More Flowers & Fruit (Now with Bonus Greenhouse Fun!)
By: asukawashere
December 2nd, 2011
2:30 pm
Just wanted to share some of my recent progress in the way of flowers with everybody:
Limnophila sp. 'Vietnam'
Buds:
Bloom:
Side View:
Staurogyne sp. 'Bihar'
The whole plant:
Flower:
and Fruit!
(tried to use the backlighting to candle the pod, so we can see a bit of what's inside...)
Will post more as things continue to bloom. 
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116 comments on "More Flowers & Fruit (Now with Bonus Greenhouse Fun!)"
December 2, 2011 at 6:39 pm
Very nice! Love the last shot with the backlighting.
December 2, 2011 at 6:53 pm
Thanks! I'm hoping to eventually get viable seeds out of that one - but I thought I'd cheat and try and see what's in there a little earlier.
I don't know if the lighter parts are just empty chambers or if they have seeds growing inside, but I have my fingers crossed!
December 2, 2011 at 10:39 pm
I'm pretty sure those are seeds. It looks too orderly for anything else.
I've had some polygonums and alternanthera seed before for me, even my HC did a few times, also my aciotis. It is a pretty rewarding feeling
December 3, 2011 at 1:35 am
Hello asukawashere,
great!
Limnophila sp. "Vietnam": How long are the pedicels (flower stalks) and the petals?
Limnophila key in Flora of China: http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.as...axon_id=118595
=> Because of the similarity with L. aromatica and the short pedicels IMO the "Vietnam" might belong to L. chinensis or L. repens. But I don't know if further similar species occur in Vietnam.
But surely You plan to make specimens and to send them to Cavan anyway.
December 3, 2011 at 8:43 pm
Yeah, I've got a couple of cuttings from various species (including the Limno) currently being smushed under piles of aquarium literature, which I'll be sending to Cavan as a holiday present :P
As for the petals... I'd have to go find a ruler to be sure, and they're a bit difficult to measure what with the corolla's shape and such, but they're at a guess maybe 7mm...
As for your questions, the pedicels are short. Like, practically nonexistent. The biggest one I've seen thus far is maybe 2mm. The span of the leaves at the whorls tops out at about an inch. It's a tiny plant.
Though the plant does look similar to L. repens, especially in terms of size, the Flora of China key seems to indicate that the emersed form of L. repens has strictly opposite leaves - 'Vietnam' as you can see in the photos, is whorled with typically 3 leaves to a whorl (I do occasionally see nodes with 4 leaves, and a few with 2, but the majority are 3-leaved).
In other news, my Staurogyne repens bloomed today. I'll have to take some pictures to share... also, my Lindernia sp. 'India' has produced seeds. Very, very tiny and very, very numerous seeds. Don't think I'll be getting pictures of those, but I'll send some to Cavan so he can stick them under a microscope.
December 7, 2011 at 6:26 pm
But surely You plan to make specimens and to send them to Cavan anyway.
December 12, 2011 at 3:32 pm
More pretty pictures!
Staurogyne repens:
And my constant nemesis, Micranthemum umbrosum:
(This plant has the most annoyingly tiny flowers - it blooms prolifically and all, but they're so flippin' microscopic that I can never get a clear photo.)
And just for kicks, a couple peeks into my emersed tubs:
December 12, 2011 at 5:11 pm
Heeey! Glad to see the staurogyne flowered again it only flowered once for me. I think it must be a long night plant because I had the lights on for a long time in my tubs. And the nesea is looking great!
December 12, 2011 at 7:42 pm
Wrong Stauro
The stuff I got from you is a lot of S. sp. 'Porto Velho' and a bit of something else that might be S. stolonifera - these latest flowers are from an S. repens specimen I got elsewhere (plus the dark purple S. sp. 'Bihar' at the top of the thread). Among other differences, S. repens has a much more upright growth habit than the 'Port Velho' (don't ask me how that works...)
That said, your 'Porto Velho' did flower for me over the summer and into mid fall. I kicked the tub outdoors until sometime in late September, not sure if the natural shortening of the photoperiod over that time triggered anything, but inside it gets lots 'n lots of light for around 11 hours/day, which it seems to enjoy. Actually, its growth has been crazy lately - I suspect an increase in foliar fertilizing is responsible...
I'm liking the Nesaea more and more - it's the N. pedicellata 'Golden' from FAN, picked it up at the last NAS auction, and it adds a ton of color to the tub... almost looks like it's on fire or something
December 16, 2011 at 4:55 pm
To get a photo of annoyingly tiny flower, place a 10x objective in front of a point and shoot camera lens, focus as usual, and click. I got some acceptable photos of hydra that way. If you are really industrious take several photos using a tripod with slightly different focus points and then use helicon focus to merge the photos together.