Spilanthes ACMELLA

Spilanthes ACMELLA - Toothache plant, Paracress, Indian cress, Akarkara, Toothache Plant.

Spilanthes is a genus of herbaceous plants in the Asteraceae family, comprising several dozen species and distributed across tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, Africa, and the Americas, where the plants colonize moist meadows, roadsides, water body banks, and forest edges.

Representatives of the genus are annual or short-lived perennial herbs with creeping or slightly ascending leafy shoots. The leaves are opposite, ovate, serrate along the margin, often with a bronze-purple tinge on stems and veins.

Flower heads are solitary on long peduncles, conical or globose in shape, usually devoid of ray florets - consisting solely of small tubular florets of reddish-yellow coloration. The fruit is a small achene.

Spilanthes acmella is a species native to tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and South America, particularly widely distributed in India. It is a creeping or weakly ascending herbaceous plant up to 30-40 cm (12-16 in) in height. The leaves are dark green, ovate, pointed at the tip, and the stems, petioles, and leaf veins often feature a bronze-purple sheen.

The flower heads are compact, pompon-like, held on sturdy peduncles above the foliage - bright red at the start of blooming, gradually turning yellow as they open, while retaining a red apex. Blooming continues for virtually the entire warm season.

Toothache plant seeds are small and light - these are typical Asteraceae achenes that are physically inconvenient and unnecessary to soak or treat in solutions: when processed in liquid, such seeds are easily lost and damaged. They need light to germinate, so they must not be buried into the substrate.

The seeds are immediately sown on the surface without burying into a light breathable substrate and moistened from a spray bottle with a growth stimulant solution: SUPERthrive, HB-101, Aminozol, Epin, or Zircon. Sowing is covered with film or placed in a mini-greenhouse and kept in bright diffused light at a temperature of 20-24 °C (68-75 °F), with daily ventilation.

Under favorable conditions, the first sprouts appear as early as 7 days; the main germination is usually completed within 2 weeks, while individual seeds can take longer. After the appearance of several true leaves, the seedlings are pricked out into individual pots.

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Toothache plant is light-loving; for active blooming, it needs bright sun for most of the day - the sunniest window or an open, well-illuminated spot on a balcony is selected.

The plant is warmth-loving and does not tolerate frost. In summer, it feels comfortable at standard room or outdoor temperatures; in winter, it freezes in the open ground of temperate zones and is usually grown as an annual - to preserve it for the next year, a potted specimen is brought indoors and winters in a bright location at a temperature no lower than 15-18 °C (59-64 °F).

Watering during the warm season is regular and abundant - when the substrate dries out or in a cramped pot, the plant quickly wilts and loses its ornamental appearance. In winter with cool maintenance, watering is reduced, but the substrate is not allowed to dry out completely.

A loose, fertile substrate with good drainage is used - a mixture of garden soil, humus, and coarse sand or perlite in equal parts is suitable. Drainage is laid at the bottom of the pot, and the pot itself is selected to be sufficiently spacious, because in a cramped container the plant rapidly exhausts the substrate and wilts.

Fertilizing is performed during the period of active growth and flowering with a complex liquid fertilizer; to stimulate branching, young plants are pinched back approximately 6-8 weeks after sprouting.

Besides seeds, the plant easily propagates by apical cuttings, which root in water or moist substrate during the warm season.