.
- Low-growing sansevier grades such as Sansevieria hahnii silver and Hahnii golden.
Pike tail: breeding
If you want to plant such a plant at home or in the office, you can buy it in the garden center or do without extra expenses and propagate the existing flower with leafy cuttings, root cuttings or dividing the rhizome. All of these options are suitable for plainly painted sansevier. But for plants with a motley color of leaves, in order to preserve all the decorative signs, only rhizome division is used.
Root layering
This is the easiest way to get yourself such an unpretentious flower like a pike tail. The homeland of the plant is quite severe in terms of climatic conditions, so sansevieria, trying to occupy new habitats, forms a rather dense root shoot. Such behavior is characteristic not only of growing at will, but also of domesticated flowers. Usually in the pot quite a few shoots with roots are formed.
Dig a few (along with roots and an earthen lump) and cut from the mother plant, and then transplant into a new pot. The place from which you cut a piece, you need to dry a little and sprinkle with crushed charcoal, you can use the usual activated.
Leaf cuttings
The method is simple: we take a leaf of a flower, mark and cut across into pieces of 7-10 cm. Immediately with adhesive tape or indelible marker, we mark the bottom of each fragment. This is quite important, since they will need to be planted “head up”. In order for the sliced pieces of the leaf to dry, leave them on a cool windowsill for 1-2 days. Then the resulting cuttings are planted in well-moistened sand and, having covered with a glass jar, we remove in a warm bright place. It is not necessary to spray the cuttings, just pour water into the pan.
Rooted plants, under a favorable set of circumstances, after 1-1.5 months. After that, the seedlings can be transplanted into a pot with garden soil or a special soil mixture for succulents.
Divide the rhizomes
Large plants can be propagated in this way. It is only important to remember that each part to be separated must have a growth point. The rhizome taken out of the pot is cut with a sharp knife into the required number of "seedlings". The cut points must be dried for several hours and powdered with powdered coal, after which the separated fragments are planted in pots with previously prepared soil.