Musella lasiocarpa – in Your Home Garden
This genus is included in the grouping of the Musaceae, located very close to banana or banana because they belong to the same family.
It is a plant from which they can be called “rare” because it is somewhat difficult to find in the gardens of our cities.
It is an exotic plant of exceptional beauty, a native of Yunnan Province in China, where it grows in the mountains with altitudes of over 2500m, the place where the temperatures are usually very cold.
It consists of a clump, which eventually will form a pseudostem erect, formed by the enveloping sheaths of old leaves, it has a thick and strong figure, looking cone-shaped element can reach 2m in height.
Stems arising from broad leaves lanceolate bluish-green, 40 to 70 cm long, velvety touch, with midrib very marked and long petioles.
The big pseudostem is topped by a cone-shaped inflorescence grand that evokes the look of an artichoke and consists of a crown of large waxy bracts, bright yellow with greenish base, the edges sometimes acquire coloring reddish. The bracts are the actual housing tubular flowers, yellow and very small size, they are discovered as the bracts are opened and bending down.
The fruits that look like small bananas contain small shiny black seeds.
Before opening the inflorescence resembles a lotus flower which has given rise to the name by which it is called common mode. The flowers usually appear in the plants over two years and usually remain on the ground for long periods of time and may survive longer than 6 months.
The Musella grows best in warm and very humid environments. Need well-drained, rich, with moderate humidity and constant. Locations requires semi-shade or bright shade.
These plants are fairly resistant to cold because of its place of origin regular survive frost, although the parent plant dies because of frost damage in the next season’s new shoots will sprout.
It spreads by seeds after stratification of about 2 months in cold, when the seedlings as they can be manipulated plants are treated as adults. Because it is somewhat difficult to germinate from seed, is more likely to achieve through the many new shoots that grow, which will serve when they are sufficiently developed.
Once a plant is established not too demanding, if you provide some basic care they are: a moderate temperature, high humidity environment and keep it away from the impact of intense rays of the sun.