# Acorus gramineus for ripariums



## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

hi everybody, tonight i took a few pictures that were on my list and i post a couple here to describe _Acorus gramineus_, which is a rellay great background plant for riparium culture. here is a shot of one in a riparium hanging planter:










you might recognize this plant as one that is sometimes offered as an aquatic for aquariums. it is _not_ a fully aquatic species and can be expected to languish and die if kept underwater for very long. however, it is a wetland plant and does very well in ripariums. i have a pretty long blog post on plants for ripariums (http://hydrophytesblog.com/?p=182) and include an excerpt from the _Acorus_ description here:



> Genus Acorus contains just a few species of grass-like wetland plants. Most commercially-available sweetflags are cultivar varieties of A. gramineus, which is native to East Asia. These plants have a range of sizes and leaf colorations. The dwarf varieties (e.g., 'Minimus Aureus') are too small to be of much use in ripariums. Look for the selections that grow from 10″ to 15″ tall. Two varieties with green + yellow pin-striped leaves, 'Oborozuki' and 'Ogon' have grown into beautiful specimens in my ripariums.
> 
> You could almost argue that these plants were made for planting in ripariums. The long-lasting foliage has a neat, bright appearance and its gently arching form is useful for re-creating the grassy shorelines found along the edges of many rivers and lakes. Best of all, many of the leaves grow upward from the creeping rhizome at a 45° angle, so they ascend perfectly from the riparium background into the composition midground. This supports the effect of visual depth.


this picture from last night shows _Acorus_, the two clumps of grass-like plants to the right, in my 65G South America biotope riparium.










this one is cultivar _A. gramineus_ 'Ogon', which is the best variety that i have encountered so far.

regards,

hydrophyte


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

*Re: [I]Acorus gramineus[/I] for ripariums*

Hello hydrophyte, 
really a neat "grass", it's also often seen in Japanese gardens on pond margins and artificial waterfalls. Because Acorus gramineus is widespread in eastern and southeastern Asia and said to grow often as rheophyte (on fast-flowing streams) I think it's possible that some forms would be more capable for submersed cultivation than the forms cultivated at the moment.

Off-topic: the Echinodorus in Your riparium on the left is thought to be E. cordifolius on Your homepage. But I'm sure it's E. palaefolius because of the winged inflorescences and little flowers with 12 pale yellow stamens and rather narrow petals. E. palaefolius (as well as E. subalatus and E. inpai) has a distinct channel on the top side of the leaf stalk, in E. cordifolius the top side is rather flat, the flowers bigger with longer stalks and at least 18 stamens.
Some forms of E. palaefolius are often sold erroneously as E. argentinensis or E. rigidifolius, at least on the European market.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

hey thanks a bunch! i will go fix that.

here is the _Echinodorus_ in question.










i really like those _Acorus_. i hope to acquire more varieties. the flower spike on that _Echinodorus_ just keeps growing and growing. it is about 150cm long and sticking way out into room.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

miremonster

do you have much experience growing _Echinodorus_? i have a little collection of plants that i mostly acquired at fish stores. i am trying to grow them as emergent plants, but most have refused to switch from their immersed to emmersed form leaves(???). there are a couple that i have had growing in the air for months that still keep developing underwater leaves, which are generally smaller, with more variegation/red coloration and with shorter petioles.

are there any particular triggers that can be applied to get them to switch? in an unscientific way i have already tried varying temperature, humidity and daylength and nothing works.

you know another neat group of plants that i want to try are _Sparganium_ have you had any experience with those? most of them are Northern Temperate, so they might not do so well in a riparium display, but there is one that occurs in Florida, USA, which is way down south.

hydrophyte


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

E. palaefolius grows and propagates like maniac when richly fed 

Do You have pics of Your swords? In some species the emersed and submersed leaves are not very different.

The Sparganiums I know have long underground runners similar to Typha so they must be kept in check. E.g. the large S. erectum is easy to keep in nutrient-rich substrate. Surely such species would grow also indoor with plenty of light and nutrients. Some rare Sparganium species here in Germany are rather small, growing mostly submerged or with floating leaves and occurring in rather nutrient-poor, acid waters.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

yep, my _E. palaefolius_ is growing like crazy. it is becoming too large for this tank. just yesterday i noticed a second flower spike.

i will try to get some pictures of those plants and put 'em up.

i am really intrigued to go out and find some _Sparganium_ this summer. i have a friend who is doing a partial taxonomic revision of North American species along with a description of Wisconsin species. it's all he ever talks about.

we have a floating-leaf species here, _Sparganium fluctuans_. i never would have imagined such a plant with a growth habit like this.


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

From my experience, strong light and much nutrient supply (in particular nitrate) generally enhance emersed growth of swords. But especially the forms of the E. grisebachii group (E. bleherae, parviflorus, amazonicus, ...) have emersed leaves similar to the submersed ones. They must be forced to emersed growth by water removal. In this group the short day leaves (submersed as well as emersed) often have longer petioles and broader laminas than the leaves developed under long day conditions. In contrast many species as E. cordifolius or E. grandiflorus develop long stalked emersed leaves rather under long day conditions. It may be similar in many Echinodorus cultivars.

Taxonomy of Sparganium may partly be difficult, e.g. there are some subspecies of Sparganium erectum in Germany, distinguished by fruit characters, but I'm not in the know...
EDIT: Also S. natans is a species growing mostly submersed or floating, occurring in colder or higher regions of N-America, Asia and Europe: http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=SPNA


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