Bacopa sp. 'Colorata' Flowers - Page 2 - Plant Physiology & Emersed Culture

travis · 06-15-2009, 09:50 AM

Here's another picture that shows a flower a little better. There is also some Polygonum sp. 'Sao Paulo' (blurry) in the lower-right foreground that has flowered and gone to seed.

miremonster · 06-15-2009, 03:49 PM

Looks nice!

Quote:

Originally Posted by travis

The plant you're referring to in the background is Ceratopteris richardii. It has an amazingly variable leaf shape, and the coloration you see is likely due to submersed culture emerging and dying off. The emergent leaves eventually take on the more pinnate(?) form you see above and to the right of the wider leaves.

That's interesting, I've read that C. richardii is difficult to distinguish from the C. thalictroides/cornuta complex, mainly by number of spores per sporangium and chromosome number. Where did You get the plant from, and how did You get the information that it is C. richardii?

travis · 06-15-2009, 03:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by miremonster

Looks nice!
That's interesting, I've read that C. richardii is difficult to distinguish from the C. thalictroides/cornuta complex, mainly by number of spores per sporangium and chromosome number. Where did You get the plant from, and how did You get the information that it is C. richardii?

I received it from a student at a local college who had cultured it as part of botany/horticulture class. We weren't sure how suitable it would be in submersed culture but, like C. thalictroides, it proved to be quite a monster of a plant. It quickly grew out of the top of my 125G and hit two feet tall in a few months.

miremonster · 06-15-2009, 04:04 PM

OK, thank You! I guess C. richardii may also occur undetected among plants called C. cornuta or thalictroides in the aquarium hobby.
The geneticists have established C. richardii as a "model organism".

Tex Gal · 06-15-2009, 04:20 PM

Just beautiful!

travis · 06-15-2009, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by miremonster

OK, thank You! I guess C. richardii may also occur undetected among plants called C. cornuta or thalictroides in the aquarium hobby.
The geneticists have established C. richardii as a "model organism".

I'm curious what is meant by "model organism". Is it used a reference species for the complex?

And thanks for the compliments guys

hydrophyte · 06-15-2009, 05:10 PM

wow, that first shot is especially nice. can you show us the whole tank?

travis · 06-15-2009, 05:20 PM

Unfortunately I have removed all of the emerged growth and am in the process of rescaping the tank so there isn't much to show. I don't believe I took any full tank shots with emerged growth.

hydrophyte · 06-15-2009, 05:29 PM

miremonster · 06-16-2009, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by travis

I'm curious what is meant by "model organism". Is it used a reference species for the complex?

That are species as examples for other species or organism groups and particularly suitable for extensive studies of diverse biological phenomena (genetics, physiology, development,...) , e.g. Drosophila and Tribolium for insects, mouse for mammals incl. human, Ceratopteris for ferns, Arabidopsis for flowering plants, the sea slug Aplysia for neurobiological studies, etc.
Mostly they are easy to breed or to cultivate and have a short life cycle.
See also here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_organism
http://www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/b...ource/toc.html