The wings of the earth, an amazingly beautiful plant.

Earth wings, English name Daggerpod, alias Cardamine cicadae, is a perennial succulent herb. It is small, rosette leaves, gray-green, soft, fleshy hairy, and dense inflorescences of small white flowers, fruit 2 to 3 cm, oval, leaves are a small clump, gray-green, looks very low-key.

When it comes to the beauty of the earth's wings, that is: when the fruit is ripe, the fruit and seeds fall off, leaving a transparent membrane, such as cicada wings, shockingly beautiful.

The origin of Earth Wings: the origin is the quickstone beach in the Rocky Mountains of the United States, which is widely distributed, but the number is still rare and belongs to protected plants (not to be picked randomly). Where the annual temperature range is very large, as high as 40 ℃, low is nearly 20 degrees below zero, the altitude is very high; the climate is dry, the soil layer is sparse, the sun is strong, and the ultraviolet ray is very strong.

The harsh environment makes it different from its peers: it is small and grows very slowly; the leaves are fleshy green with a soft feel; and the leaves are rosette, usually non-two-state, hairy, and brown with large temperature differences. The stem is very short, almost none; the flower is similar to the corymb or raceme; it is precisely because its growing environment is very windy and sandy, in order to resist dust, the main root of the earth wing belongs to a relatively strong straight root, once pulled up, it is bound to pull off the main root.

The pod of the earth wing is a flat spindle at both ends, and there is still a green stigma at the top when it is not ripe, the apical stigma withered when it is mature, and the white translucent thing left after the seeds and pericarp fall off, that is, "wings". The picture below shows the ripe fruit that has not yet cracked.

This is a picture of the ovary septum and the flowers.

The culture method of earth wings

Temperature: cold-resistant, below-20 ℃ can still survive the winter safely.

Lighting: the earth wings like light, the growth period should be given sufficient light, if the lack of light will make the leaves weak, and the degree of curl is poor, it is difficult to highlight the unique charm of the earth wings. On the other hand, the leaves of the plants growing in sufficient sunshine are low and stout, twisted and twisted, with high ornamental value, but sunshade nets should still be built after April to avoid hot sun exposure and prevent leaf tips from drying up.

Fertilization: the vigorous growth period of the earth wings is from October of each year to April of the following year. Mature thin liquid fertilizer or compound fertilizer is applied once a month to provide sufficient nutrients to make the plant grow vigorously. After the bud is extracted in spring, 0.5% potassium dihydrogen phosphate solution is sprayed 2 to 3 times to promote flowering.

Watering: the earth wings like to be moist, and it is appropriate to keep the soil moist during the growing period without stagnant water. if there is a long-term drought and lack of water, the plant will not die, but the growth will stagnate, the leaves will yellowing, and even wither; if the basin soil has accumulated water for a long time, it will cause the bulb to rot. Water can often be sprayed to the plant to increase air humidity and prevent the top of the leaves from drying up.