The appearance of this plant is somewhat like a dracaena or a cistern plant. As an ornamental plant, it is widespread in the tropics around the world, but it is easy to wild. It also grows well in room conditions. The flowering of this plant can continue throughout the year, if it creates favorable conditions for it. Grow it because of the beautifully painted shiny leaves. The plant is rather unpretentious, the only thing that it requires regular watering.
Rheo plants are often used in medicine. The juice of this plant irritates the skin and causes redness, because in Mexico it is used as a blush. In Cuba, juice is used to stop bleeding gums, and decoction for respiratory diseases.
Kinds.
Reo coverlet ( Synonym: rheo mottled, Tradescantia platy). It is a perennial herbaceous plant with rhizomes and short internodes. Leaves sessile and lower leaves of the plant fall off as they grow, and the upper ones - on the top of the main shoot - form a beautiful rosette. The shape of the leaves is linear or linear-lanceolate, they are up to thirty centimeters long, and four to seven centimeters wide. The color of the leaves is varied: yellow or dark green at the top with a metallic tint, and reddish or purple hues at the bottom of the leaf, and sometimes are found in lilac. Sometimes there are striped leaves. Flowers are small, white, trinomial; they are usually milled in the axils of the leaves in the inflorescence. The plant blooms throughout the year. It grows in moist rainforests, in forests on the edge, on the banks of rivers and rocky areas. It is widespread in the tropics as a decorative plant, but at the same time it easily extorts.
There is a garden form of this plant, the difference of which is that they have longitudinal yellow stripes on the leaves.
Care of the plant.
House plants rheo prefer diffuse light, without directing them to direct sunlight. The best location for rheo is the window in the west or east. If the plant is planted on the south side, then it should be away from the window or it must be closed from direct rays with a cloth or paper.
In autumn and winter, the sun's rays are not as scorching as in the summer, so it can be placed on the south side. But you should avoid dark places, the leaves can fade. The optimum temperature for this time of year is 17-20 ° C, but temperatures below 12 ° C should be avoided, and in summer the plant is comfortable at 20 ° C-24 ° C.
Watering indoor plants in spring and summer is abundant when the upper nutrient layer is dried, because drying out in one or two days is very harmful. In autumn and winter, watered moderately, the day after the substrate dries. If the temperature of the content is below 14 ° C, then it is necessary to keep the soil moderately moist.
Water for irrigation - a soft and well-established. After watering, after half an hour it is necessary to drain the water from the pan. When watering, both drying and excessive soil moisture should be avoided.
Rheo grows better in rooms with high humidity, but at the same time it can tolerate low humidity. It is desirable to spray the plant every day, especially in winter. If the air is excessively dry and warm, then you can additionally put the pot in a pallet with damp claydite there, but the bottom should not touch the water at the same time.
If a plant is grown with one bush, its side shoots are simply cut off.
From the beginning of spring to the end of summer, the plant should be fed fertilizer every two weeks. Suitable fertilizers for indoor foliage plants.
Young plants are transplanted once a year in April-May or early summer. Adult plants require a transplant less often, about every three to five years. It is desirable to grow rheo in plastic pots, as they better retain soil moisture. Roots are superficial, which makes it necessary to have wide, but not deep pots.
Soil must be enriched with humus, while it should be light and loose. Suitable is a substrate of clay-grain, leafy, humus and peat land with a pitch in proportion: 1: 1: 1: 1: 1. A good drainage is also necessary, since the soil must be moist, but the stagnation of water and soil silt is not must.
Reo are plants that reproduce vegetatively by cuttings from the top of the plant or shoots. To obtain them, one should pinch the main shoot from above. When replanting old plants, the rhizome can be divided.
After transplanting cuttings must be kept for two weeks in sand, the temperature should be about 22-24 ° C. They will take root and after that they can be planted in a pot.
If you grow this plant, then you should take precautions. Because rheo can cause skin disease, such as contact dermatitis.
Difficulties in growing.
- If the plant is directed to direct sunlight, then its leaves can get burned and yellow.
- In dry air indoors, the tips of the leaves turn black, especially in winter when they are near central heating batteries.
- If the plant lacks watering, then the tips of the leaves become brown, wrinkled and, in the end, can shrink. This also happens if the plant is watered with cold water.
- If there is not enough light for the plant, it is stretched, its leaves become not so attractive and fade.
- If the plant freezes, the leaves become soft and drooping.
- Damage to the plant can mucinous chervets, spider mites, scutellum or whitefly.