Worth knowing:
The evergreen Paraguay Tea is part of the holly family. Its oval-shaped leaves are slightly nicked at the edges and during blossoming it shows big tufts of 30 to 40 white flowers each. The plant produces thick red-purple coloured stone fruits. For the seedlings to crack the hard shell of the fruit, it first has to pass through the digestive tract of a bird - that is the reason for the bird-attracting bright colour of the fruits. Mate is one of the most famous drinks of South America and was already appreciated by indigenous people long before the colonialisation due to its caffeine content. Mate Tea is made of minced leaves that are dried with smoke, and is traditionally consumed out of the stalk of a hollowed bottle gourd (in spanish = mate).
Natural Location:
The Paraguay Tea grows wild as underbrush in araucaria-woods in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. Its natural habitat is the rainforest of the Paraná Basin that stretches through these countries.
Cultivation:
Seed propagation indoors is possible throughout the year. To increase its germinability, you can slightly roughen the seed with a piece of sandpaper and place it for about 24 hours in warm water for priming. After that, plant the seeds about 0,5 cm deep into moist potting compost and cover the seed container with clear film. Don’t forget to make some holes in the clear film and take it every second or third day completely off for about 2 hours. That way you avoid mold formation on your potting compost. Place the seed container somewhere bright and warm with a temperature between 20°C and 25°C and keep the earth moist, but not wet. Usually it takes two or three months until germination.
Place:
Since it grows in its natural habitat as brushwood, the Paraguay Tea prefers a half-shaded place to be kept. Especially young plants should stay in the shade during the first two years.
Care:
A good flower or tub-plant soil mixed with perlite or expanded clay would be best for cultivation. The Paraguay Tea prefers temperatures around 22° Celsius and can easily be kept in the house or during summer also outdoors. To meet its need for a high humidity, you can spray your plant regularly. During the growth period you can give a small dose of fluid fertilizer for evergreen plants once a month. Every two years, the plant should be pruned properly by cutting it back to one third of its size, so it will develop strong sprouts.
During the winter:
The evergreen plant hibernates in a bright place with room temperature and modest watering.
Picture credits:
- © © Stickpen - Public Domain - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/
- © Frank Laue - © Saflax - http://www.saflax.de/copyright
- © Frank Laue - © Saflax - http://www.saflax.de/copyright
- © C T Johansson - CC-BY-SA-3.0 - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0
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- © About © : Contact SAFLAX - - http://www.saflax.de/copyright
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