# Anubias flowered under water!?!!



## Zapins

About 2 weeks ago I noticed a small white flower growing up from my anubias barteri nana. It seems that the plant has gone and flowered underwater! With no contact with the air at all!

Has anyone else had this happen to them?

What are the triggers that got the plant to flower?

If more flower underwater can they pollinate each other?




Here is a pic.


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## eklikewhoa

That's pretty neat!


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## Bert H

> Has anyone else had this happen to them?


Yep! And the bloom lasts quite a while too.



> What are the triggers that got the plant to flower?


 Don't know, but in my experience, they have flowered on a well established plant which hasn't been uprooted or disturbed for a while.



> If more flower underwater can they pollinate each other?


I've had a couple of flowers on a single plant within a week of each other, and haven't seen any results of any pollination. I remember reading somewhere it only occurs emersed.


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## trenac

Yep... I have one that has two blooms on it.


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## yildirim

You should definitely have the flowers bloom out of the water with high environmental humidity but it is realy very hard to optain seeds from them.


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## redstrat

I also have one that just started to bloom like that last night. I read that it is common for anubias to flower under water but they will not pollenate there.


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## newguy

i was going to ask the same question, mine just did the exact same thing as in the original poster's picture!! it's a anubias nana. 

Will it actually turn into a real flower, or just stay as in the pic?


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## Laith

It stays as it is in the pic.


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## miremonster

I think this is comparable with Java fern developing sori also when submerged. Both plants - Anubias barteri and M. pteropus - are rheophytes, they occur on boulders and wood in streams and in waterfalls. Maybe the development of flowers or spores by submerged plants is an adaptation to fluctuating water level. When these slowly growing plants suddenly are emersed, they are ready for pollination or release of spores.


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## redstrat

that sounds like it makes a lot of sense miremonster, I never thought about it like that.


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## dodgefreak8

I didn't know this was rare. I have had one bloom as well and my tank is low light no co2


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## redstrat

is it actually rare? I thought it was common with established anubia plants?


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## Laith

It's not rare... at least not in the tanks I've had or seen.


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## Zapins

Awww...


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## firmia

*All About Anubias*

Hello folks,

Try this website. I think here lies the answers to the "flower" in anubias of your tank 

http://toptropicals.com/html/toptropicals/articles/aqua/anubias_en.htm


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## Zapins

Cool. Thanks for the link.

He also has some nice info about classifying individual anubias species which was also informative.


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## firmia

Yup, I think this link is set up by a Russian guy. It contains many "NOT-Known-to me" information. It helps you to identify any anubias you purchase and greatly boost my understanding in Anubias species. :clap2:


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## Mnemia

I've noticed that you can easily induce flowering in Anubias by simply spiking the phosphate level a good bit above what it is normally at. Usually when I do this I add an extra 1 ppm or so...within a week or so I usually have 2-4 flowers coming out of my big nana plant.


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## ruki

I have gotten flowers from immersed anubias even in very low-light tanks that result in shabby growth. The blossoms eventually rot away immersed.

As the above article demonstrated, setup an emersed setup for obtaining seeds.


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## Zapins

Hmmm... that’s really interesting Mnemia b/c just the week before that I added about 1.5ppm + the 1-1.5ppm that was there already, so the phosphates were 2-3ppm. Maybe that’s how I got this plant to flower??

ruki, the article said that it was very difficult to get seeds from anubias, but didn't elaborate on why that is. Do you have an idea why it is hard to seed anubias?


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## ruki

Getting seed means having the flower pollinated. Plant breeders have swabs that they use to spread pollen from the stamens into the ovaries. I don't have the patience at this time to go down this route. Should be possible.


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