How to care for Trailing dichondra
You may not be familiar with how to care for Trailing dichondra and the related knowledge of its cultivation methods and precautions. Let's learn about it together next.
Trailing dichondra is named for its bamboo-like leaf shape and beautiful foliage, often hung in pots indoors for its scattered, pendulous stems and leaves.
The benefits and value of Trailing dichondra
1. Ornamental: Trailing dichondra has elliptical or oblong leaves with distinct veins, small pinkish-rose flowers, and is commonly seen as a small potted plant. Its stems and leaves are pendulous, with purple, green, and silver leaves, making it a dazzling plant that can be hung in the living room for appreciation or placed above a windowsill to form a green curtain.
2. Purification: Trailing dichondra grows rapidly, covering the pot in a year. Keeping it at home can purify the air, absorb harmful gases, increase indoor oxygen levels, and humidity.
3. The leaves and stems of Trailing dichondra can be used as medicine, with functions such as clearing heat,解毒 (detoxification), cooling blood, stopping bleeding, diuresis, reducing eye redness and swelling, and easing throat pain.
Morphological characteristics of Trailing dichondra
Trailing dichondra is a perennial herb with creeping or outward-leaning stems, slightly succulent leaves, and opposite leaves that are purple-green or variegated with silver-white stripes, with purple stripes in the center and edges, and purple-red on the back. The flowers, several in number, are grouped in leaf-like bracts at the tips of young branches, with rose-pink petals and ovate shape, blooming in summer.
Growth habits of Trailing dichondra
Trailing dichondra is native to tropical America and is commonly cultivated for ornamental purposes. It was later introduced to Japan and then to China in 1909. Initially growing in South China, the climatic conditions there are similar to its native tropical climate, allowing it to propagate quickly and become a "native" plant. Trailing dichondra can tolerate low temperatures of 8°C, is not cold-resistant, dislikes heat, and can grow normally at temperatures above 14°C. It is not drought-resistant but can tolerate moist conditions and is not strict about soil pH.
How to care for Trailing dichondra
Types of Trailing dichondra
1. Trailing dichondra: Leaves are opposite, base sheathed, tip pointed, margin entire, upper surface silver-white, center and edge purple, back purple, flowers small, purple-red.
2. Four-color Trailing dichondra: Upper surface dark green with red, pink, and white stripes, back purple.
3. Variegated Trailing dichondra: Upper surface green with two distinct silver-white stripes.
4. Dwarf Trailing dichondra: Leaves small, plant shorter than the species.
5. Purple Trailing dichondra: Slightly larger than the four-color Trailing dichondra, leaves more hairy at the base. Upper surface deep green and wine red, without white stripes.
Precautions for cultivating Trailing dichondra
1. Light: Trailing dichondra needs ample bright light throughout the year. Insufficient light can cause the leaves to fade and reduce flowering or not flower at all. In spring and autumn, place near a sunny window; in summer, place in a well-lit, ventilated indoor area and provide some shade.
2. Temperature: The optimal growing temperature for Trailing dichondra is between 15°C and 25°C, with an overwintering temperature of 0°C. Spring, summer, and autumn are suitable for its growth. When temperatures drop to 10°C in winter, measures should be taken to prevent cold, and it can safely overwinter at room temperatures above 5°C.
3. Watering: Spray water on the stems and leaves during the growing season, keep the potting soil moist, place under a shade in summer, and spray water on the leaves to maintain vibrant color. In winter, control watering and keep the soil slightly dry.
4. Soil and fertilizer: Trailing dichondra grows well in fertile, loose soil. During the growing season in spring and autumn, apply a dilute liquid fertilizer or compound fertilizer every 15-20 days. After applying liquid fertilizer, spray water with a sprayer, and reduce or stop fertilizing in high summer temperatures.
Propagation methods for Trailing dichondra cuttings
1. Cutting medium: Mix river sand and peat soil into a growing medium, disinfect the soil, and use it as a cutting medium.
2. Choosing cuttings: Cut cuttings from healthy parent branches, with a length of 5 to 8 cm and ensuring 3 to 5 tender leaves per cutting to improve the survival rate.
3. Potting: Place a layer of pottery or coarse sand at the bottom of the pot, add a small amount of fertilizer, a little growing soil, and then the cutting medium, filling about three-quarters of the pot, and insert the cuttings into the soil and water thoroughly.
4. Care: After potting, maintain an environmental temperature of 18 to 25°C, spray water to increase humidity when the air is dry, and place in a location with ample light for cultivation.