Echmea (Aechmea) - epiphyte, that is, it can develop out of touch with the soil, on the trunks and branches of other plants.
Family Bromeliaceae, homeland - Central and South America. The name comes from the name of the tip peaks due to jagged, spiky leaves and pointed bracts - in Greek "ehmeya". The photo shows an exceptionally beautiful, ornamental plant: massive leaves, variegated, hard or leathery, collected in a funnel of a rosette, are of deep monotonous color and variegated, and it blooms quite incredibly beautifully. The rosette produces a long and thick peduncle, on which flowers of tropical beauty blossom. Echmea is different in shape and color, but always with bright spiky bracts. After flowering, the berry appears as a fruit. Ehmeya blooms only once and after that the outlet dies. Like all epiphytes, it is perfectly rooted.
Types of ehmei
Aechmea weilbachii - Ehmeya Weilbach - a rosette of long (up to fifty centimeters) linear-xiphoid leaves, soft and leathery, reddish-red with green, with a thickening copper color to the base. The edges of the leaves are not scratchy. The inflorescence consists of complex brushes located on a straight thick peduncle of a heroic half-meter length. Bright red large bracts. On the sessile flowers - lilac-blue petals with a white border. Along the entire length of the peduncle dotted with thick pink-raspberry bracts.
Aechmea distichantha - a two-row echmea - with a loose rosette, narrow-shaped narrow and long leaves, dark brown at the edges, with dense small spikes, on the top - an oblong tip. Lilac flowers with bright red bracts. Its derivative form - Variegata - with stripes of creamy white at the edges of the leaves.
Aechmea recurvata - curved echmea - its rosette of linear leaves spliced into a tube, long and narrow, along the edges - strong small spikes, on top - smooth. The inflorescence head rises above the leaves by twenty centimeters. Petals and bracts are red.
Aechmea comata - shaggy ehmea - a rosette of thick belt-shaped leaves up to a meter long, with small teeth along the edges. Inflorescence is a white-ears of wheat, bright yellow flowers with red bracts. It blooms only in winter. Its variation is Makoyana, with creamy white striped leaves.
Aechmea miniata - matte-red ehmeya - a funnel of a rosette with dense tongue-like half-meter narrow leaves of light green, lilac-colored bottom, with a narrow base and with a short sharp tip, finely serrated and scaly. Red peduncle with a small pyramidal inflorescence. Amazing red-blue flowers and bright pink fruits hold for a long time. Probably the most hardy ehmeya, home care brings the least difficulties.
Aechmea fasciata - striped humea - strap-shaped leathery green leaves come out from a high tube-shaped outlet, narrow and long, densely covered with dark small teeth along the edges, with silver-white longitudinal stripes on top, and at the ends with a large black spine. Peduncle straight and scaly. The inflorescence is long, complex, with a pyramidal head and shiny pink inflorescences. Flowers with bluish petals, with felt sepals, and at the end of flowering, the petals change color to blue-red.
Aechmea fulgens - sparkling hme - a loose rosette of pale green leaves with a bloom of gray hair, belt-shaped and rounded, rare teeth on the edges. Coral red, with a blue top, numerous flowers with pink bracts. Its variety is Aechmea fulgens var. discolor - colorful echmea - the leaves are olive-green above and lilac-red below, the inflorescence is racemose and highly branched with red petals.
Ehmeya - home care
This plant is not the most capricious, but it also needs a special and loving approach, for which the ehmeya will reward with magnificent flowering.
Lighting and temperature
The plant is photophilous, but should be shaded from direct sunlight. In the summer, it is optimal to maintain a temperature of twenty degrees and above, and in winter, the ehmeya loves cooler - up to eighteen degrees, just at this time and flower stalks are formed. The resting period of the echmea is practically absent. The sparkling variety Ehmeya prefers a warmer wintering. And all ehmei love the differences in night and day temperatures - at night +16, during the day +27.
Humidity and watering
A fairly hardy flower is an echmea. Home care comes down to watering and spraying, the latter must be done daily in winter, when heating appliances are fried around. But dry air, in principle, ehmei tolerate normally. In spring and summer, water the ehmey with plenty of warm water (always warm and soft), but it should not stagnate in the pan.
Watering should first be straight to the outlet, and in spring and summer, the water in the leaves should stand still. If the air temperature is less than twenty degrees, this procedure is not needed. By autumn, watering is reduced to a minimum, in winter, the outlet should be dry, otherwise the ehmei will decay. Home care includes, of course, fertilizer application. This is done in spring and summer - comprehensively, twice a month.
Transplantation and reproductionEhmey needs to be transplanted annually, while removing all faded outlets. The substrate is made up of two parts of leafy soil, two of peat and one part of sand. Special primer for bromeliads is sold. Ehmeya propagated by seeds and offspring - young shoots. When they grow to two thirds of the height of the mother plant, they are carefully separated along with the roots and planted in small pots. Seeds are sown in February in loose peat or sphagnum, covered with a thin layer of earth, covered with glass (jar) or a transparent bag. So the echmea will sprout. Home care for sowing requires only maintaining humidity and heat - at least twenty-two degrees - there should be protection from direct sunlight. Shoots usually appear after three months, and they are dived into separate pots. After a year, these are already adult plants, which will require both an adult place and adult soil.