Where does the tail come from? The native land of the plant and its beneficial properties

Each of us, even being very far from indoor floriculture, easily recognizes and calls this flower. Of course, the hard-to-pronounce scientific name of Sansevier is not what it says, but only a botanist or an enthusiastic florist will remember. Whether it's the case of "mother tongue", "pike tail"! These names will be remembered by everyone! In kindergarten, school, in offices and shops grows and does not require special attention and care this decorative plant. Where did the tail of the tail come from ? The native land of the plant - so unpretentious and decorative - where is it? We will try to answer all questions.

How many names does he have?

Let's start, perhaps, with the official language of almost all terms - Latin. Sansevieria (sanseviera) - that's how the name of this representative of the decorative fauna actually sounds. The flower was named in honor of the patron and botanist, Italian aristocrat Raimondo de Sangro, Prince von Sansevierio, who lived in the XVIII century.

The tailless tail is the name given to the plant by the people who viewed in the stripes on the leaves of one of the species a pattern resembling the color of a river predator. Another bright epithet that has taken hold of us is teschin language. Most likely, here it is necessary to draw a parallel with the long tongue of the heroine of such anecdotes popular with us. Another reason for the emergence of such a name, other than an ineradicable sense of humor of the Russian people, is difficult to find.

However, in the search for interesting and at least some of the names that characterize Sansewyer, our people are not at all original. The Germans call this plant African hemp, the English - the language of the devil, or leopard lily, Americans - snake skin, which indicates the popularity of the species in different countries.

Where is his homeland?

Tropics and subtropics - that's where the great tail feels and perfectly develops. The homeland of the Sansevier plant is the tropical regions of Africa, mostly its western regions. Modern researchers quite often open up all kinds of sansevieria in Uganda, Kenya and neighboring states. Today this plant is widely distributed in Sri Lanka and India, tropical Asia and on the island of Madagascar, in South Florida. As a rule, Sanseviera grows in nature with curtains, forming impassable thickets on river banks. Neighborhood it can both with huge spreading baobabs, and with low acacias of different species and succulents. Grow this flower on any poor soil with low humidity - about 40%. That is why those conditions in which other room flowers can not exist , the pike tail tolerates 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 unique technical fibers for their own sake, for which it is grown in large quantities. In addition, sanseviera is widely used in folk medicine in many African and Asian countries.

Beautiful and useful

After the Asian and African healers, who widely used the pike tail in their practice, the useful properties of this plant were noticed in our country. The saponins (glycosides of plant origin) contained in its leaves have anti-inflammatory and mucolytic, adaptive and immunostimulating effects. In addition, the scientists found that sansevierii significantly reduce the number of pathogenic microorganisms in the air of the room where they are, and are also able to reduce the content of harmful synthetic substances such as trichlorethylene and benzene.

Botanical characteristics

Sansevera, or sansevieria, is a genus of evergreen herbaceous perennial perennial plants. He refers, according to different scientific schools, to various botanical families: asphodel, agave or dracenic. Such a divergence in views is not fundamental, since all this family is lily, but only "broken down" into smaller groups. Today it is customary to refer to the genus Sansevieria about 60-70 different species and a variety of varieties.

Like many other indoor plants, the pike tail, whose native land is an arid tropical region, has a well-developed underground creeping rhizome. Rigid leaves form a rosette rosette and can reach in some species 1 meter in length (or more). As a rule, leaf plates are pointed and can be both vertical and practically horizontal. The color of the leaves varies from light green to brown, with different bands and spots. In the last few decades, silvery and golden-colored indoor plants have become fashionable. The pike tail, whose homeland is a tropical country, did not escape such a fate: the breeders' efforts were derived varieties of this plant with an unusual coloring of the leaves. 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 in fruit floriculture fruiting is extremely rare.

Variety of species and forms

Today, in indoor floriculture, many kinds and forms of a flower with such an interesting name are cultivated - a pike tail. The native land of the plant, as it has been repeatedly mentioned, 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 species of Sansevierium in nature, only about 10 are cultivated in indoor and decorative floriculture, of which the following are most loved:

• Sansevieria trifasciata - Sansevieria three-lane, the most popular species with a tri-color color. The most common varieties among the florists are Laurenti (with a golden edging along the edge of the xiphoid leaf), Prain (without such fringing) and Craigil - with a wide cream strip along the outer edge.
• Sansevieria grandis - large, on the leaves of which alternate bands of dark and lighter shades of green, and the edge is framed by a thin strip of reddish color.
• Sansevieria hiberica - hibernating, with stiff leaves, decorated with stripes of a reddish shade.
• Low-grown varieties of sanseviera, such as Sansevieria hahnii silver and Hahnii golden.

Tidal Tail: Reproduction

If you want to have such a plant in your home or office, you can buy it in the garden center or do without unnecessary waste and multiply the already existing flower with leaf cuttings, root cuttings or division of rhizomes. All these options are suitable for monotonously colored sansevier. But for plants with variegated coloring of leaves, in order to preserve all the decorative features, only the division of the rhizome is used.

Root Lines

This is the easiest way to get yourself such an unpretentious flower, like a pike tail. The native land of the plant is rather severe, as for the climatic conditions, therefore Sansevieria, in an effort to occupy new habitats, forms a fairly dense root shoot. This behavior is characteristic not only of growing on the "will", but also of domesticated flowers. Usually a lot of sprouts with roots are formed in the pot. Dig up a few (along with rootlets and earthen clod) and cut off from the mother plant, then transplant into a new pot. The place from which you cut off a piece, you need to dry it a little and sprinkle with crushed charcoal, it can be ordinary activated.

Leaf cuttings

The method is simple: we take a leaf of a flower, mark it and cut it across into pieces of 7-10 cm. Immediately with an adhesive plaster or an indelible marker, we designate a bottom for each fragment. This is quite important, since they should be planted "head" up. In order for the sliced pieces of the leaf to dry, leave them on a cool window sill for 1-2 days. Then the cuttings are planted in well-moistened sand and covered with a glass jar, we put it in a warm, bright place. Spray the cuttings is not necessary, it is enough to pour water in the pan. Plants take root, under favorable circumstances, after 1-1.5 months. After that the seedlings can be transplanted into a pot with a garden primer or a special soil mix for succulents.

Share the rhizomes

Large plants can be propagated in this way. It is 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". Places of cut must be dried for several hours and powdered with crushed coal, after which the separated fragments are planted in pots with a prepared soil in advance.