Two new Botanical sets coming to the LEGO Nursery!
LEGO Creator Expert # 10311 Orchid
The new LEGO Botanical set, perfect for any space and any design, recreates the beautiful blooms of an orchid, a flower that it has always been synonymous with elegance and in reality it requires a lot of care, so much so as to make it one of the most appreciated floral tributes by the fair sex. The brick reproduction of the orchid plant includes six large corollas and two just bloomed. Just like in the case of the previous LEGO Creator Expert # 10289 "Bird of Paradise" set (we talked about it in our article), the plant comes complete with a buildable pot, designed and built not only to be a design object by to be able to exhibit at home or in the office, but also and above all to make sure that the arrangement of the stems and flowers on the stems themselves can be decided by each manufacturer.Michael Psiaki, Lead Designer of LEGO, declared :
“The idea for this set came from looking at a real orchid we had in the office: seeing how the flower has changed over the seasons helped us a lot throughout the design process. The challenge with this set was being able to create a LEGO brick vase that was fun to build, but also beautiful to look at "| ); }
The real orchid plant
The LEGO Creator Expert # 10311 Orchid set reproduces a Phalaenopsis plant, the most widespread and well-known orchid in the world is native to the East Indies, Indonesia and the Philippines and Australia. Its name derives from the butterfly shape of the flower: phalaena "butterfly" and opsis "similar". These are epiphytic plants, that is, in nature they grow on the bark of trees, with large and fleshy leaves and multicolored flowers, sometimes of considerable size (even more than 10 cm in diameter), often very long-lasting both on the plant and when cut. Usually grown in a warm greenhouse or even at home, they grow very well at high temperatures and with a high level of humidity, although in reality they also get used to the temperatures of our homes very well. The higher the temperature, the higher the humidity in the air must be. In the presence of excellent lighting and good growing conditions, Phalaenopsis can bloom beautifully even twice a year (in a period that varies from species to species) the flowering can last even more than four weeks. Watering must be done with great care and attention, since the aerial roots are very sensitive to excess salts ... but with the LEGO set the problem doesn't even arise!(Credit photo: edg.it)
LEGO Creator Expert # 10309 Succulents
The other, new LEGO Botanical set, is equally an object of design and a real replica of the typical pots of small succulents that all of us have at one time or another had on the desk at home or in the office. The special feature of the LEGO Creator Expert # 10309 Succulents set is that it includes LEGO elements to build 9 different succulents, all reproductions of real succulents and each placed in its own small buildable pot. But that's not all: as in the case of the previous LEGO Creator Expert # 10281 "Bonsai Tree" set (we talked about it in our article), it will be possible to arrange the plants with respect to each other as we like, simply by combining them the individual vases thanks to some LEGO Technic elements suitably added to the set.Andreson Ward Grubb, Senior Designer at LEGO, said:
“It is said that having succulent plants in a room helps to focus… we hope this set gives the same feeling! We wanted to create a model that was able to offer a relaxing experience to help adults to disconnect from their busy life and, above all, to focus on something that entertained them. "
Once the 771 pieces that make up the set have been assembled, the model resulting from the union of the 9 jars will have dimensions of 13 cm in length, 17 cm in height and 17 cm in width.
Real Succulents
The LEGO Creator Expert # 10309 Succulent Plants set reproduces nine of succulent plants and cacti, all belonging to the succulent family, so called because they have particular tissues (aquifer parenchyma, also called "succulent") that allow to store large quantities of water. The water absorbed during periods of rain is wisely administered during periods of drought, transferring it to each district of the plant organism that requires it. Due to the presence of the succulent tissue, the leaves, stems and roots of these plants become fleshy and swollen, assuming - depending on the type - typical shapes such as spherical, columnar, rosette, flattened ones. Succulents are often referred to, erroneously, with the generic term of cactus, which actually refers to a specific family of these plants, all native to the Americas. It can therefore be said that while almost all cacti are succulents, not all succulent plants are cacti. Let's see together which are the 9 plants included in the new set.Aloe Vera Orange Echeveria "Hens and chicks" Sedum Morganianum Purple Echeveria Gymnocalycium Mihanovichii Magnificent parodia Red Echeveria
Aloe vera
Aloe vera is a perennial succulent plant with shrub bearing, up to one meter high, which is part of the Asphodelaceae family and which prefers hot and dry climates. Its leaves are arranged in a tuft, simple, 40-60 cm long, long lanceolate, with acute apex, have a very thick cuticle and are fleshy due to the abundant aquifer parenchyma present within them. They have spines only along the sides.(Credit photo: stuff.co.nz)
Orange Echeveria
Orange Echeveria is a genus of succulent plants belonging to the Crassulaceae family, native to Central and South America. They are terrestrial or epiphytic plants, have flat and fleshy leaves, hairless or shaggy arranged in a rosette. The stems in adulthood branch out producing a large amount of seedlings which can be detached from the mother plant to generate new seedlings. The flowers are long-lasting.(Credit photo: Amazon)
“Hens and chicks”
Plants commonly called “hens and chicks ”include species of Sempervivum, which hug the ground, or of Jovibarba. The scientific name of the family to which they belong is Crassulaceae, flowering plants native to southern Europe and North Africa, but they are called in this way because they grow close to the ground with leaves formed around each other in a rosette, and are they propagate by offshoots. They therefore resemble a "hen" (the main plant, or mother) with its "chicks", that is the small shoots on the main plant that soon sprout their roots, taking up residence near the mother plant.(Credit photo: giromagicactus.com | vivaiguardini.it)
Sedum Morganianum
Also called donkey tail or buttertail, Sedum Morganianum is a species of flowering plant of the Crassulaceae family like the previous "Hens and chicks", native to southern Mexico. It is also a perennial succulent like Aloe Vera, which produces trailing stems up to 60cm long, with fleshy blue-green leaves and pink to red terminal flowers in summer.(Credit photo: Morningdew51, Wikipedia)
Purple Echeveria
Another variant of Echeveria, its rosette shape makes it one of the most attractive hybrids of the species. Its leaves are wide and lanceolate, with splendid shades of pink that go towards purple. It is a perfect succulent to decorate gardens during the summer period, to give a touch of color to home or office environments and to make any composition original.(Credit photo: worldofsucculents. com)
Gymnocalycium Mihanovichii
Gymnocalycium Mihanovichii is a species of cactus from South America, completely lacking in chlorophyll, which grows by exposing red, orange or yellow pigmentation. Precisely because of the total absence of chlorophyll, in order for them to live, grow and develop they must be grafted onto another cactus with normal chlorophyll, such as another succulent plant, Hylocereus. Usually referred to as the Lunar Cactus, these hybrids are usually grown as indoor plants.(Credit photo: unsitodelcactus.it)
Parodia magnifica
Parodia magnifica is a flowering plant species of the Cactaceae family, native to southern Brazil. One of several species called ball cacti, grows to 7–15 cm high by 45 cm wide, with strongly ribbed, spherical to columnar, spiny and hairy stems, bearing pale yellow flowers in summer. Its natural habitat is a cool and dry temperate grassland at altitudes up to 800 m.(Credit photo: uhlig-kakteen.de)
Echeveria Rossa
The Echeveria Rossa is a splendid succulent plant ideal for landscaping rocky and for growing in pots. The leaves of the Echeveria are fleshy, oval and elongated or more triangular, sometimes even with a wavy or fringed edge. They are also covered with a fuzz that makes them look dull in color, although they are usually green, greyish, blue-gray or pinkish. There are many hybrids, too, with quite different colors and shapes. During the flowering period from the center of the rosette erect stems emerge bearing inflorescences composed of small tubular flowers of red-orange color, with yellow upper margin of the petals.(Credit photo: Tangopaso, Wikipedia )
The ninth and last jar included in the set is the only one that does not have an exact correspondence with a specific succulent plant, perhaps because it is the one in whose jar the LEGO Technic elements that are used to join are "hidden" the individual jars with each other, and therefore probably has the only function of being a filler.
If you want to know more about the sets of the LEGO Botanical line, in this article you will find information and details on the first four sets. (Bonsai Tree, Bouquet of Flowers, Roses, Tulips) of this very particular theme, while in this other article of ours you will find everything you need on the next two sets (Bird of Paradise and Sunflowers).
