Florida Lake plants I found with pictures: possible aquarium use for some of these

Osteomata · Apr 5, 2005

Took some pictures of these plants at the central Florida lake where I grew up.

Plant 1 is truly strange, filled with some kind of seed pod. Grew submersed, rootless, loosely hung on other plant stems. Seed pods are smaller than BBs.

Plant 2 is some sort of hair grass about 4-5 inches long. Throughout the lake this grass is coated in an algae layer.

Plant 3, one of the ones I'm kind of excited about. It is a tiny, very low growing red plant. It only grew next to the shore, but it appears to be a true aquatic in that it only grew submersed, I found none of it growing on the shore. Possible red foreground plant in a high light tank?

Plant 4: brilliant maroon-red rotala type plant, very stiff leaves. Found it floating only, not sure if it is rooted in other places. the sample i am holding is about 18 inches long.

Anyway, any thoughts on these plant IDs or applicability to a planted tank?

MatPat · Apr 5, 2005

The first and second pics seem to be a utricularia sp. The red plant I would guess is a Ludwigia sp. but it sure does look like a Rotala.

That's all the help I can give

Cavan Allen · Apr 5, 2005

1. Utricularia sp.

2. possibly Eleocharis acicularis . The only wat to tell with any certainty is to find some emersed growth with flowers.

3. I have no idea. Give it a little more time to grow and get another picture then.

4. I think that's Bacopa caroliniana . I've gotten crowns to grow that color in my tank, so it's probably not impossible for it to look like that outdoors under strong sun.

Osteomata · Apr 5, 2005

Thanks for the IDs! I will hunt down the third plant and see how it looks next time I get up to central Florida. Hopefully I will have room for some samples at that time.

tsunami · Apr 5, 2005

Ah, yes... the predictable lakes in Florida. Plant #3 is a young shoot of Ludwigia repens. Plant #4 is nitrate deficient Bacopa caroliniana (as lakes in Florida often are).,

The colors plant can have in the wild can be amazing. There is a lake in south Florida with a stand of Hygrophila polyperma that is at least 6 feet tall and 10 feet across. The color of the leaves is blood red. It bares a striking resemblance to Ammannia. Interspersed within the stand are stalk of L. sessiliflora.

Carlos in Italia, il paese più bello del mondo

turtlehead · Apr 5, 2005

Plant 2 is Eleocharis Vivpara because that's where it comes from and it does not spread runners like the common hairgrass, it grows in a web effect. AKA unbrella hairgrass, messy, but is good if you like replanting and trimming every few days, I have it, otherwise it's just like Eleocharis A. or P. no runners though.

Osteomata · Apr 5, 2005

Carlos, I didn't even think of Ludwigia for that small plant, I assumed it was growing low naturally vice simply being young. I'll check it again in a few weeks.

Turtlehead, I liked the feel of this hairgrass, very soft/fine as opposed to my fairly stiff dwarf version, but I don't want to plant it and then be unhappy with the maintenance. What makes it so messy? The means by which it spreads? I'm unclear what you mean by "web".

Any cool plants I should be looking for in this lake?

Florida Lake plants I found with pictures: possible aquarium use for some of these

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