# Plants that I found in the border from China-North Korea



## filedor.com (Jun 2, 2012)

Hi, I live in China close to the border of China-North Korea. I'm not asian, I'm here for business. I went on a trip to a beautiful place and I saw this aquatic plant that was growing in a pond that had some lemma minor duckweed and some tall eleocharris. At first when I saw it, It kinda look like a star, and I also saw some leaves floating which I thought it was salvinia, but then I noticed it was part of this aquatic plant. This plant looks like some sort of grass, but it at the same time, it also has "emerging leaves" that float on the surface of the water (the largest one in the picture, you can see a stem showing some sort of leaf on top of it)
size for the grass bush is 5cm tall... roots as well 5cm long.
The tallest stem that has an emerging leaf is 11 cm
What is this plant? can it grow emerged as the hairgrass and HC (dry start method)?
front view (These 3 are all the same, I took em all together):








side view:








This is where I found these plants (lol sorry, my GF wanted me to pose like this):









Also please help me identify these other 2 plants which I bought from my LFS. They sell plants for 1 or 2 dollars (equivalent) and the bigger one, which I believe is some sort of Echinodorus, was for free because I bought some other plants and a nice driftwood. The guy in the LFS said first one's name in Chinese is 鹿角榕, but he didn't know the name of the tallest one (which I'm pretty sure is some sort of Echinodorus). The 鹿角榕 is about 10cm tall, I removed the rock wool and there are no roots, it's not a plastic plant though hehehe, they were around 9 individual stems:








The one I believe it to be an Echinodorus is 26cms tall, and a lot of roots. Every new leaf has a red-greenish hue:









Please help me to identify these plants, I would be so grateful.


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

The 1st one looks to me like juvenile _Alisma_ plants. Exact ID only possible with full-grown flowering plants. Years ago I tried 2 European Alisma species in my tank, they were seedlings with narrow submersed leaves, then they developed many long-stalked floating leaves before they grew out of the water with emersed leaves.
Family Alismataceae and genus Alisma in Flora of China:
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=10025
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=101042

2nd one: perhaps Lycopodiella cernua:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lycopodium_plant.jpg

#3: Echinodorus indeed, surely any of the countless hybrid cultivars. There's a big confusion of Echinodorus cultivars and their names in the trade => practically indeterminable.


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## filedor.com (Jun 2, 2012)

miremonster said:


> The 1st one looks to me like juvenile _Alisma_ plants. Exact ID only possible with full-grown flowering plants. Years ago I tried 2 European Alisma species in my tank, they were seedlings with narrow submersed leaves, then they developed many long-stalked floating leaves before they grew out of the water with emersed leaves.
> Family Alismataceae and genus Alisma in Flora of China:
> http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=10025
> http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=101042
> ...


Thanks a lot for this precious information. About this first plant I think you really hit the spot, I saw this picture in Wikipedia very similar also because it mentions that this plant "grows in mud or submerged in shallow fresh or brackish water in marshy areas" exactly the same conditions where I found it. This one is very similar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alisma_gramineum_plant.jpg
...but the information from the website you provided is more precise, thank you so much . Are Alismas part family with the Sagittaria subulata?

Today I went to the LFS and they gave me this website for the 2nd plant: http://yangli.1946.blog.163.com/blog/static/73079756201204056145/
They claim this plant is an aquatic plant and they had 6 in their aquariums... I bought one.
This plant really makes me wonder  is it a real aquatic plant? or will it just die after one or two weeks?


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

Alisma gramineum is very rare, at least here in Germany, but probably interesting for the aquarium hobby as it develops mainly Vallisneria-like submersed leaves in deeper water, even flowering in this stage (I never have seen it in the nature). But I believe Your plant belongs to a rather typical Alisma species (if Alisma at all), normally growing as emersed bog plant. The floating leaves don't show the leaf form of the full-grown plants yet. You may find mature flowering and fruiting plants later in the summer to early autumn.

Yes, S. subulata and the other Sagittaria species belong to the same family Alismataceae, as well as e.g. Echinodorus, Helanthium, Caldesia, Ranalisma.

3rd plant: Lycopodiella cernua is only a guess, because of the rather big size of Your plant. At least I'm sure it belongs to the family Lycopodiaceae.


> This plant really makes me wonder  is it a real aquatic plant? or will it just die after one or two weeks?


 I don't know; Lycopodiaceae are essentially terrestrial although there are some wetland species as Lycopodiella inundata (= Lycopodium inundatum), but also these occur mostly above water. However there are claims in older aquarium literature (de Wit) that L. inundata was already successfully cultivated underwater. 
But there's apparently written in the blog that the 鹿角榕 dies when drowned (google translator):


> Florist call antlers Rong, easy to buy back as a fish tank plants, it did not live quite a long time in the water, but will eventually die rot.


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

p.s.
Now I see, there are already full-grown Alisma plants in Your pic:








Not flowering yet. In Central Europe an Alisma with such broad leaves would be A. plantago-aquatica. But there are more similar species in China, ID by flower and fruit features.
Suited to Your pose in the pic, the German name of Alisma (Water Plantain in English) means "Frog spoon"


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## filedor.com (Jun 2, 2012)

miremonster said:


> p.s.
> Now I see, there are already full-grown Alisma plants in Your pic:
> 
> 
> ...


Hahahaha thanks a lot for your message made me laugh, I didn't know about the meaning of Alisma... 

Very interesting point, so those are the grown-up version of that lil plant. So the plant first has leaves floating in the surface and then after growing bigger starts emerging. Very interesting, thank you so much ^_^ :wink:


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