Alocasia

Family aroid. Genus Alocasia. Natural climatic conditions: wet tropics.

Genus Alocasia includes mainly herbaceous rhizome perennials with a shortened stem and characteristic of all aroid inflorescence-cob. Alocasia Amazonian * Stem almost absent, leaves on long petioles, young - small, subsequent reach 80 cm long, sagittate, slightly corrugated, dark brown with white veins;in the room almost does not bloom;very fastidious to the conditions of detention. Alocasia large-rooted( arum) ♦ Stem is thickened, expressed, branched;leaves on the top of the shoot; large ones can reach up to 1 m in length, heart-shaped, arrow-shaped, somewhat asymmetrical, with convex veins, bright green, in some varieties ornamented;Inflorescence malodecorative, on high peduncle;unlike other types of alocacia, can be considered an almost unpretentious plant, that is, it is possible for it to deviate from the main recommended conditions of detention. Aloccasia odorous ♦ It looks like Amazonian alocasia, but differs from it in the light green color of the leaves and odorous inflorescence.

Requirement for moisture: require a constant high atmospheric humidity and soil moisture, which is not achieved by abundance, but by the frequency of irrigation, regular spraying. It is advisable to use soft, slightly heated water. In winter, during the rest period, the frequency of irrigation is reduced.

Temperature regime: even in winter, the temperature should not drop below 16 ° C( the optimum is 18 ° C), otherwise some time later the alocacia begins to dry up;the rest of the time, the optimum temperature is 23-28 ° C( for alocasia, the coarse root can be less).Skvoznyakov does not like.

Light mode: diffuse, sufficiently intensive lighting, on the southern windows needs shading, the eastern and western exposures are optimal.

Soil requirement: medium-heavy nutritive soil mixtures, for example, from soddy, deciduous and humus lands with coarse-grained sand in a ratio of 4: 2: 2: 1, with the addition of peat and pieces of pine bark or pine needles, are optimal for weakly acidic( pH 5.5-6);fertilizer is best used dry( complex) - its layer is put on the bottom of the pot.

Reproduction: root shoots appearing at the base of the plant, dividing rhizomes, for alocasia with coarse root - dividing the stem.

Features: leaves require a lot of space, so on the windowsills alocasia grows poorly. In view of the requirements for lighting, it is best to keep it next to the window, and to avoid drying out from batteries put a series of containers of water. It feels good in small kitchens.