Rob Tetrazona

I can't believe I have an HM (Hemianthus micranthemoides) flower!

OK, I'm spilling "The Beans." I've been keeping a covert emersed operation over here in preparation for the ** cough, cough ** next club meeting at my place on the 24th ** cough, cough**. Attendance has been really low the past year, so I went out on a limb here to do something different in order to attempt to generate more interest in the monthly meetings.

What I've done is taken submersed plants from my planted tanks and attempted to grow them emersed (out of water) using a variety of methods. The plant list includes, but is not limited to: Dwarf Hair Grass, Elatine triandra, Hemianthus micranthemoides, Hemianthus callitricoides, Glossostigma elatinoides, Marselia minuta, Riccia fluitans, Hygrophila difformis, Alternathera reineckii, Anubias barterii var. nana 'petite', Echinodorus tenellus, Narrow & Broad Leaf Java Ferns, some sort of moss and a newer plant to the hobby, emersed & submersed, that you have to come see to find out about.

The reason I started doing this is because I had some Glosso that, for some reason, stopped growing horizontally and would only grow vertically, so I didn't want it in my tank any longer, but didn't wan't to get rid of the plant all together. This is when I started growing it emersed and kind of got bit by a bug to grow more or my plants emersed.

It should be a pretty cool topic for a twist on things. I have also been breeding Tetras again lately, so I should have plenty of Neon babies in all different stages to check out.

Oh yeah, back to the HM flower. In one of my most ignored emersed setups, the HM setup, I decided to mist today for the first time in weeks and took a moment to "smell the roses." I was scoping out the terrarium and noticed something different. Most of the HM that had transformed to it's emersed state grew horizontally. I noticed something pointing vertically. It looked different than the internodes. It was cone-shaped and had microscopic, translucent, white petals starting to form. This is the tiniest flower I have ever seen, but I'm sure it will get a little bit larger. I don't have a digital camera with zoom, so I can't get a good picture. I'll wait a couple of days for it to bloom more then see if I can capture the moment.

This is my first emersed flower, so I had to share the news. I won't be sharing any detailed info or pix to the community until after the meeting, once again, in order to draw interest. Then I'll start a new thread in the emersed forum.

Anyways, hopefully some people will show up for a change and will learn a whole different side of the plants that we keep in our tanks.

Tex Gal

Well if that doesn't beat all!!!.... You get us all excited and then.... NO PX! Well guess what..... oh, forgot.... can't tell you now... maybe later....

rustygmc

Thread is useless with out pics LOL. But anyways do you have any RCS for sale now? When is the next meeting and where?

laters,
James

Rob Tetrazona

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thanks for the support. If somebody in the area wants to come over with their fancy digital camera with a good macro lens, be my guest. This is the main reason I posted in our club forum as opposed the general interest forums, so please, easy on the pictures.

James, I'll send you a PM on the shrimp and my address. The meeting date was stated in the 3rd sentence of this thread.

MatPat

Congrats on the HM flower dude! I wondered how long you would be able to keep this emmersed thing quiet I look forward to seeing all of these emmersed plants since I have never tried anything emmersed. It should be quite the informative meeting.

If you want to really get some people at your place, post this on GCAS too. According to Mark M. we can now post SWOAPE stuff on GCAS

Rob Tetrazona

In order to illustrate how incredibly microscopic in size my HM flowers are, Matt came over with his fancy digital camera and macro lens and snapped some shots of which I have circled the flowers in red. Thanks, Matt!

MatPat

No problem Rob, I just wish I could have gotten better pics. I guess I may have to invest in a better macro lens one of these days

If you can't tell from the leaf size how minute the flowers are, the substrate in the tanks is 3M's T-grade Black Color Quartz. Rob, please correct me if I am wrong about the substrate.

mistergreen

you can get diopter lens for your camera.
http://www.vtweb.net/ebay/pentax67gallery/5t.htm
they're like magnifying glasses for your lens. Depth of field is pretty narrow though. It can't compete with a macro but it's handy and cheap.

here's my glosso flower

Rob Tetrazona

Nice pic! Thanks for sharing.

Are you the same MisterGreen from PlantedTank.net with the "Emersed Bowl" thread? If so, I sent you a PM, because I noticed you are from Cincy too and wanted to talk to you on the phone about your emersed experiences. Not sure if you check PM's or email. Let me know.

MatPat

Yeah, I had a set of those prior to getting my macro lens. They work very well with a little bit of experimentation but the macro is a bit easier to use once you figure it out