Ctenantha (Ctenanthe) belongs to the Maranth family. Homeland – South America, namely, humid forests located in the tropical zones of this continent. It is there that the culture has the opportunity to grow in natural conditions that are comfortable for it – in areas with swamps under the cover of foliage of tropical trees.
An indoor flower called ctenante is a perennial ornamental herbaceous rhizome plant 60-80 cm high, some species up to 1 m.
Ktenante hairy “Golden Mosaic” (C. pilosa “Golden Mosaic”).
The plant has very elegant oblong leaves 20-40 cm long. Each leaf has a long petiole, located on a babmuk-like stem of a dark shade of green.
The surface of the sheet is decorated with a beautiful marble pattern, consisting of silvery or yellowish stripes, diverging asymmetrically towards the edges from the central vein.
The front side of the leaves is velvet, and the wrong side is purple. For this extraordinary culture is highly valued by gardeners.
The flower of the ctenant is white, non-decorative, similar to a scallop or spikelet. In room conditions, ktenante rarely blooms.
Types and varieties of ctenants with photos and names
This genus, belonging to the Marantaceae family, has only 15 species. The most decorative are the following types and varieties:
Ktenante hairy “Golden Mosaic” (C. pilosa “Golden Mosaic”).
Ktenante Oppenheim (S. oppenheimiana).
Ktenante Oppenheim “Variegata” (C. oppenheimiana “Variegata”).
Variety “Mori Queen” (“Mori Queen”).
But not all varieties of culture have managed to successfully adapt to room conditions, primarily because of the practical impossibility of maintaining a high degree of air humidity at home, which the tropical guest likes so much.
Therefore, at home, these types of ctenant plants are most often grown:
Ktenante pubescent (C. setosa).
Ctenante compressed (C. cupressa).
Ktenante Oppenheim (S. oppenheimiana).
Ktenante Lubbers (C. lubbersiana).
Ktenante Burl-Marx Amagris (C. burle-marxii).
The first type – pubescent – is also called bristly. It features dark green foliage with a gray tint and a purple color at the bottom. Can grow up to 1 m maximum. The plant is considered to be very energetic – after the rains in nature, it doubles in size. In room conditions, you need to make sure that the “green pet” has enough space.
The second of the listed species – compressed – also needs a spacious flowerpot, as it can also grow up to 1 m.
Look at the photo of what a ctenant flower of this variety looks like.
The shoots of the plant are bare stems ending in a knot consisting of four leaves on long petioles. Each leaf has an oblong shape with a rounded base, shiny and smooth.
Oppenheim’s ctenant, growing up to 1 m, has a maximum leaf length of 40 cm.
The foliage is painted in a dark green shade, decorated with white and silver stripes.
Because of this color, the plant can be confused with a striped calathea. But, unlike the latter, the ctenant has leaves narrowed to the base, purple on the reverse side.
The photo shows a species called Oppenheim’s ctenant, and next to it is a photo of a striped calathea – look at them and remember the main differences so as not to become a victim of unscrupulous sellers.
Ktenanta, named after Lubbers, grows up to 75 cm high. The foliage is decorated with beautiful yellow strokes resembling feathers. On the reverse side, all the leaves are pure green.
The Burl-Marx view of Amagris has its origins in sultry Brazil. The maximum height of the “green pet” can be 40 cm. The length of the leaf plate is up to 10 cm, and the width is up to 6 cm. The leaves are oblong, their tops are pointed, there are dark green stripes along the lateral veins, on the reverse side the color is purple.
To understand what this type of ktenante looks like, check out the photos below.
Proper care of a houseplant ctenant
The substrate for planting is prepared from leaf, peat and sod land, humus and sand (1: 1: 1: 1: 0.5). It should have a slightly acidic reaction and be loose, light. You should also put a few medium-sized pieces of charcoal in the ground. If you don’t want to prepare the substrate with your own hands, you can purchase a special soil in a flower shop designed for planting representatives of the Maranth family. At the bottom of the flowerpot, do not forget to lay a good drainage layer of gravel or crushed stone.
An important aspect of caring for a ctenant at home is an annual transplant into a larger flowerpot. But you should not take an excessively large pot, since the volume of the root system and the substrate must match each other. The procedure is carried out in the spring by the method of transshipment without disturbing the earth clod around the roots. Experienced gardeners recommend covering the root system with moss, pre-moistened.
Ctenanta requires good lighting, but does not like direct sunlight, because in the wild it is reliably shaded by the foliage of tropical trees. Therefore, the light should be bright, but diffused. In order for the ctenant flower to receive proper care in winter, if necessary, it is necessary to organize illumination with artificial sources – fluorescent lamps for about 16 hours a day.
The intensity of light greatly affects the size and color of the foliage. If the lighting is insufficient, the “green pet” turns pale, the foliage becomes thinner and smaller. If there is too much light, the greens will burn out.
It is best to put flowerpots with flowers on the windowsills of windows facing east and west. If the plant pot is located on the south side, then you need to take care of its shading from direct sunlight.
The culture is characterized by thermophilicity, intolerance to drafts and sharp temperature fluctuations. Proper care, which requires a ctenant flower at home, provides for maintaining the optimal air temperature regime:
- In spring and summer, +22 … +25 °С during the day, +18 … +20 °С at night.
- Winter temperature should not be lower than +20 °С during the day and +16…+18 °С at night.
Hypothermia should not be allowed, otherwise the flower will die.
The plant should be kept in a humid place – up to 90%. If the humidity is too low, the leaves of the ctenante curl up. Frequent spraying with soft water is necessary in the hot season. Before the procedure, the flowerpot must be placed on a pallet on which wet pebbles or expanded clay balls are laid out, overlaid with wet sphagnum. If the “green pet” has large foliage, then it is necessary to use water that does not contain lime impurities for spraying so that a whitish coating does not remain on large green plates.
Ktenante is a houseplant that requires abundant irrigation in summer. Reduce watering in winter. It is necessary to ensure that the top layer of soil is moist, but not excessively wet. The next irrigation should be carried out when the soil dries out a little, but not completely. You need to use warm and soft water, which has previously settled or was passed through a filter. Between watering you need to loosen the substrate.
They feed the “green pet” with fertilizers without lime. It is necessary in April – August, once every 14 days, to introduce liquid complex top dressings for indoor plants into the soil. The culture is highly sensitive to both fertilizer deficiency and overfeeding.
Look at the photo of what the ctenant looks like if she was properly cared for at home.
Propagation of the indoor flower of the ctenant by cuttings and division
The culture is propagated by apical cuttings and division of the rhizome in spring.
In the first case, a cutting is cut off, the length of which is from 7 to 10 cm and on which there are 3 leaves.
The cut is made a few millimeters below the area where the leaf is attached to the stem. The stalk is lowered into a jar filled with water, covered with a transparent plastic bag on top.
After about 1.5 months, roots will appear. From now on, the cutting can be transplanted into the finished substrate.
Reproduction by dividing the bush of ctenants is carried out in the process of transplantation. Large specimens are cut into 2 or 3 new “pets” without damaging the roots, and planted in the soil, then watered with warm water. Before the next irrigation, the surface must dry. Before the plant is strengthened and new leaves appear, the pot must be placed in a polyethylene bag, loosely tied and left in a warm room.
Pests and diseases that cause ctenant leaves to curl and dry
Often the plant suffers from an invasion of parasites if the growing conditions have been violated by the gardener. The most common pests of this crop are:
- Spider mites.
- Shchitovki.
In the first case, the color of the foliage becomes pale and yellow, its surface is covered with whitish spots. Over time, the leaves on the ctenant dry and fall off. The reason for the tick attack is the dry air in the room where the flowerpot is. To get rid of the pest, you need to spray with one of the following drugs: Fitoverm, Derris, Fufanon, Aktellik.
In the second case, the foliage and stems are covered with brown plaques, dry out and fall off. To get rid of the “intruder”, you need to wipe the leaves with a sponge with soapy water, and then treat with “Aktellik” (2 ml of the drug per 1 liter of water).
Among the most dangerous diseases for the ctenant are various types of rot that occurs due to excessive watering and stagnant water. To save the “green pet”, you should remove all damaged parts, remove its root system from the flowerpot, inspect, also cut off rotten zones, treat all cut points with crushed activated charcoal and transplant into a sterile pot. Watering should now be organized strictly in accordance with the recommendations given earlier.
If the leaves are intensively curled on the ctenant, this is evidence that watering is insufficient. Care should be taken to ensure that the soil in the pot is always slightly moist. Also, the folding of the foliage is also possible when the plant falls under the direct rays of the sun. You need to rearrange the flowerpot or shade the flower.
Obviously, the plant is not capricious and does not require much effort and time from the gardener. But a minimal violation of care recommendations is fraught with flower health problems.