Beautiful carpet (Lippia repens)

The Lippia genus has more than 200 species of shrubs and one of them is the Lippia Repens, a plant that has a wallcovering nature, does not require great care and is very effective if you want to decorate some sector of your garden, even serving as a lawn replacement.

In addition to belonging to the Lippias group, made up of hundreds of species with different characteristics, the Lippia Repens is a perennial and herbaceous shrub that has its origins in areas with a tropical climate, such as the tropical and subtropical areas of America, although it known mainly in development of this species in African lands.

characteristics

This species of Lippia is very commonly cultivated to upholster certain places, such as walls, slopes or to cultivate it on the ground, generating a kind of carpet that will serve as a replacement for grass, with greater growth power and not requiring large tasks of maintenance.

There will be no problem if the ground where it is located is stepped on constantly. This will not affect its growth or proliferation, since one of its most common characteristics is its aggressiveness that makes it an invasive plant.

One of the characteristics why this plant is very convenient to replace the grass on the ground, is that it does not achieve a great level of height, apart from that it will not take a long time to grow and finish covering the entire area in which it has been planted, generating a carpet of vegetation in a short time.

In the case of the Lippia Repens, which are taller, they can reach a little less than a meter and is used in most gardens for a specifically ornamental purpose, offering color and liveliness to the soils.

Its leaves

The leaves of the Lippia Repens have an intense green color during the spring and summer stages, when we will also see the largest amount of flowers in them. These green leaves will change color during the colder seasons, beginning to fade to reddish tones in the fall and culminating in an intense reddish color in the winter, which will give it another ornamental characteristic different from the one we appreciate during the hot months..

The shape of its leaves is particularly oval and they are compacted, covering the entire surface in the summer months. That is why its upholstery characteristic is due.

The high proliferation of leaves and the invasive characteristics of this plant, covering absolutely all surfaces, makes it also resistant enough to be found in areas where it can be mistreated without this causing any inconvenience.

They may even be in soils through which vehicles pass without this signifying their deterioration and lack of growth. On the contrary, it will continue to develop normally.

Cultivation of the Lippia Repens

If there is one herb that can be easily grown and quickly spread without any drawbacks, it is Lippia Repens. If you are going to get a specimen from a nursery, surely you will get trays in which there are different seedlings, through which you will get to cultivate and end up covering a couple of square meters of surface of your garden.

With approximately ten seedlings installed on the surface of between one or two square meters, in a short time you will see how it begins to develop, watering it well at first and then regulating the watering intervals as you want, finally covering the area completely by mode of a lawn.

One of the characteristics why this plant is used the most is because it adapts to any type of soil, you can water it only a couple of times a month and subject it to temperatures of up to -5 ° C without damaging its development at all. Its low maintenance requirement makes it widely used to upholster places with imperfections, so do not hesitate to visit a nursery and get a copy of this fabulous plant.