NAME THAT PLANT

[Torrey]

Name That Plant

Dawned on me that I might not be the only one in here with health issues that affect memory. For those who are not regularly active in the Live Chats, I had a pretty impactful TIA in February, and struggle with words sometimes now.

I was recently asked what a plant was I have had for years, and while I could describe the care it needed, I couldn't name it🤦‍♂️

So, I figured I would look in here for a plant naming guide.... and I couldn't find one. I don't have room on my phone to download the university app to identify aquatic plants.... and thought maybe folks here would enjoy adding their plant images, descriptions, [and if you want, brief care info] of your favorite plants.

 

Have a plant that you don't remember the name?

 

I'm sure someone in here can help!

I'll start with my favorite for lowering calcium levels in the water:

Hornwort:

Hornwort is a 'floating' non rooted plant. It has a central stem with 'collars' of flat, needle like leaves (similar to norfolk pine).

It tolerates water as low as the 50's, thrives in the 60's and 70's, and tolerates the 80's.

It is great in QT tanks that use low level of salt, and is prolific in delta waterways (where river meets ocean).

It needs calcium in the water, and is a great way to monitor water quality for 'pods and snails, as the hornwort will start dropping needles if calcium levels begin to drop.

If you have a microscope, hornwort has a single large chloroplast per cell unlike other 'worts' like liverwort.

Healthy hornwort can grow up to an inch a day, but typically averages 5" a week under ideal conditions. 

It is a great home for daphnia and other microorganisms for fry to feed on.

It has a reputation for being difficult, typically because people are not aware of the high calcium needs of the plant.

 

Enjoy my friend, hornwort!

[Guppysnail]

Thank you for this info. I keep it in all my tanks but really don’t know much about it.  Now I do😁

[Torrey]

I didn't know much about it until I got tired of killing it😅

[Guppysnail]

On 8/12/2021 at 1:41 PM, Torrey said:

I didn't know much about it until I got tired of killing it😅

Lol yeah dead hornwort is miserable. The only thing I know about it is the allelochemicals it produces inhibit algae and other plant growth because it’s such a nutrients 🐷 piggy. This is an awesome learning tool thread thanks again for starting it! I just dropped a wondershell in my holding pail of hornwort 🤣

Edited August 12, 2021 by Guppysnail

[Torrey]

In the spirit of eliminating stigma around not knowing:

I have a plant that I have had for a long time, looks similar to hornwort, but it roots like stem plants... and I can't remember the name🤷‍♂️

 

Thank you @eatyourpeas for identifying this plant!

Myriophyllum

These are cuttings in the 10 gallon Walstad tank. Grows a woody stem, roots rapidly, and is growing ~ 3" each week under low light. Any ideas?

Edited September 23, 2021 by Torrey
Eatyourpeas identified plant and needed credit

[Torrey]

Mystery plant #2:

I got this on clearance. Under high light the growth was slower and more red. In the Walstad, lots of new growth, but it's very green.

Paired, alternating direction of paired leaves, internodal length is less than a cm.

Propagates readily in all my tanks, looks healthier in tanks w/o heaters (I moved a weighted bunch to the Walstad to help it recover from a heated tank)

Thank you @Guppysnail!

This is ludwiga repens

You can easily see the difference in coloration. Older leaves (high light, temp 80° F, hard water high in calcium, magnesium, and nitrates) were a pinkish red.

New growth in low light is **very** green.

Edited September 23, 2021 by Torrey
Guppysnail identified plant and I needed to give credit.

[eatyourpeas]

On 8/12/2021 at 10:52 AM, Torrey said:

In the spirit of eliminating stigma around not knowing:

I have a plant that I have had for a long time, looks similar to hornwort, but it roots like stem plants... and I can't remember the name🤷‍♂️These are cuttings in the 10 gallon Walstad tank. Grows a woody stem, roots rapidly, and is growing ~ 3" each week under low light. Any ideas?

Could be a Myriophyllum or water milfoil.

[Guppysnail]

On 8/12/2021 at 1:59 PM, Torrey said:

Mystery plant #2:

I got this on clearance. Under high light the growth was slower and more red. In the Walstad, lots of new growth, but it's very green.

Paired, alternating direction of paired leaves, internodal length is less than a cm.

Propagates readily in all my tanks, looks healthier in tanks w/o heaters (I moved a weighted bunch to the Walstad to help it recover from a heated tank)You can easily see the difference in coloration. Older leaves (high light, temp 80° F, hard water high in calcium, magnesium, and nitrates) were a pinkish red.

New growth in low light is **very** green.

This is a ludwiga repens it comes in oval thin super red and a dozen other varieties p. The closer to the light the redder it will get. 

Edited August 12, 2021 by Guppysnail

[Torrey]

Mystery plant #3:

Longer leaves, oblongate, paired at the node. Newer growth is pink, old growth goes green. Leaves up to 1.5" long.

Grows 2" + each week, plants closest to the light source grow faster.

 

Newest growth is the richest pink in extremely nutrient rich soil (osmacote + Miracle Grow) and low light.

[Torrey]

On 8/12/2021 at 12:06 PM, Guppysnail said:

This is a ludwiga repens it comes in oval thin super red and a dozen other varieties p. The closer to the light the redder it will get. 

Thank you so much!!!!

My brain kept wanting to call it reopens😅

[Torrey]

On 8/12/2021 at 12:06 PM, Torrey said:

Mystery plant #3:

Longer leaves, oblongate, paired at the node. Newer growth is pink, old growth goes green. Leaves up to 1.5" long.

Grows 2" + each week, plants closest to the light source grow faster.

 

Newest growth is the richest pink in extremely nutrient rich soil (osmacote + Miracle Grow) and low light.

Hopefully we can get an identification of this plant?

Stems are thicker and... juicier? (for lack of a better way to describe) than the ludwiga repens. Ludwiga stems are more woody.

 

[Guppysnail]

I know you said it’s not but it seriously looks like my narrow Leaf lugwiga. scarlet temple I just got I’m new to this one so? I can’t really see the stem in your picture 

[Torrey]

On 9/23/2021 at 9:10 AM, Guppysnail said:

I know you said it’s not but it seriously looks like my narrow Leaf lugwiga. scarlet temple I just got I’m new to this one so? I can’t really see the stem in your picture 

I am going to be doing some trimming this weekend. 

I'll get a picture on white paper with a ruler, make it easier to identify. 

[Torrey]

On 8/12/2021 at 11:44 AM, Guppysnail said:

Lol yeah dead hornwort is miserable. The only thing I know about it is the allelochemicals it produces inhibit algae and other plant growth because it’s such a nutrients 🐷 piggy. This is an awesome learning tool thread thanks again for starting it! I just dropped a wondershell in my holding pail of hornwort 🤣

Apparently the allelochemicals have zero effects on cyanobacteria 😅

 

Here's a better close up of what has tentatively been identified as milfoil (sp?)

Guppies/endlers photobombed for a size comparison. 

 

I believe that the following is a rotala? Definitely gets more red with more light!

 

 

Yes, I light from the side by putting a single submersible Aqueon in between my two pico tanks. They are taller than they are wide, and putting the light between them is the only successful way I have found to grow plants. 

This is the Back2theRoots model.

[Atitagain]

I like the idea of side lighting, I’m surprised it’s not more popular with as big as the plant side of aquariums has grown. With directional movement and shades so it didn’t light upwards. “That’s a million dollars right there” B-Rad G …lol name that movie 

[Chuck13]

Does anyone know what this is?

[Isaac M]

@Chuck13 Looks like Hygrophila Corymbosa to me

[Chuck13]

Thanks for your help. I have ZERO idea where it came from. As far as I can tell it just sprang up from nowhere (?).

[Guppysnail]

On 10/15/2021 at 12:46 PM, Chuck13 said:

Thanks for your help. I have ZERO idea where it came from. As far as I can tell it just sprang up from nowhere (?).

I wish plants would magically appear in my tank!

[Torrey]

On 10/15/2021 at 10:46 AM, Chuck13 said:

Thanks for your help. I have ZERO idea where it came from. As far as I can tell it just sprang up from nowhere (?).

I typically have that happen with snails, has only happened a couple of times with plants.

Once, I got a bonus plant mixed in with pearlweed, and most recently I believe that a couple of unidentifiable (so far) seeds? Spores? came in on one of my pieces of wood. Currently, the growth is still in the just beginning to erupt stage, so no identify markers beyond the first 2 leaves erupted as a pair.

[eatyourpeas]

On 9/25/2021 at 7:13 PM, Atitagain said:

I like the idea of side lighting, I’m surprised it’s not more popular with as big as the plant side of aquariums has grown. With directional movement and shades so it didn’t light upwards. “That’s a million dollars right there” B-Rad G …lol name that movie 

Funny you should mention that. I just bought two light to do as side lighting so I can have more "zones" in the tank. 🙂

[Torrey]

Here's a cool trick.

My spouse picked up a lot of plants for 80% off at a local big box as a post-surgery gift for me.

Since I didn't get the 4' tank in the dining room ready before surgery, I had no tank available for the plants (I want a show tank, and therefore am being very particular about what my snails etc look like. And may have shrimp, so not positive I want amphopods) where I wouldn't hurt myself post surgery.

So what is an aquarist to do?🤔

Add liquid ferts to a bottle of water and straw feed the plants in their containers, of course!

So here are pictures of all the plants I have so far, and I will be ordering more next month when the tank is set up😁

Windelov java fern has grown so much in the past month!

Looked mostly dead when it came home, now it's almost filled it's container with new growth. 

Next up: 

Amazon Sword & El Niño Fern, and neither one had more than  a green leaf between them.

(Hopefully everyone can see the leaves well enough to identify their own plants, if they have forgotten what they bought or got random plants at club swaps)

And last but not least, my spouse got me a generic anubias species, plus an anubias nana.

I suspect that the nana bloomed while in the store. It was the healthiest of the plants purchased, and was the only one that didn't have a 50% off sticker before the 80% was applied.

My spouse wasn't worried about accidentally killing them while I was recuperating, because "they're already half dead or mostly dead, I doubt I'll make them worse"

No, definitely didn't make them worse!

And since they are all going into a brand new tank, I can gradually increase the water level to allow them a slow adaptive period to acclimate to submerged (fully immersed) growth.

I have the best spouse!!!!

[Everything for the new set up is in the tank, to prevent clutter. I set up hardscape already, and now most of the store bought is soaking. I can't wait to put this all together!]

 

[Torrey]

Recuperating has had some bonuses. Since I still can't lift heavy things, I have been taking care of filing in the electronic age, and found my old nutrient deficiency chart:

 

I wish I could remember the name of the site I originally downloaded it from, because they had great resources like how to identify different types of plants (monocots vs dicots, internodal lengths, woody stems vs fleshy stems, whorled rosettes, etc), as well as ideal planting methods for rhizomes, bulbs, and rooted plants. 

I'll keep digging through the images and see what else comes up.

[Guppysnail]

I hope you have been doing well. I get most my anubias and Java fern this way. They perk up relatively quickly with some TLC. I’ve never tried rehabbing them in the tubes. That is a great idea. Your chart is very detailed thank you for sharing. 

[Torrey]

On 1/8/2022 at 4:39 AM, Guppysnail said:

I’ve never tried rehabbing them in the tubes.

Not being able to reach inside the tanks and not being able to do anything at all the first 3 weeks we had the plants led to a lot of innovation, lol.

There were some mishaps, like my spouse pouring the first water/fert blend in the tube and discovering the base of the plant has a plastic cap so no ferts made it in to the roots... but our floor was well fertilized 😅

The straw made the difference.