LF Stemmed Plant w/ Attractive Emergent Growth

856 Views 5 Replies 3 Participants Last post by theatermusic87, Oct 9, 2016

Bananableps

Discussion Starter · Oct 6, 2016

I'm really enjoying this little guy:

[Ludwigia repens growing in dirt with 2 ghost shrimp]

And I'm looking to make another. Does anyone have any aquatic plants that they would like to recommend for this sort of thing?

I am looking for:
* Attractive submerged growth.
* Attractive emergent growth.
* Dirt-loving.
* Preferably stemmed.

I am not looking for:
* Big bushy riparian plants that will crowd out the underwater area.
* Leafy aquatic plants that will bump against the glass (swords)
* Fast growing tropicals that are terrestrial but don't mind wet feet (wandering spiderwort, pathos, peace lily)
* Carpet plants. I do not want to fill the entire container.

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Monrankim

· #2 · Oct 6, 2016

I really like what you are doing. I'm going to try it because it will give me something else to do with my Repens trimmings. I don't have any other recommendations but I think you should try giving it more light to bring out the red in the plant.

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Bananableps

Discussion Starter · #3 · Oct 6, 2016

Thanks! More red would be nice, but more light would be too much of a bother. Right now it looks quite nice hanging in front of the window, living on natural sunlight. Putting a light over it would be more costly and cumbersome than what I'm willing to do for such a small project.

As the days get longer in the summer, I imagine it might redden up.

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theatermusic87

· #4 · Oct 6, 2016

Most of your hygro species will grow emersed like that, though they may eventually (several months later) start to lose their underwater leaves. Angustifolia and the standard hygro compact both will have small purple flowers from time to time. Personally I prefer the leave structure of the angustifolia more

Cardinal plant will also grow emmersed, it tends to stay more compact in form though than what you have currently. I've also noticed it seems to like a bit more humid air.

AR is much the same as cardinal plant in liking humid air, in my experience it has more of a tan/orange leaves than the vibrant red it gets submerged

Penny wort also does fine, personally I think it gets a bit unruly and overgrown, but it also will shoot out little flower stalks that look like little whit pom pom. This one grows much more vine like than a true stem plant

Also take a browser through the riparium plants list in my signature, lots of other options I'm sure I'm forgetting about

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Bananableps

Discussion Starter · #5 · Oct 6, 2016

theatermusic87 said:
Most of your hygro species will grow emersed like that, though they may eventually (several months later) start to lose their underwater leaves. Angustifolia and the standard hygro compact both will have small purple flowers from time to time. Personally I prefer the leave structure of the angustifolia more

Cardinal plant will also grow emmersed, it tends to stay more compact in form though than what you have currently. I've also noticed it seems to like a bit more humid air.

AR is much the same as cardinal plant in liking humid air, in my experience it has more of a tan/orange leaves than the vibrant red it gets submerged

Penny wort also does fine, personally I think it gets a bit unruly and overgrown, but it also will shoot out little flower stalks that look like little whit pom pom. This one grows much more vine like than a true stem plant

Also take a browser through the riparium plants list in my signature, lots of other options I'm sure I'm forgetting about

Wow, some excellent suggestions there. Thank you! Penny wort would be a nice contrast to the other plants I have in that window but I share your concern about mess. I never would have thought of hydro a.; it just looks so floppy underwater! But of course all of these stemmed plants can stiffen up when they reach air.

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theatermusic87

· #6 · Oct 9, 2016

Bananableps said:
Wow, some excellent suggestions there. Thank you! Penny wort would be a nice contrast to the other plants I have in that window but I share your concern about mess. I never would have thought of hydro a.; it just looks so floppy underwater! But of course all of these stemmed plants can stiffen up when they reach air.

The angustifolia actually stiffens up substantially when emersed, the stem also gets fuzzy like a tomato plant. The leaves for me get a bit shorter and fatter when emersed but otherwise keep the same general appearance as submerged growth. I noticed that it takes a while to transition to emersed if growing out of the top of an aquarium, buy once established with emersed leaves it takes off. And it also transitions back to submerged seamlessly

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