This plant today can often be seen in flowerbeds of parks, gardens, garden plots. But before that, his attitude was unequivocal - weeds. Its name speaks for itself: the pike is soddy, or the meadow is soddy.
Botanical description
This perennial plant belongs to the genus Lugovikov Cereal family.
Did you know? Soddy was named for its ability to form peculiar hummocks and sufficiently hard turfs, which over time impede the process of air ingress into the soil, lead to its swamping and complicate the process of mowing the grass.Speaking about the description of the pike soddy, first of all, it should be noted that it has evergreen leaves, due to which it draws special attention to itself. It is her leaves that form rather neat hummocks of almost round form up to 30 cm high. Not wide leaves up to 3 mm, but rather thick and tough, can grow in length a little less than half a meter. They are almost flat from below, and their upper part is covered with parallel longitudinal grooves and barely noticeable spines. To the touch leaf rough. The leaves on the stems are not so much, so the stems look smooth.
The inflorescence of pike soddy is a panicle of many spikelets. Beautiful silvery spikelets are quite motley-looking, they have a peculiar light shine. The spikelets are very small in size, it is even difficult to see them. All this gives a lugovik to turfy extraordinary decorativeness. Flowers on this herbaceous plant begin to appear at the end of June, as they ripen, they tend to change their color. When the shchukhkara goes down, its broomstick has a drooping appearance and some compactness, when it blooms, it becomes slightly friable, fluffy, like a cloud. Constantly staying in the sunshine, turfy meadow can grow to a height of more than half a meter. In the autumn, it acquires straw shades and preserves them until it is covered with snow.
Important! The pike soddy is distinguished by an unusual feature: it begins to grow at low temperatures (in early spring and closer to the autumn cooling and rainy season). In summer, at sufficiently high temperatures, it is at rest.This plant is suitable for almost any climatic conditions, except for excessive heat and drought - it still loves moisture.
Growing varieties
Varieties of pike soddy are not always easily distinguishable. They have different lengths of leaves, height, various shades of spikelets.
'Bronzeschleier' - one of the tallest varieties (up to 170 cm), characterized by high resistance and beautiful views. Panicles can be both green at the time of disclosure of color, and brown with a bronze tint and are able to maintain a decorative appearance almost until early spring. 
'Fairy's Joke' - variety, which is characterized by unusual rather than attractive appearance. This self-propagating variety, it gives instead of seeds miniature young plants ready for breeding. Up to 90 cm in diameter - up to 60 cm 
'Goldgehänge' - a variety with yellow panicles with a golden hue. Height up to 130 cm, diameter - up to 60 cm 
'Goldschleier' - one of the highest grades (up to 175 cm), upright and slender, but its decoration can lose quite quickly - in a month and a half. 
'Goldstaub' - A variety up to 75 cm in height with very dark leaves and light panicles in yellow tones. 
'Goldtau' - a variety whose height is up to 1 m has foliage that is quite interesting with dark red tips. It grows relatively slowly, so it is convenient for use in decorative compositions. 
'Ladywood Gold' - a grade up to 90 cm in height with golden-yellow foliage. 
'Northen Lights' - undersized variety (up to 25 cm), having leaves with longitudinal stripes of white with a creamy tint of color, in cool weather they can turn pink. It grows slowly enough, it blooms infrequently. Leaves may show signs of rust. 
'Schottland' - powerful upright variety more than a meter in height with dark green leaves and slightly greenish panicles, eventually turning yellow. 
'Tardiflora' - Late flowering variety that feels best in a cool and shady place, because it is rusting at high temperatures. 
'Tauträger' - A variety with a height of up to one meter, which blooms worse than all the others, has, when blooming, quickly turning yellow panicles with a blue tint. 
'Waldschatt' - the least heat-affected variety up to 90 cm high, which is recommended for cultivation in the southern climate. 
Where to plant
Pike soddy can be found everywhere: on meadows with a sufficient level of moisture, on the roadsides, in forest glades, near water bodies and swamps, on pastures.
You may be interested in such ornamental herbs and cereals for flowerbeds: Fescue, Foxtail meadow grass, Miscanthus, Fizostegiya.
Lighting and location
The plant is very picky: it will grow in the sun and in the shady area, although it blooms much better in a bright sunny place. Preference nevertheless gives wet places. The pike turfy feels rather well in any light, only in a sunny, bright place it blooms better, and it is more comfortable to grow up in a cool shady one. The optimum temperature for it is +25 ° C. Very high temperatures may adversely affect the plant.
Soil for pike
Turf meadow grass can grow in almost any soil: clay, acidic, sandy, neutral, alkaline, depleted. But, of course, he feels best in fertile soil and therefore grows faster. For planting a pike turfy, they dig a hole of such a size so that it can fit there with a whole bump and be deep enough. Then it will no longer need to replant and rejuvenate. After that, you need to plant and soil abundantly watered. The first two weeks, especially if there is no rain or sandy soil, should be watered often. In general, the plant needs regular watering, especially in a dry season or when grown in sandy soil. In spring, a turfy grassland will not interfere with top dressing with a universal nutrient or nitrogen fertilizer.
How the plant multiplies
Pike soddy reproduces both with the help of seeds without growing seedlings, and when dividing the bush. Seeds are planted in the open soil before winter. Seeds germinate well, without difficulty and quickly. It should be noted that adult plants give self-sowing, then it becomes difficult to distinguish varieties, so if such a process is undesirable, then the inflorescences need to be cut off when they are flourishing in time. During vegetative reproduction, the pike bush is divided in early spring or in autumn. Old unsightly bumps can be dug, cut with a shovel, keeping the roots, into several separate parts with a diameter of a little more than ten centimeters. They are planted at a distance of one and a half meters, not forgetting to water abundantly.
If an adult plant has not lost its decorative value, then it is possible to separate one or two pieces from its hummocks with the same shovel without causing damage to the donor. The hole formed near it must be covered with earth, watered and compacted. Both methods are fairly simple and ensure the success of the breeding process.
Features agrotehnika
Lugovik soddy very early after the winter starts to grow, because of this, as soon as possible it is necessary to cut its stems and foliage "under the hedgehog" with shears.
Important! If you do not cut the meadow grass after the winter in time, then you can get an ugly shrub whose green leaves are mixed with dry old ones.Over time, the young foliage will completely cover last year’s, but the leaves that have survived after wintering are very vulnerable as a result of the effects of heat and rust on them. No need to spare the remaining green leaves after winter, because after pruning new young will grow very quickly, and for decorative purposes they will occasionally have to be trimmed more than once. In summer, the pike is soddy until it stops growing until the autumn, but it is still necessary to water it. Before winter, plants can be pruned, it is not necessary to cover them specifically.
The use of decorative properties
For agriculture, a grassy grassland is a harmful weed, but for landscape design it is one of the most ornamental grasses, the magnificence of which is emphasized in the mass of other plants.
Very often, a grassy grassland is used in Moorish lawn. It is a mixture of various herbs, flowers and cereals, which looks like a piece of flowering meadow in the garden.
In early spring, you should not forget to cut it very shortly, so that after a certain period its appearance becomes even better. There are many varieties of this herb with different colors of spikelets, and almost all of them look good in general landscape design. Long leaves and charming air clouds of inflorescences contribute to the extraordinary popularity of the pike in a variety of decorative compositions. The most successful combination of pike with plants that have other shapes and sizes of foliage and inflorescences, for example, irises, roses, lilies. It can be grown as an accent on lawns, then its self-seeding will be most welcome. Impressively this plant looks when covered with hoarfrost or dew.
Of interest is the straw coloring of pike soddy in autumn.
Moreover, it is not difficult to grow it.
Medicinal properties
The grass pike is soddy has poorly nourished, hard leaves, therefore it is of no particular interest for domestic animals, except for its young foliage; for farmers, this is a malicious weed, after which it is necessary to fertilize the soil; but not many people know the healing properties that scientists have discovered in this plant.
Did you know? An extract of Proteflazid, an alcohol-based antiviral drug, is recommended from the extract of a pike turf, which is recommended by doctors for diseases caused by herpes, shingles, hepatitis B and C, human papillomavirus infection, influenza, and even HIV infection and AIDS in combination with other drugs.
Pike soddy, or soddy meadow - is an interesting and rather controversial plant. But with skillful use, it will not bring any inconvenience, but only benefit.
