# Hygrophila sp. 'Guinea' stinks!



## Cavan Allen

Literally! I have a stem that's been growing up above the water in my 40 and all the way up to the lights, where it has unfortunately become a tad singed. Therefore, I decided to move it outside. Well before I moved it, I noticed that when emersed, it has a disagreeable odor reminiscent of burned rubber bands. If I touch the plant, that smell can be pretty tough to wash off! No flowers yet, but I'm trying. The stem below is almost a foot across and almost three feet tall.

I've taken and uploaded a lousy photo of it. As soon as I post this, I'm off to scrub my hands.


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## Tex Gal

LOL! That's so funny. I'm amazed that it's so big also. The leaves look at least 6". Maybe it's the px....


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## Cavan Allen

It really is that big. The stem at the bottom is about as thick as my finger. I've still got that smell on my fingers!


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## ashappard

he he!
glad I didnt pick that one for flowers.


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## HeyPK

Hygrophila seems to have a variety of defensive chemicals. H. balsamica when grown emersed has a poison strong enough that an emersed stem is said to kill the fish. I wonder if any of the other Hygrophila species have powerful defensive chemicals.


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## rich815

Wow, that is very different looking than what I understand the plant looks like submersed. Allen, can you confirm if the plant indeed looks like this submersed? See here:

http://www.guitarfish.org/2009/01/07/hygrophila-sp-guinea

I have two stems growing of that.


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## hydrophyte

when i was a little kid we had milking goats for a while. earlier this spring i grew some _H. angustifolia_ emersed--it adapted readily--and it had a musky stench like a billy goat...made our whole house smell just like the barn when we had goats in there. i found this intriguing, but got tired with it after a few days and stuck the plant back underwater.

here is a macro shot of a bloom on that plant. the foliage was covered with those fine hairs, which were sticky with an oil that created the strong goat odor.


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## Cavan Allen

HeyPK said:


> Hygrophila seems to have a variety of defensive chemicals. H. balsamica when grown emersed has a poison strong enough that an emersed stem is said to kill the fish. I wonder if any of the other Hygrophila species have powerful defensive chemicals.


I've been wondering if this one is the same way, but my specimen will be preserved and sent off if I can get flowers.


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## Cavan Allen

rich815 said:


> Wow, that is very different looking than what I understand the plant looks like submersed. Allen, can you confirm if the plant indeed looks like this submersed? See here:
> 
> http://www.guitarfish.org/2009/01/07/hygrophila-sp-guinea
> 
> I have two stems growing of that.


Call me Cavan, please. 

Yes, that is indeed it. It took a very long time for it to adapt to growing emersed, even for the stem to rise up out of the water. For a while it still looked much like the submersed form and was quite pretty. Hopefully it still does well outside. My _Hyptis_ started flowering abundantly before getting singed (an even bigger plant!), but this guy wasn't so lucky.


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## Cavan Allen

hydrophyte said:


> when i was a little kid we had milking goats for a while. earlier this spring i grew some _H. angustifolia_ emersed--it adapted readily--and it had a musky stench like a billy goat...made our whole house smell just like the barn when we had goats in there. i found this intriguing, but got tired with it after a few days and stuck the plant back underwater.
> 
> here is a macro shot of a bloom on that plant. the foliage was covered with those fine hairs, which were sticky with an oil that created the strong goat odor.


Nice photo!

Do you mean the angustifoliate form of _H. corymbosa_, or actual angustifolia? If the latter, I'd like to talk to you!

Come to think of it, I do remember one of our GWAPA members bringing in some foul-smelling corymbosa one time, even though it has never smelled like that emersed for me (but does sometimes suffer from a mysterious condition that looks like large grains of salt embedded in the leaves).


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## Tex Gal

What a gigantic difference in the two forms! I hope you can put the px of the emersed form in the plantfinder. I just can never get over the difference in the look of the emersed and submerged forms.


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## Cavan Allen

Oh yes, it will be in there.


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## rich815

Tex Gal said:


> What a gigantic difference in the two forms! I hope you can put the px of the emersed form in the plantfinder. I just can never get over the difference in the look of the emersed and submerged forms.


Is there another name for this plant? I do not see it in the Plant Finder.


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## Cavan Allen

It's not in there yet, but it will be.


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## rich815

I simply adore this plant. It's leaves represent a style I wanted for a corner background of my 72 gal but all other plants like this have been MUCH too fast growers. I now have two nice plants, sort of growing semi-sideways in the current, which are sending up side shoots to make a nice wall of these leaves (seen in the guitarfish link). As nice steady but moderate-paced grower not needing weekly trimming! I love it.


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## hydrophyte

Cavan Allen said:


> Nice photo!
> 
> Do you mean the angustifoliate form of _H. corymbosa_, or actual angustifolia? If the latter, I'd like to talk to you!
> 
> Come to think of it, I do remember one of our GWAPA members bringing in some foul-smelling corymbosa one time, even though it has never smelled like that emersed for me (but does sometimes suffer from a mysterious condition that looks like large grains of salt embedded in the leaves).


Oh I don't know. Is the real _angustifolia_ a rare plant? If that is the case then I probably just have that angustifoliate _corymbosa_.

It only started to stink after growing to a larger size and up into the bright light. It became more wooly and sticky with resin too as it grew.

Underwater it is a very nice plant. It has such long leaves and tight internodes that it doesn't even look like a stem plant, more like a very tidy and bright green val, or at least that's how it grows in my tank. It needs no extra CO2 and gets along in the shade of other plants.


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## Cavan Allen

_H. angustifolia_ is kept by Australian aquarists, but I'm not sure if we have it or not. Some of the photos I've seen share a strong resemblance to the 'Sarawak', but I'm still looking into that. Known _H. angustifolia_ would be welcome for comparison.

Interestingly, there is also a _H. angusta_, which may be the plant we now know as....


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## ingg

The hygro "Bihar" does a similar leaf transformation, it was pretty neat to watch it go submersed.

To an earlier poster, if you are looking for slow growth, "guinea" is your friend.... this is growing even slower than Araguaia for me, which I thought was the slowest plant ever... until I got a stem of guinea!


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## miremonster

Hi Cavan,
that's great - I believe i've got the same stinking Hygro species here! Obtained years ago in the nursery Hans Barth, Dessau (Germany) as an unidentified Hygro from Africa. It's growing emersed and has flowered in the Botan. garden of Göttingen. The flowers are bigger than those of H. corymbosa. Hans-Georg Kramer (Wedel near Hamburg) has grown it submersed, where it looks the same as in photos of H. sp. 'Guinea' in the www. I've sent living stalks and photos of flowers to Dr. Josef Bogner (Munich), he already told me which species it may be, but I don't find again my note.. 
I'll post photos of flowers and try to make specimens if it's flowering again.


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## miremonster

ingg said:


> The hygro "Bihar" does a similar leaf transformation, it was pretty neat to watch it go submersed.


 Do You have emersed and flowering plants of 'Bihar'? An ID may be possible, e.g. with Cook (1996) Aquatic and wetland plants of India.


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## Cavan Allen

miremonster said:


> Hi Cavan,
> that's great - I believe i've got the same stinking Hygro species here! Obtained years ago in the nursery Hans Barth, Dessau (Germany) as an unidentified Hygro from Africa. It's growing emersed and has flowered in the Botan. garden of Göttingen. The flowers are bigger than those of H. corymbosa. Hans-Georg Kramer (Wedel near Hamburg) has grown it submersed, where it looks the same as in photos of H. sp. 'Guinea' in the www. I've sent living stalks and photos of flowers to Dr. Josef Bogner (Munich), he already told me which species it may be, but I don't find again my note..
> I'll post photos of flowers and try to make specimens if it's flowering again.


Do let us know if you find that note. I have the name of a guy at Kew who might be able to help and am trying to flower my specimen for that now. So it will be a race.  Unless you find the note...

I've pretty much come up empty on this one myself. Specimens and written material for African stuff seem to be hard to find.


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## Cavan Allen

miremonster said:


> Do You have emersed and flowering plants of 'Bihar'? An ID may be possible, e.g. with Cook (1996) Aquatic and wetland plants of India.


I'm converting some now. I can already say that it doesn't appear to be like any of the plants in Cook. It retains pubescent stems submersed, which is very odd. I'll keep you posted.


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## ingg

Don't have it flowering, bought it in emersed form and watched it tranform in my tank. Rather unremarkable emersed, then watching new leaves come in was really neat.

Bugger is also substrate creeping on me, I need to cut the side shoots and try and stop it. It is not a small hygro!


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## Cavan Allen

I'm starting to wonder if it's really a _Hygrophila_.


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## miremonster

A little off-topic: yesterday I watched a presentation from Claus Christensen about a Tropica collection tour to Nepal, and there was shown a plant looking like the H. sp. 'Bihar' in a shallow stream, at quite low elevation on the foot of the Himalayas. I don't know if they collected also this plant. 
The Indian state Bihar borders on Nepal.


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## miremonster

Pics of the African Hygro that smells like a billy goat, from last year. This flowering stem is not as strong as Cavan's specimen in the 1st posting, but the lower parts of the plant were bigger than the flowering ones. The plant is covered with short sticky glandular hairs.
(Scale: millimeters)
















































The corolla tube is about 1 inch long.
























Top view at the lower lip. The throat has a structure looking like teeth pointing backward. (One half of this lip is stunted.)


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## Cavan Allen

That's interesting. My stem has no glandular hairs, at least not on the stem (I am not at home to check). But I know that the Hygrophila sp. 'Bold' can can have very obvious glandular hairs when young but not as it grows larger.


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## miremonster

Cavan,
is the stem of Your plant glabrous, or hairy but not glandular? May be I'm wrong with the glandular hairs, I'll look with an amplifier tomorrow. At least the stem of my stinking Hygro is hairy and sticky.

Hygrophila senegalensis seems to be a similar species, the flowers look somewhat different, and the emersed leaves are narrower: http://www.westafricanplants.senckenberg.de/root/index.php?page_id=14&id=834
http://www.aluka.org/action/showCom...ON.PLANT-NAME-SPECIES.HYGROPHILA.SENEGALENSIS
According to "Flora of West Tropical Africa" "the lower leaves become pinnatifid, like those of Myriophyllum, if submerged": http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.AP.FLORA.FWTA6776&pgs=
Probably also interesting for submersed cultivation.

EDIT: Submerged or submersed - what's correct? Both?


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## miremonster

OK, I've checked the emersed African Hygro again - the hairs on the stem are glandular, the leaves have glandular and simple hairs.


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## Cavan Allen

Mine finally flowered. Here are a few shots:



















I forgot to make a Plant Finder announcement about it, but _Hygrophila sp_. 'Guinea' has been identified by a specialist at Kew as *Hygrophila odora*. There is an excellent article in the latest Aqua Planta (in German). Thank you Miremonster!


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## ashappard

wide open!
very nice.


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