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Alokaziya as race, comprise from 70 to 100 original and very different in appearance and size variations, most of them grow in the south of the Asia-Pacific region. The history of the discovery and the beginning of the study of alokazy has a little more than a hundred years, but already during this time the plants were noticed by lovers of indoor floriculture and even managed to become a subject of debate among botanists and breeders.
A very interesting story is connected with one of the most popular among gardeners, a representative of the genus, Alokaziya Amazonika.
The history of the emergence and spread of Alokaziya Amazon
Despite the mention of the culture of the South American river in its name, this type of Alokazia has nothing to do with the Amazon and its famous tropical forests. Do not find this amazing plant on the islands of Oceania, in Melanesia and other habitats of wild species.
The fact is that Alocasia Amazonica is an artificially obtained hybrid, whose history begins only in the 50s of the last century. According to a study conducted by the International Aroid Society, the first to grow Amazon Amazon was a modest American postman, who owned a small nursery of tropical crops and gave the plant the name he liked. It is difficult to say which parent forms were originally taken by Salvador Mauri for breeding work.
Today, growers called Alocasia Amazonica are offered a hybrid Alocasia longiloba and Alocasia Sanderiana.
Since a serious interest of gardeners was immediately revealed to a plant with unusual bright leaves, many commercial companies started growing alokaziya amazoniki as a pot crop. In the 80s of the last century, a plant in the Silver Chrome Gardens nursery, which belonged to the Rotholante family, was distinguished from its relatives by slow growth and much smaller plants. Denis Rotholante considered that these properties, along with the polyploid set of genes, alokaziya, resulted in mutations.
Therefore, a new name for the plant appeared - Alocasia Poly, later transformed into Polly. The new plant was very promising in terms of indoor flower growing, because it could easily be placed in any room. In addition, the care of alokaziya Amazonika Polly at home was seriously simplified.
A dwarf variety of Alokaziya Amazonica is widely spread all over the world and today it is well known to flower growers and under the commercial name Alozy Polly, as well as Alokia Alligator or African mask.
Description Alocasia Amazonas
Comparing Alocasia Amazonica with its parent species, the common features and differences of these interesting plants are well marked. From Alokaziya Sander, in the photo, the culture inherited the dense fabric of the leaf plate, its rich color and carved edge.
The genes of Alocasia longiloba, in the photo, changed the outlines of foliage, but at the same time Alokaziya Amazonica, like wild species, can rightly be called “elephant's ear”.The shape of its leathery dark green leaves with contrasting white or pale green veins is fully consistent with this popular name.
With proper care at home, Alozy Polly, as in the photo, sometimes blooms.
The cob-shaped inflorescence is surrounded by a succulent bract that dies after fertilization, revealing red or orange berries. Since Alokaziya Amazonika is a hybrid not found in nature, it is almost impossible to propagate it with seeds. In the laboratory and in large nurseries for cloning plants used cloning technology. And at home, you can get a young plant vegetatively.
This type of alokazia can reach a height of one and a half meters in height, but more often, in the conditions of an apartment it does not exceed 50–80 cm. The plant gives a particularly rapid increase in growth with good lighting and sufficient watering.
gypsophila in your garden Caring for Alocasia Amazonica Polly at home
Being a descendant of plants found in nature in tropical rain forests, Alocasia Amazonica has the same requirements for growing and caring as the parent species.
The main criterion of comfort for alokazii. Amazon is the right mix of soil and watering.
The soil should be very loose, with good access to oxygen and moisture permeability. At the same time, water should not linger long in the soil, otherwise stagnation and root rot cannot be avoided. The easiest way, while caring for Alomas Amazonica Polly, at home to mix in equal shares:
- high peat;
- garden land;
- ready mix for orchids.
This soil will contain the necessary nutrients, allowing the plant to actively breathe and develop.
All types of alokazii, including Polly, are very demanding for watering. The soil under the plant should not dry out, but the moisture in the earthen coma should not stagnate.
It is best to use distilled, boiled or distilled water at room temperature for irrigation.
At the same time, in the warm season, the green part of the plant is regularly irrigated with warm water, and in winter, limited to wiping the leaf plates with a soft, damp cloth.
The inclusion of Polly at home in the care of Alocasia, as in the photo, supplemental feeding is just as important as timely watering. During the warmer months, approximately from April to October, the plants are fertilized every month, combining nitrogen and mineral supplements. At the time of winter dormancy, fertilization is stopped, watering is reduced, and the foliage and roots are monitored.
Like wild alokazii, the hybrid variety needs light, but does not tolerate direct sunlight. If there is enough light, the plant responds with rapid growth and the formation of new foliage. When kept in the shadow, the leaf plates become almost black.
The more light falls on alokaziya, the more abundant its irrigation should be, and growing specimens must roll over to pots of larger diameter once a year.
Transplantation is best done in the spring, at the beginning of the growing season. The procedure can be combined with the division of the rhizome, jigging formed children and tubers.
But no matter how good the care of Alokazia is, the Amazon Polly, if at home it does not work to create a comfortable temperature and humidity conditions, the plant languishes and sometimes dies.
Alokaziya feels good at temperatures from 16 to 24 ° C, while requiring high, over 65%, humidity. In this case, a tray filled with pebbles or expanded clay and filled with water will be a good help for the grower. For alokazii, not only dryness is destructive, but drafts, as well as hypothermia. If the plant is transferred to the garden for the summer, the nightly drop in temperature below 13 ° C can cause irreparable damage to the root system or signal the beginning of a dormant period for the plant.
The first sign of discomfort, for example, with a lack of light, water or heat, can be considered wilting and abscission of leaves.
Growth resumes, if at home alopecia Amazonica Polly care again properly.
Blooming alokaziya becomes a pleasant surprise for the grower. True, the appearance of a peduncle and inflorescence is a serious test, because the flowers in Polly's alokaziya, in comparison with other species, are rather large and exhaust the specimen gathered to bloom. In order not to lose the entire shrub, flower stalks are advised to cut to the opening of the perianth or at the beginning of its linkage. The cut is treated with coal powder and the damaged tissue is not rotted.
A flat for alokazii is found in a place so that foliage containing toxic compounds for warm-blooded creatures are not accessible to children and pets.
