La ballerina plant It is one of those that really attracts a lot of attention; not because of its external appearance, which is typical of plant beings, but because of the perceptible movement of its leaves.
It is very curious, so much so that you want to buy some seeds to be able to witness what it does. But since that is not usually possible, I am going to explain what its characteristics are, I will attach a video and, yes, I will also tell you what you need to grow in case you ever have the opportunity to acquire it. 🙂
What are their characteristics?
Our protagonist is a shrubby plant native to tropical Asia known as the telegraph plant, the traffic light plant or the dancer plant and whose scientific name is Codariocalyx motorius which reaches a height of 1-2 meters. It has simple, lanceolate leaves up to 10 centimeters long, and also produces small purple flowers.
However, what is most striking are the movement made by its leaves: every three to five minutes they rotate up and down, which makes it one of the few that can show us that plant beings never remain still.
What do you need to live?
If you have the opportunity to get seeds or a plant, we recommend providing the following care:
- Location: in semi-shadow.
- Irrigation: 2 or 3 times a week in summer, and every 4 or 5 days the rest of the year. Use lime-free water.
- Substratum: mix universal growing medium (you can buy it here) with perlite (if you don't know where to find it, you can click here) in equal parts.
- Subscriber: during the warm months with a liquid universal fertilizer (like this one from No products found.) following the instructions specified on the package.
- Multiplication: by seeds in spring. Direct sowing in seedbed with universal cultivation substrate.
- Rusticity: it does not resist frost.
Video of the telegraph plant
To finish, I attach the video 🙂: