Indoor Spruce - Araucaria

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

How to grow an ancient beautiful araucaria plant for an apartment or winter garden

On the eve of the New Year, we always think of a Christmas tree - live or artificial, as an indispensable attribute of this holiday beloved by everyone. Are there "indoor spruces"? It turns out, yes, and these are very ancient plants, rarely found in everyday life.

Their special appearance does not resemble the "image" of conifers we are used to, rather they resemble the most ancient horsetails. They are highly valued for their original crown, sharp leaf scales on beautifully curved branches. The name of the genus comes from the name of the Araucana Indian tribe.

The real name of this ancient rarity is araucaria of the Araukariev family.

Sometimes botanists call araucaria the oldest pine, which bears little resemblance to modern types of pines. Among modern conifers, the most ancient are the araucaria pines, which retain their structure almost unchanged for more than 300 million years. Evidence of this is the study of their pollen from geological deposits. The genus includes 14 species that have survived and are common in Eastern and Western Australia, South America, the Norfolk Islands and New Caledonia.

Interesting are the numerous finds of fossilized cones in Patagonia, their paleobotanists describe them as belonging to the amazing araucaria species. A mysterious fact is that the remains of shoots, seeds and pollen of araucaria were found in the Northern Hemisphere, although the currently existing species of this breed do not go beyond the Southern Hemisphere.

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Features of culture

In nature, these trees are very impressive in size - up to 75 m tall, and the female specimens are much larger than the male ones. Young plants show beautiful branches growing horizontally in whorls along the entire length of the trunk. With age, the illumination of the lower part of the trunk deteriorates, the tree loses its lower branches, and its crown becomes like an umbrella. The trunks, like a shell, are covered with the bases of fallen leaves-needles. Large leathery leaves of araucaria are located on the branches in two rows. Plants are dioecious: their reproductive organs are located on different individuals.

Our araucaria grows well on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus and Crimea, withstands temperatures up to -15 ° C. There, it is found as a rare tub culture in the Own gardens of the historical parks of the North-West. This evergreen tree can be seen in botanical gardens, and occasionally in flower shops. Of course, the araucaria will not be able to winter in the open ground of the northern garden, but in the tub culture it looks great in it in the summer, dug into the ground with a container in the openwork shade of trees, and in the autumn-winter period - at home, in the winter garden, in bright cool halls …

The crown of the tree is round-conical, with age - umbrella. In nature, the height of the tree reaches 60 meters, the thickness of the trunk is up to 1.5 m. Fruiting begins at the age of 50. Cones are spherical, the largest among conifers - up to 35 cm in diameter, ripen in the second year and crumble. The seeds are edible and contain fat and starch. The ancient Indians used them for food.

Araucaria is an incredibly durable plant, the average age is several hundred years, but it can grow up to 2 thousand years. Photophilous, but in the direct sun the needles get burned. Araucaria does not tolerate lime, it is content with poor, slightly acidic soils. It is quite drought-resistant in nature, but there should not be a coma overdrying in a container culture.

In a tub culture, araucaria grows to the height of the ceiling of the room where it grows. At the same time, you can adjust the height of plants by timely pruning, using cut tops for grafting. The branching of the tree is whorled, like that of spruces and pines - several horizontally growing branches extend in a circle from the trunk at the same level. The distance between the whorls is significant, the tree seems unusually transparent, and each branch is densely leafy. Leaves are sessile, acicular, leathery, tough, not always prickly, arranged alternately and in a spiral on the shoot, which creates a specifically voluminous and translucent shoot. The size of the "needles" depends on the specific type of araucaria.

Araucaria species

In araucaria narrow-leaved, or Brazilian (Araucaria angustifolia), the leaves are linear-lanceolate, 3.5-5 cm long and up to 0.6 cm wide, bright green, tiled; branches are thin, drooping (almost weeping form). This is a very elegant look; the rooms need good lighting in winter and autumn at a temperature of + 12 … 18 ° С.

Chilean araucaria (Araucaria araucana) with arched thick branches stretches upward. The crown is conical, rounded with age. The needles are sessile, triangular, 4-5 cm long, hard, bright green, arranged in a spiral. The upper branches of females are crowned with spherical cones, 15-17 cm in diameter, weighing up to 1.5 kg. The large seeds of this araucaria, fried and raw, are eaten. On male plants, bunches of cylindrical, ear-shaped brown male cones are formed. This is the most cold-resistant araucaria, it tolerates light frosts, droughts, it is planted on the Black Sea coast of Crimea and the Caucasus. Grows in Chile, Argentina. Wood is used in construction and resin is used in folk medicine.

Araucaria bidwilla (Araucaria bidwilla), originally from Australia, has slightly drooping branches with glossy, leathery, oval-lanceolate pointed and thorny leaves 2.5-5 cm long and 1.2 cm wide, spread out, light green in color. In nature, trees grow up to 50 m in height and with a trunk diameter of up to 120 cm. In the upper part of the crown, the leaves are arranged spirally, on the lateral shoots - in two rows in one plane. Cones are spherical-ovate up to 35 cm in diameter, weighing up to 3 kg. As a tropical plant, it needs the same length of day and night, sufficient soil moisture, high air humidity, and a moderate temperature with a decrease towards night.

Cunningham's araucaria (Araucaria cunninghamii) is also "Australian" with a pyramidal crown, horizontal branches in youth (over time they droop slightly), straight, almost rectangular, diamond-shaped pointed leaves, hard, prickly, brownish-green, 1.25-1 long, 8 cm. It grows at home in humid tropical forests, reaching a height of 50 m and a trunk thickness of 3 m.

Araucaria heterophylla (Araucaria heterophylla), or high(Araucaria excelsa) originally from Norfolk Island is called "room fir". At home, this is a tree with a pyramidal crown and a height of up to 70 m, a trunk diameter of up to 2 m. The crown of a tree in rooms and winter gardens is also pyramidal, branches and twigs are arranged horizontally, 4-7 in whorls. Leaves are of two types: acicular in young plants and scaly in adults. The leaves are flattened, almost rectangular, small (1.25-2 cm long and 0.4-0.8 cm wide). They are densely located on the branches, densely leathery, light green, not prickly. Interestingly, plants that have grown to the ceiling of the room lose their lower branches (from lack of light and nutrition), but the upper branches hang down to the floor, like branches of old fir trees in a forest. In winter, this exotic plant is kept in light rooms at temperatures no higher than + 15 … 16 ° С, in winter gardens it is even colder.

Araucaria columnaris (Araucaria columnaris) has a narrow crown from the base to the top, consisting of whorls of almost horizontal short shoots. The shape of the leaves of this species changes in the same way as the variegated araucaria, but the leaves themselves are softer. Cones up to 10 cm long. The species is widespread in open field cultivation in tropical countries.

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How to grow araucaria at home

Now on sale there are many of the most unusual seeds of ornamental plants, perhaps this plant will catch your eye. Araucaria is propagated with fresh seeds (they quickly lose their germination), sowing them one by one in small pots. Sowing mixture: peat or heather soil, river sand in equal parts with the addition of pieces of charcoal.

Seeds are germinated at a temperature of + 24 … + 30 ° C, covered with moss to maintain uniform moisture, or under cover. Young plants spend the summer in a shaded greenhouse or a growing bed.

With sufficient growth, they are transferred into a slightly larger dish with a good drainage layer of broken brick, expanded clay, gravel. The earthen mixture will need a more nutritious: leaf and turf soil are added to peat and sand in equal proportions. You can put a pinch of granules of the complex long-acting AVA fertilizer in the pot for full and light nutrition of the seedlings for two to three years.

Seedlings grow slowly, they need shading from direct sun, spraying, even watering. Like almost any sowing, it can give interesting splitting and new decorative forms of plants.

The most realistic way is to buy a young plant and try to propagate it by cuttings of semi-lignified apical shoots in the middle of summer. It makes no sense to take shoots from lateral branches, since they give a horizontal direction of growth with creeping shoots. However, this can also be an interesting experience. Shoots of the second order also have horizontal growth, and they often do not branch out in the future. But the percentage of rooting is low even when using rooting stimulants.

For good rooting and successful development of araucaria, it is very important to observe the correct temperature and light conditions in winter: air temperature + 6 … + 8 ° С and good lighting of the entire crown.

The cutting technique is specific: semi-lignified cuttings are cut with a sharp knife 3-4 cm below the whorl (branching of branches) and left to wither for a day in partial shade. Then, before planting, the oblique cut is cleaned from the leaked resinous milky juice, powdered with charcoal and root powder. Cuttings are planted one by one in pots with a diameter of 7 cm in a wet mixture of peat and sand to the whorl level. For stability, the handle is tied up with a "figure eight" to a peg.

Successful rooting requires diffused light, bottom heating of a mini-greenhouse with a temperature of + 24 … + 26 ° C and high air humidity, which is created by regular (3-4 times a day) spraying with warm, settled water. Under these conditions, rooting takes place within 2-3 months, at + 12 … + 16 ° C - up to 4 months.

Rooted cuttings are kept at + 18 ° C, gradually accustoming young plants to open room air. As the plants grow, they are transferred to larger containers, but not too large for small specimens. In the old days, horn shavings were added to the earthen mixture as a long-acting fertilizer.

In the summer months, after the end of the frost, araucaria feel great in the openwork shade of the garden, balcony, terrace, in the fall they are brought into the house.

To preserve the decorativeness of these rare plants in the dark season, it is important to uniformly illuminate the entire crown, which is achieved not only by upper, but also by side additional lighting.

It is necessary to water the araucaria abundantly once a week, and on the following days maintain a moderate humidity of the earthen coma and air around the plant.

Mother plants in winter are kept in bright places at a temperature of + 6 … + 8 ° С. Watered sparingly, avoiding overdrying the earthen coma, regularly spray the crown.

Every 2-3 years, the araucaria is transferred into larger containers, adding the amount of long-acting complex fertilizer granules corresponding to the volume of the coma.

Having got araucaria in your home collection, you can become the owner of the most original and ancient Christmas tree, which can be decorated with light New Year decorations for the holiday.

Also read:

Araucaria variegated, or high: reproduction and growing in an apartment