Chistets is a herbaceous perennial with beautiful shaggy leaves. Some gardeners call the plant "stahis" or "sheep’s ears." It looks great in the garden and can be used to compose live and dry compositions. During the flowering period, the lawn with chistets is painted in delicate shades and surrounded by a pleasant aroma. It attracts insects and birds. The plant belongs to the family Lamiaceae and is common in the temperate climate of Eurasia, both Americas and Africa. Unpretentious grass will not cause unnecessary trouble and will preserve its beauty until late autumn.
Botanical Description
Chistets is a perennial or annual herb with a long, weakly branched rhizome. It goes deep enough into the earth. On thickened root shoots, elongated tubers can be distinguished. The ground part is a dense, erect shoots with slight branching. The height of the plant is 10-30 cm.
The lower leaves of a lanceolate or heart-shaped form have short petioles and are located next to each other. Their length is 10-12 cm. The upper sessile leaves have an ovate-lanceolate shape. Sheet plates are painted in a plain gray-green color. Almost all varieties have a thick and long pubescence of silver color. Thanks to him, the leaves resemble felt shreds or delicate animal ears.
The flowering of the purse lasts about two months (July-September). At this time, at the ends of the shoots, numerous inflorescences bloom on a long peduncle. Purple, pink, white or yellow buds have a bell-shaped cup with five pointed petals. After pollination, an oval nutlet with three faces ripens in the center of the calyx. It is covered with smooth dark brown skin.
Popular views
There are more than 370 species in the genus Chistec, however, only a few, the most decorative of them, gained the most popularity.
Chistets woolly or stachis woolly. This decorative variety is very popular due to the very thick and long pile on the leaves. The length of the shoots is 20-40 cm. An unpretentious and frost-resistant plant blooms in summer with pink and purple flowers, which last for 40-50 days.
Decorative varieties:
- Big Ears - low shoots covered with shaggy leaves up to 25 cm long;
- Silver Carpet - a compact variety up to 15 cm high forms a solid silver-green carpet;
- Striped Phantom - white longitudinal stripes are visible on the surface of the leaves;
- Cotton Ball - flowers of this variety resemble compact cotton boxes;
- Sheila Macqueen - a variety with low shoots and pubescent leaves, does not produce flowers.
Chistets forest. This species grows in the wooded areas of Europe and West Asia. Upright tetrahedral stems are covered with dark green shaggy leaves and end with bright raspberry inflorescences. It is used in medicine as a sedative and hemostatic agent.
Chistets Byzantine. Herbaceous perennial with highly branched upright stems reaches a length of 60 cm. The plant is common in South Asia. It contains a large amount of vitamin C and essential oils.
Chistets annual. Annual grass with pubescent leaves and large fragrant inflorescences. It is a good honey plant, is not used for medical purposes.
Chistets Baikal. A plant up to 50 cm tall has light green stems and lanceolate foliage, which are densely covered with a short whitish pile. Blooms in large red-purple or purple inflorescences. It is used to treat hypertension, and is also a fairly powerful sedative.
Chistets is marsh. A plant up to 1.1 m high has a dense stem and leaves with small teeth on the sides. All terrestrial vegetation is covered with stiff, downward-facing villi. During the summer, lilac-purple flowers bloom over the grass. The plant is actively used in folk medicine to stop bleeding and heal wounds.
Reproduction
Propagation of the purum is carried out by seed or vegetative methods. Seeds can be sown immediately in the soil in early spring or late fall. If very harsh winters prevail in the region, you can grow chistek for seedlings. Seeds are sown in boxes with moist sand and peat soil and lightly sprinkled with soil. After 5-10 days, the first shoots appear. Plants continue to grow in the same container until transplanted into the open ground. If necessary, the seedlings are thinned. Chistets tolerates the transplant procedure well, so it can be moved to a convenient place several times a year.
The simplest way to propagate perennial plants is to divide the bush. This procedure is even necessary to give the bushes room for growth. In spring, they dig up a cleanser, carefully release it from an earthen coma and divide the rhizome with its hands into several parts. Delenki planted in a new place with a distance of 15-20 cm from each other.
During the entire vegetative period, cyst can be propagated by cuttings. For rooting, shoot segments with 2-4 leaves or separate leaflets from lower sockets are suitable. Rooting is done in a wet mixture of sand and peat. Cuttings should be watered very moderately to protect from rot. After 2-3 weeks, the seedling will have young roots, and it will begin to produce new shoots.
Care Rules
Chistets is an unpretentious plant and does not require constant attention.
Lighting. The plant prefers areas with good lighting, but can withstand a slight shadow. Bushes feel good in open areas or under bushes.
Temperature. The optimum temperature for growth is + 20 ... + 24 ° C. In the open air, the cleaner also feels normal on hotter days. The plant hibernates in the snow and tolerates frosts well. Foliage is not discarded, but it loses attractiveness over the winter. Some gardeners prefer to partially get rid of last year's shoots.
The soil. "Sheep ears" can adapt to any soil. Light soils with moderate fertility are optimal. If the earth is too saturated with nutrients, the plant will lose its attractive silver color and turn bright green.
Watering. Water purifier should be moderate. It easily tolerates periodic drought, but from excess moisture can quickly rot. Between watering, the upper layers of the soil should dry well.
Fertilizer. For active growth and abundant flowering, the purse needs to be fed. This allows you to accumulate strength for the upcoming wintering. Twice in the spring should be added humus of chicken or cow droppings, mixed with ammonium nitrate. Organics can be replaced with mineral complexes.
Pruning. After flowering is complete, flower stalks and dried leaves should be removed. In general, due to flowering, the purse loses in decorativeness: the stems are stretched and partially exposed. Therefore, some flower growers do not allow flowering. When the buds are just starting to form, they are pruned. So it is possible to maintain low shoots with soft, decorative leaves.
Diseases and pests. In a humid climate with regular flooding, stachis suffers from fungal diseases. But pests almost never settle on its shoots.
Garden use
Soft and delicate leaves of unusual silver color are great for framing paths and flower beds. Chistets can be used in alpine hills, rockeries and in the foreground of bright flower beds. The plant looks beautiful in the neighborhood of marigolds, ageratum, Veronica, bluebells and other flowering. It perfectly sets off the charm of decorative leafy host, milkweed, geyher and cuffs.
Stachis can be used not only in plantings, but also in bouquet compositions. Leaflets remain attractive in a vase for a long time.
Healing properties
In all parts of the plant, tannins, flavonoids, polysaccharides, essential oils, pectins, ascorbic acid can be found. With a low toxic effect on the body, the cleaner has the following properties:
- disinfecting;
- painkiller;
- healing;
- diuretic;
- expectorant;
- antimicrobial;
- hemostatic;
- sedative.
All parts of the plant should be washed well, dried in the fresh air and crushed into powder. The resulting raw materials are brewed or insisted on alcohol. Drugs can be taken orally or used externally in the affected areas. Baths with the addition of cleanser also show a good effect.
