Meet the amazing lithops plant
Where a scorching and waterless desert burns out all living things on the surface, for millennia evolution has created plants adapted to the absence of moisture and searing heat. It has long been known as a biological species of cacti, desert inhabitants. The botanist named the new plant Lithops, in translation similar to a stone or a living stone. It was discovered by chance by the nature researcher Burchell in 1811, when he sat down to rest on a hot plateau near a pile of stones. It turned out that these were not stones, but plants resembling stones in appearance, and even repeating their pattern.
Unusual properties of lithops
Lithops live stones grow with an extreme lack of moisture, which does not exceed 200 mm per year. At the same time, the temperature in the desert in summer reaches 50 0... Under such conditions, the plant releases two fleshy leaves, from the gap between which a flower emerges, which in structure belongs to the clove. In the season when the air dries up completely, the leaves of the flower nourish the plant and gradually give up their nutritional reserves to two new leaves that will replace the old ones. Reproduction is obtained when, instead of one new pair of leaves, two appear.
The photo shows lithops during the period of leaf replacement. In the process of growth, the plant acquires a color to match the surrounding nature, mimics. Moreover, in nature at unfavorable times, the roots can pull the plant into the ground, hide it.
Creating a stone garden
In culture, living stones have 37 varieties. The classification of the plant is carried out:
- for coloring sheet plates;
- along the depth of the cut between the leaves;
- by color of flowers and time of flowering.
At first it will be difficult for an amateur to determine not only the varieties of "stones", but also the difference between lithops and conophytum. They differ in the depth of the cut between the leaves. Along the depth of the cut, plants can have both a small depression on top and separation of leaves to the surface of the soil. The height of two leaves above the ground is no more than 5 cm, it is the same in section. For amateurs, the color and pattern on the leaves are of interest, as well as the large lithops flower with a delicate aroma. The inflorescence opens at first for a few daytime hours, but eventually ceases to close at night.
The cultivation and subsequent care of plants in the greenhouse should be as close to natural conditions as possible. Then you can get flowers, seeds and healthy lithops.
In nature, the root of the plant is taproot and goes deep. To create a rock garden, you need to take a wide container, since the root will creep. The drainage layer must be sufficient so that there is no stagnation of moisture at the root. From above the bowl is covered with fine gravel. The substrate should include half-and-half leafy soil and sand, and a fifth of the total composition should be clay. Before filling with soil, the bowl is kept for 24 hours in a strong solution of potassium permanganate.
With the seed method of reproduction, plants are more resistant to external factors. Lithops seeds are kept in a weak permanganate solution overnight before planting.The ground is leveled and the seed is placed in small depressions at a short distance so that the seeds do not touch each other. Through the drainage, the earth is saturated with water with potassium permanganate, the container under the glass is placed in a warm and bright place. The emerging seedlings dive only after a year. When transplanting, top dressing superphosphate and straighten the roots on the bowl.
Caring for lithops consists in creating good lighting in winter, a cool temperature, 10-12 degrees, and in the absence of watering in dry air. When plants are vegetating, watering should be moderate; often, lithops cannot be transplanted with living stones.
Of the common varieties, some are relatively easy to adapt to artificial breeding. The types of lithops presented in the selection are just such.
Such species as beautiful Lithops are of great interest to collectors. It forms several pairs of yellow-brown leaves and inflorescences are white, fragrant.Lithops split creates several pairs of leaves from a single root. The color of the leaf plate is green, a yellow flower without aroma emerges from a deep gap.
Lithops pseudo-truncated is a two-lipped plant with a marble pattern on the surface. The color of the leaves changes depending on the surrounding landscape and can be from gray to pink with a dark pattern on the surface.Only a very patient amateur can grow such a rock garden, waiting for years for the unhurried development of plants. But the reward will be a blossoming lithops flower.