Calla palustris
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Whitewing, or calla(lat. Calla) - a genus of perennial shade-tolerant wetland or coastal herbaceous plants of the Araceae, or Aronicaceae ( Araceae). The genus is the only representative of the subfamily Calloidae and includes only one type - Swamp whitewing (Calla palustris L.).
Habitat: Temperate to tropical regions throughout the northern hemisphere. It is found in many regions of Ukraine, Russia, from Europe to Siberia and the Far East.
Whitewing is a marsh plant that lives along the marshy banks of reservoirs and rivers, in swampy and damp places. It is grown as an ornamental plant and used in landscape design.
This is a perennial herbaceous plant with creeping or recumbent shoots 10-25 cm high. The rhizome is green, jointed, creeping, hollow and thick; spreads along the surface of the soil. Branches; at the nodes fibrous adventitious roots extend from it.
The leaves are solitary, on long petioles, alternate, oval-heart-shaped, with pointed ends and a smooth edge. The leaf blade is thick, shiny, 6-14 cm long, 5-11 cm wide, with pinnate-arcuate venation, ovate-heart-shaped, drawn-pointed at the apex; dense green on top and paler on the underside. The petiole, up to 1 cm thick, extends above the base of the membranous vagina, the upper part of which protrudes freely, forming a large tongue. On dried material, the petiole often turns yellow or orange.
The flowers are unisexual, small, up to 1 cm, without a perianth, collected in dense inflorescences-cobs on a thick vertical branch, surrounded by a leaf-spread, green on the outside and white on the inside. The spathe turns green after the flowers are pollinated and serves for additional photosynthesis. The height of the inflorescence is equal to the length of the leaf. Flowering time is from May to July.
The fruits are small (6-8 mm in diameter), bright red juicy berries, ripen a month after flowering, form a cylindrical cob. Fruits in late August.
Location: if you plant it in a sunny place in calm water, its shiny heart-shaped leaves up to 20 cm wide will completely cover the banks of the pond, so it is recommended to plant it in garden ponds with a hard surface. Tolerates temporary drying of the reservoir.
The soil: Requires silty or clayey, nutritious soil.
Landing: planted to a depth of 5-10 cm. To avoid water blooms, the plant can be planted not in mesh containers, but in ordinary pots or containers with holes only at the bottom. Such a container is filled with soil, which is covered with a 2-centimeter layer of oily clay on top to prevent nutrients from being washed out into the water. The plants will grow, and some of them will hang outside the container, where additionally formed roots will receive nutrients from the water, improving its quality.
The marsh whitewing is a conspicuous inhabitant of wetlands, river banks and lakes. The legend about the appearance of this plant is as follows. One day the boy was running away from his ill-wishers and fell straight into a quagmire. He was very dirty, only one of his hands remained clean, which is symbolized by the snow-white covering leaf of the plant that grew in that place. Externally, calla lilies are very reminiscent of ornamental calla lilies, the flowers of which are usually given as gifts for celebrations.
Habitat of the calligraphy
The distribution area of marsh calla (another name for this plant) is the temperate climatic zone of the Northern Hemisphere. Such a wide habitat is due to the fact that the whitefly reproduces rapidly and is not particularly whimsical.
The main thing for marsh calla is a large amount of moisture. The plant feels comfortable in swamps, shallows, near lakes and rivers. It develops best in acidic soils with plenty of humus. It can exist in the shade, but places illuminated by the sun are more suitable for it.
Characteristics of marsh calla
Calla palustris of the aroid family (Araceae) belongs to the genus of herbaceous perennials. The height of the plant varies from fifteen to fifty centimeters. It can exist at ambient temperatures below zero and even in frozen water. Reproduction occurs in the fall using seeds or by dividing the rhizome. The life cycle of the plant lasts three years. All elements of marsh calla are poisonous.
This plant has the ability to predict the weather. If the covering leaf is pressed against the cob and pulled straight up, it is a sunny day. Before the rain, the blanket blooms, and the more the covering leaf is deviated from the cob, the sooner precipitation will begin.
Description of rhizome
The root of the marsh whitewing is horizontal, creeping, long and fleshy (up to two centimeters in diameter), and has a green color. The length reaches fifty centimeters. The rhizome of this plant is located on the water surface. If the whitewing grows in marshy soil, then along the entire shoot there are a large number of fibrous roots that hold the entire system in the soil.
Leaf characteristics
The leaves of the marsh calla are large, have a wide core and pointed ends. Their color is dark green. The surface is smooth, shiny, veins are visible.
Single leaves of the calliper grow directly from the rhizome. Their length can be from six to fifteen centimeters, width - from five to eleven centimeters. Leaves appear singly throughout the rhizome, growing on raised petioles, the length of which reaches twenty-four centimeters. The leaves surrounding the flower stalks are collected in basal rosettes.
How does marsh whitewing bloom?
The flower of this plant emerges directly from the leaf axils. Its peduncles are bare and thick, cylindrical in shape. Small yellow-green flowers are tightly pressed together in one vertical cob. In the upper part of the peduncle there are flowers with stamens, and in the lower part - with pistils. When the wind blows, pollen falls down. The most beautiful element of the marsh calla is the covering leaf, painted snow-white on the inside and pale green on the outside. This light blanket seems to protect the inflorescence. After the flowers have fully opened and the spadix has formed, this “hood” deviates from the peduncle and shows its inner color. Thanks to this element, the name “whitewing” appeared. The plant actively blooms in May-June.
Marsh calla lily fruits
Whitewing is decorative not only during the flowering period. When the fruits ripen, it looks just as impressive. A month after the start of flowering, this plant produces beautiful small berries of bright red color, which are attached to the cob. Each of them contains from six to eight oval-shaped achenes.
When the fruits ripen, they shed their covering leaves and produce large amounts of mucilage. After this, at the end of summer, the cobs are immersed under water.
Possibility of eating plant parts
When fresh, all parts of the calliper are very poisonous, especially the rhizome. But since ancient times, people have learned to process this plant for possible further consumption as food. It turns out that if you take a thick rhizome, dry it, and then boil it, this neutralizes its inherent bitter taste and toxic components. When early spring or late autumn arrived, people armed themselves with pitchforks and rakes and went to the places where the swamp calla grew. They were interested in the whitewing because of its thick rhizome, which people took out from the silt. It was during this period that the plant accumulated a supply of nutrients, the starch content was especially high - about thirty percent. Afterwards, the prey was washed, dried in the sun or in ovens and ground into flour. Then the resulting powder was poured with boiling water, left to settle, dried, and hot water was added to the resulting mass again. As a result, after drying, the resulting flour was free of bitterness and toxic substances. The bread that was baked from it had a pleasant taste and fluffiness.
Another option was used when the rhizome of the marsh calla was crushed using a meat grinder, dried and treated twice with boiling water. The result was cereal that could be used to make soups or porridges, or as a filling for pies.
Use of marsh calliper in medicine
The plant processed in the above way is used in pharmacology and folk medicine. The marsh whitewing in its rhizome contains components that are used to prepare anti-inflammatory and expectorant agents. Extracts from the plant are added to dosage forms to get rid of laryngitis, bronchitis, and gastritis.
Homemade decoctions of swamp whitefly have an analgesic effect for rheumatism. Thanks to its diuretic effect, it reduces swelling and helps with dropsy. Also, an infusion of the rhizome of this plant contains substances that are used in the treatment of poisonous snake bites.
Growing and care
Ornamental plants that live in water are widely used in landscape design to decorate ponds. The whitewing is very popular among specialists, because caring for it is not difficult at all. This plant has a spectacular appearance, is unpretentious in care, resistant to cold and grows rapidly, covering the coastal waters with a carpet of glossy leaves and snow-white covering leaves.
Swamp calla feels best in those areas of the reservoir where there is both shade and sunlight during the day. Plant the plant directly in water. To prevent growth over the entire area of the reservoir, it is recommended to place it in a flower pot with holes in the bottom. The container must be filled with nutritious soil and covered with a two-centimeter thick layer of oily clay to prevent the substrate from being washed out. Then these pots are lowered to the bottom of the reservoir near the shore, in which the marsh whitefly has already been planted.
Growing a plant involves cutting off excess shoots that grow in a direction you do not want. During the growing season, calla lilies need to be treated with insecticides and fungicides to prevent aphid attacks and the development of fungal diseases.
Calla palustris is a herbaceous perennial that grows in marshy areas or near the shores of water bodies. It covers the water area with a carpet of shiny dark green leaves interspersed with snow-white wing coverts. The marsh calla also looks impressive during the period of fruit ripening. All elements of the plant are poisonous, but after proper processing they are used in pharmacology and folk medicine. Landscape designers love to use calligraphy to decorate ponds, because it is very unpretentious, tolerates low temperatures well and has a spectacular appearance.
Whitewing can often be seen in swampy and damp places, as well as on the marshy shoreline of various bodies of water. As a decorative element it is very popular in landscape design. Whitewing is poisonous, but it is also used in folk medicine. It’s definitely worth taking a closer look at such an amazing plant, which is ready to put up with even temporary drying up of water bodies. In Russia, it can be seen in its European part, as well as in the Far East and Siberia.
Getting to know the plant
Whitewing is a beautiful herbaceous wetland and coastal plant, a prominent representative of the Araceae family (also called Aronicaceae). The creeping rhizomes of this perennial are hollow and slightly thick, and the rhizomes creeping along the substrate are dark green. The roots are white, with blunt, slightly rounded tips. Single leaves directed vertically upward have an oval-heart-shaped shape; The edges of the leaves are smooth, and the tips are slightly pointed. The leaf blades are shiny and quite thick, rich green on top, and slightly paler on the back.The flowering of the beautiful calligraphy begins in May (in the second half) and ends around mid-June. Numerous small (no more than 1 cm) and spirally arranged flowers include from six to ten stamens and form cylindrical elongated beautiful inflorescences-cobs.
The fruits of the calliper look very colorful - the attractive bright red berries ripen approximately 30 days after flowering and, like the flowers, they are collected in small cylindrical cobs. Each berry contains seeds - from three to twelve pieces. Ripe berries are filled with an elastic, slightly gelatinous and transparent substance, located mainly above the seeds. Ripe seeds are equipped with small grooves and have a brown color, and seeds that are not separated from the berry pulp are purple, turning brown only when they are freed from the pulp.
Useful properties of calligraphy
Amateur gardeners, along with landscape designers, have chosen this aquatic beauty for use in gardens and parks as a decorative element in the design of various reservoirs.Calliper is also widely used for medicinal purposes. A decoction of its rhizomes was drunk when edema and dropsy appeared, and leaves boiled in milk and applied to sore fingers saved them from osteomyelitis or felon. Compresses made from fresh rhizomes helped to pull hairs and needles out of the body. All parts of a peculiar plant acted as a pain reliever in the presence of syphilitic ulcers, as well as in annoying rheumatism.
In Yakutia, where the whitewing was called “cleaver”, it served as an excellent diuretic, saving from urine retention since the 17th century. Its fruits also did not go unnoticed - in case of severe constipation and umbilical hernia, they were offered to children. The fruits were also a fairly good remedy for various malignant neoplasms, they helped well with nasal polyps, and a decoction of the underground part of the plant was used as an antifever and expectorant, and was also used for headaches, hypofunction of the stomach and hypoxia.
In folk medicine, there is a recipe for a tincture of rhizomes used for poisonous snake bites. The Iroquois Indians used a decoction of the stems and roots (along with fresh crushed underground parts) as a poultice against dangerous snake bites, and the Potawatomi Indians treated tumors with poultices made from crushed roots.
To cure flu and colds, all kinds of bleeding, as well as difficulty breathing in a number of regions, tea made from dried calligraphy roots is still used to this day.
And the juice squeezed from the underground part of the plant can be used against harmful gypsy moth caterpillars as an insecticidal agent - such juice exhibits pronounced protistocidal and phytoncidal activity.
Growing calligraphy
Calliper propagates in two ways: either vegetatively (by breaking off renewal buds or rhizomes) or by seeds. With the onset of autumn, the cobs fall into the water or onto damp soil, as a result of which the swollen fruits quickly burst, releasing perfectly floating seeds with air cavities from the berries. One ear contains from 350 to 400 seeds. Germinated seeds begin to take root in dead vegetation.Calligraphy is usually planted to a depth of 5–10 cm. To avoid water blooms, instead of mesh containers, it can be planted in containers with holes only at the bottom or even in ordinary pots. The pots are filled with soil, after which the soil should be covered with greasy clay on top (2 cm layer), otherwise the nutrients may be washed out into the water. When the whitewing grows, a certain part of it will be outside the pots, and the additionally formed roots will begin to receive nutrients directly from the water, thereby significantly improving its quality. Periodically, the plant must be thinned out and excess shoots cut off.
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