Spring Plants in the Greenhouse
At the end of March and beginning of April, species of plants appear that give our Greenhouse a special beauty with their fragrant scent and beauty.
Callistemon, or Callistemon, (lat. Callistemon) is a genus of evergreen shrubs or small trees of the Myrtaceae family, growing in Australia and, partially, in New Caledonia. Small evergreen trees or shrubs, from 0.5 to 15 meters high.
The leaves are narrow, hard, leathery, alternate, mostly lanceolate, greyish-green, and the sharp edges can scratch you. Small flowers are collected at the ends of branches, in dense cylindrical intercalary inflorescences 5-12 cm long and 3-6 cm wide, with the top of the spike ending in a leaf-bearing shoot. The main part of the flower is made up of numerous long, multi-colored, protruding stamens. Depending on the color of the stamens, they are bright red, less often yellow, green, orange, cream or white.
Each flower has a five-lobed calyx and corolla and an inferior 3-4-celled ovary. Fruits are woody, multi-seeded capsules, spherical or ovoid. Some species, such as lemon callistemon, have dry capsules, but in reality there is a cavity between the seed and the fruit shell containing a small amount of liquid. This liquid tastes like lemon mint with a slight numbing sensation. This is the reason why lemon callistemon got its name. However, some other species also have similar taste qualities.
Hemp grass (Latin: Eupatórium)-is a genus of perennial plants of the Asteraceae, common in Europe, Asia, America and tropical Africa. Some species are used as ornamental garden plants. Perennial plants are 30–200 cm tall. The stems are erect, usually unbranched. The leaves are usually opposite, less often whorled, petiolate or sessile, ovate, lanceolate-lanceolate or linear, sometimes elliptical, oblong, rhombic, sometimes pinnate, 1-2-pinnate-trifoliate or palmately lobed, the edges are entire or serrated, the surface can be pubescent, rough or smooth. The corollas of the flowers are usually white, less often pinkish.
Acokanthera (Latin: Acokanthera) is a genus of plants in the Apocynaceae family, common in Africa and Arabia. Small evergreen trees or shrubs. The leaves are large, opposite, usually sessile or on short petioles, with a smooth edge and a pointed tip. Damage to the plant leads to the release of large amounts of white latex. The flowers are semi-sessile, collected in racemes developing in the leaf axils, and emit a sweet smell. The calyx is small, without glands inside. The corolla is tubular, white or pink, slightly widened near the mouth. The stamens grow in the widened part of the corolla tube, the anthers are oval to oblong. The ovary is single, two-chambered, with one ovary per chamber. The style is filiform, the stigma is cylindrical or short-conical. The fruit with spongy pulp resembles a small plum and when ripe it acquires a color from reddish to purple-black, contains one or two seeds. The endosperm is hard, the cotyledons are broadly oval or close to cordate.
