[newbowery]

This plant grows in my pond in costal CT on the RI border.
I noticed it in the spring growing on the shore and in shallow water with an eleocharis species and various rushes. I thought it might be a seedling of one of those but after 4 months of observation I've ruled that out as the plants pictured are fully grown and max out at about 1/2".
Today I found the plants also growing submersed in a small river near by but they were not rooted like in our pond, it's was floating vertically like a stem plant with each cluster linked to the next by a runner link.
If this could be successfully grown in a tank it seems like it could be the perfect carpeting plant. Can anyone ID? Anyone tried to grow it?

Any information / thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

 

[Cavan Allen]

That's probably emersed Heteranthera dubia (aka Zosterella dubia, a synonym). Submersed, it can grow tall and looks a bit like a caulescent (basically, a stem plant) Vallisneria. Easy to grow (good low tech plant) and nice looking, but will not grow as a carpet.

 

[miremonster]

Hello newbowery,
do you have also a photo of the submerged plant from the river? How long are the leaves of the submerged ones? How are the leaves arranged on the stem - one or more leaves per node?

 

[Zapins]

Nice plant.

Be sure to have a look at CAPE (our very own Connecticut aquatic plant club), we have a big meeting coming up this weekend (Oct 5th), there will be lots of plants and fish for sale, and presentations, along with food and other fish/plant people.

Our forum:
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/connecticut-aquatic-plant-enthusiasts/

See the post at the top of the page for details:
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...s/88919-cape-our-clubs-big-break-meeting.html

 

[miremonster]

Be sure to have a look at CAPE (our very own Connecticut aquatic plant club), we have a big meeting coming up this weekend (Oct 5th), there will be lots of plants and fish for sale, and presentations, along with food and other fish/plant people.

Our forum:
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/connecticut-aquatic-plant-enthusiasts/

See the post at the top of the page for details:
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...s/88919-cape-our-clubs-big-break-meeting.html

I'm amazed at that easy integration of internet communication and clubs or associations in the aquatic plant hobbyist scene in the U.S., compared to Germany, where it seems to me that there's only few connection between the internet-based scene of the younger hobbyists and the ageing, slowly disappearing associations, full of resentment against internet gossip and the superficial, unnatural phenomenon of modern aquascaping... bluntly said

 

[Zapins]

Sounds like it's time to move to CT my friend! Come join us!

 

[newbowery]

another picture

Here's another shot of the same plantt. There are 2 branches of small clusters sharing a single stem which was rooted in the substrate. The clusters of blades string together with a runner shoot but easily break away from the mother plant and seem to become seperate new plants.

 

[Cavan Allen]

Yep, that's it.

 

[asukawashere]

What a lovely find! You should bring some to a CAPE meeting (or this weekend's auction) sometime; I'd love to trade you some of my local specimens for some of your Heteranthera.

Miremonster, FWIW, the planted tank scene in the U.S. is generally (not exclusively) a younger crowd, so it's not that surprising to me that the internet is a key component of recruitment and interaction for us. Case in point: the "home bases" of our plant club, CAPE, and the nearest local general aquarium club (NAS—Norwalk Aquarium Society) are maybe fifteen minutes apart from each other. Nonetheless, the average CAPE member is in their 20's or 30's (not that we don't have older members, but on the whole...) whereas NAS is dominated by older hobbyists (with a few younger outliers like myself). I haven't, however, seen much in the way of resentment from the older crowd toward us young upstarts—they tend to regard us as the future of the hobby, and love to ooh and ahh over those pretty modern planted tank photos in their magazines... they just don't aspire to create them themselves.