# Mystery Stem Plant ID?



## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I realize this is quite possibly the *worst* picture I've ever posted on APC buuut I was hoping someone would recognize the weird shape of this plant. I've never seen anything like it so I'm guessing that the unique shape will give it away pretty fast.

I found it in a pond in CT. Its got spiral leaves (about 6 inches long) and seems to be some kind of stem plant. From the side it looks green, from above it looks rusty colored.


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

It could be this:
http://www.vilaslandandwater.org/la...ts/aquatic_plants/potamogeton_amplifolius.jpg


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

This seems like the stuff. I wonder what its doing in CT. The net says its a native of Main.

Potamogeton amplifolius


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=POAM5


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

I was going to say, that looks like a submersed version of the stuff floating in my pond - which is also Potamogeton amplifolius or a close relative. I got mine from a local pond, too... makes for an interesting contrast with the large leaves of my waterlilies  

It gets a bit too big and out-of-control for indoor cultivation, though. The floating leaves die off in the winter, but the submerged, rusty-colored ones are more or less perennial... just when you think they've gone and frozen to death on you, they start putting out new growth. Goldfish don't bother it too much once it's been established, either.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Its very pretty. It also seems to like deep water, so I might have to dig my pond a bit deeper! 

I still haven't decided if I even want fish in my pond. Maybe just amphibians and plants...

I actually found a few more plants in a different local pond. One is Elatine americana and the others... I'm not sure about. I think one is a ludwigia, but it looks different from the stuff in the hobby, the other is some type of polygonum, but you know polygonums.... we will spend 5 years identifying it and then realize its not even a polygonum 

I can post pics if anyone wants to see.


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

Post pictures. 

What is the name of the pond?


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

Pictures? :mrgreen: Pretty please?

As for the Polygonum... there is no Polygonum. We just think there is, lol. XD It's all a figment of our imaginations...

I actually found a few things in/around my own stream I was thinking of posting for ID, whenever I get around to getting it off my camera. Some of it looks a bit like a kind of Ludwigia or something as well - perhaps we've the same stuff in mind.

Anyway, the Potamogeton doesn't much care about the depth you put it under, but in shallower water it'll send up floating leaves that look a bit like elongated lily pads, only smaller (about 2-3" long). It just depends on which kind of growth you want in your pond.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Again, sorry for the utterly crappy picture, I just didn't feel like stacking images for clarity. Also, the plant is recovering from being cleaned. Ideas what it is?

The pond also has no name. Its about 20-30 feet across and 15 feet wide next to a horse farm/apple farm. There also don't seem to be any fish in it.


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

I think that's _L. palustris_. Its look can be pretty variable depending on conditions. It looks semi-emersed there.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Yes it was floating at the top of the tank for a while and it started to grow emersed. I put it underwater about 3 days ago.

I need to go back and take a pic of the polygonum later. I think there are a few more aquatic plants in that pond so I'll be sure to take pics of them all and post for you to ID them.

Thanks for the ID!


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

Yay ID party! 
That Ludwigia is nice-looking, though. It'll be fun to see how similar the submersed growth looks.

I'd (of course) be interested to see more photos of what's growing around your place. Maybe we can trade for some of whatever is in my backyard/stream? :mrgreen: Other than 18 tons of golden creeping jenny, that is... XD XD


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## khanzer22 (Nov 30, 2009)

Or better yet, we could do an aquatic plant specimen hunt/journey on near lakes in our area in our next summer meeting! I've already looked into our states' aquatic plant survey maps and found few interesting plants like Eleocharis sp., Elatine Americana, Myriophyllum tenellum and etc.... Though most of the maps are dated 2004, but I think those plants are still there


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

XD I have willow moss (_Fontinalis antipyretica_) and a few other things (including some type of invasive cress) in my backyard if we want to include that on a collecting trip. Since it's privately owned, as long as we keep tabs on avoiding endangered/threatened species, it should be legal to collect from.

I certainly wouldn't mind going and finding some of that Elatine americana, though. Do you know if there are any localities for Elatine triandra nearby as well?

The Myrio tenellum might be threatened in the state due to competition from invasive Myrios... I'm not sure if we'd be allowed to collect it. Depends on what those surveys say, probably.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Actually yes John, I would like to do that on our next meeting instead of going up to Hartford to aquascape that guy's tanks. He is a bit of a punk, and its hard to organize anything with him. I somehow feel like he is doing us a favor by letting us scape his tank and I don't like that feeling.

I'd rather go pond to pond and find interesting things. The next meeting was scheduled for next weekend saturday. Its a bit late to announce what we are doing, but I suppose we can just announce it and see what happens.


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

XD In that case, I might be able to come - the drive is what was holding me back before. If the pond/body of water we choose is near enough I'll try and make it.

Heck, if you want, we might be able to meet at my basement in Fairfield (which is a little messy, but hey, it has fish and some plants...) and then go on over to the Easton property all of a mile or two away and collect stuff... maybe knock on a few of my neighbors doors and see if they'll let us browse around their parts of the stream. XD The Smiths up the road have a swampy pond thing on their property... if we can get past the duckweed they might let us look around...

I'd have to check with el padre before I can formally invite a bunch of people, but he likes fish (and talking), so convincing him probably wouldn't be too hard, lol.


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## khanzer22 (Nov 30, 2009)

Sounds good to me! But I think it would be better to do it this coming Saturday (May 22nd) IMO... Because the 29th is labor day weekend and many people are either out-of-town or on vacation mode  But whatever, I'm still in lol


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Sounds good! I'll send out the email later today. 

Asuka do I have your email? I know 2-3 local ponds that would be cool to visit, each one has different things we can collect and look at. One has mosquito larvae, plants, newts and other interesting things. The other has a few plants, and many inverts like daphnia and skuds, and the third pond has crayfish. I'd love to visit the ponds near your house too. The 3 ponds near my house are less then 10 minutes from my house, so we will have lots of time to check them out and maybe your ponds? If we don't have enough time to see your ponds this meeting we can definitely plan that for next meeting. Maybe we can do a round robin meeting and see local ponds near where people live. 

We should also add places that have good rocks/wood to our meeting list.

The next few meetings should be really fun with the warm weather!


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

I've gotten a few emails about the club in the past, but just in case, my email is [email protected]

I'm not sure mosquito larvae qualify as "interesting" except as fish food... notably, where larvae are, adult mosquitoes are sure to have been and may still remain. XD And unlike their children, those mommy mosquitoes bite!

Newts are fun, though  I mostly just have a lot of frogs... though I did spot a salamander-like critter of some sort darting around my stream the other day. And of course we have a bunch of terrestrial sallies.

If you want interesting rocks, Old Mine Park over in Trumbull (around the junction of rt. 111 and rt. 25) allows mineral specimen collecting (you'd have to ask the park ranger there for details, but I know it's a mineralogical hotspot that's yielded fluorite, quartz, aquamarine, topaz, garnet, diopside, and more... there are even stones there that fluoresce under UV light. Fun stuff. As for driftwood, I don't know any good spots nearby...

A round-robin sort of thing would be fun, though. You can check out my ID thread for some specimens of things that came from my stream... the pond up the road is literally within walking distance of my house, too. Let me know and I'll go drop a note in the owners' mailbox asking if we can browse around sometime. There are also a few fishing spots within a few minutes' drive that we might be able to collect from... providing no one hooks us XD

I asked Dad about hosting something at Fairfield in the basement/fishroom-in-progress, he said he didn't mind in theory but I wasn't allowed to invite anyone over for a plant thing until all my tanks were as nicely established and well-scaped as yours, Zapins. Seeing as that will never happen, though, I don't exactly know where that leaves me.  I do have that hillstream loach setup in progress, though; that should look nice when it's finished... I hope... o.0'


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