Hydrangea: varieties, care and curiosities
The botanical name is Hydrangea, a compound word that contains the word "water" in Greek. But not so much for the considerable water requirements that characterize hydrangea, but because its seminal capsules resemble water basins.
Originally from the eastern regions of Asia and the Himalayas, but also from the Americas, and spread all over the world at the end of the 1700s, hydrangea initially surprised everyone with its ability to change color. Only later was it discovered that the variation in the color of the petals largely depended on the elements that made up the soil in which it grew, for example phosphorus for pink and aluminum for blue.
General features
The hydrangea plant has robust stems with toothed or lobed leaves and flowers, gathered in more or less spherical inflorescences, called corymbs or panicles, which can be of different colors, ranging from white to different shades of red, pink, mauve, blue and violet. The colors are partly determined by the genetic makeup of the plant and partly, as previously mentioned, by the type of soil on which it grows.
See also
There are numerous species of hydrangea, about 40, and the most common and widespread are: "Hydrangea Ortensis, the most cultivated as an apartment plant," Hydrangea Paniculata, a shrubby, rustic, medium-high species with white or pink flowers and sharp leaves with toothed margins, the "Hydrangea Quercifolia, a shrub of just over one meter in height with velvety and reddish leaves in the lower part and the" Hydrangea Sargentiana, with an erect bearing and which can reach three meters in height.
How to grow it
The ideal would be, after a few years in the apartment, to be able to transplant the hydrangea in a garden or in a large planter on the terrace.
It is also advisable to nebulize the foliage often with non-calcareous water, to create a humid environment congenial to the plant, being careful however that excessive humidity can favor the development of molds and parasites.
Curiosity
- Hydrangea, originally from China and Japan, once brought to Europe by the naturalist Philibert Commenson, was baptized Ortensia in honor of the woman he was in love with, the wife of a friend of his.
- Many young people in Germany have thought of experiencing the thrill of smoking hydrangeas, to get the "high". In fact, this is precisely the new frontier of the so-called street drugs: they are cheap, they can be achieved in a simple way and the effect is guaranteed. The consequences too, though, since smoking these flowers can be very dangerous, addictive, and even deadly.
