# what plants can flower?



## Bavarian3 (Oct 21, 2004)

Hey guys i was wondering what plants you have gotten to or know can flower. Id love to do this, which plants can do so and are easy to do with? any special needs for this?


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## Error (Apr 16, 2004)

I have flowered Aponogeton madagascariensis repeatedly (and gotten seedlings) as well as A. ulvaceus. Last summer Egeria densa flowered in the tubs I set up outside. Cabomba caroliniana and Anubias barteri var. nana are others that have done so in my tanks.


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## Bavarian3 (Oct 21, 2004)

Error said:


> I have flowered Aponogeton madagascariensis repeatedly (and gotten seedlings) as well as A. ulvaceus. Last summer Egeria densa flowered in the tubs I set up outside. Cabomba caroliniana and Anubias barteri var. nana are others that have done so in my tanks.


wow how did you get the anubias nana to flower? any pics? im assuming it flowered under water correct? pretty sweet stuff..


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## vancat (Nov 5, 2004)

I have an anubias flowering without any help from me...weird little flowers


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## jppurchase (Dec 15, 2004)

*What plants can flowe?*

We keep a number of types of plants in aquariums, mosses, ferns, etc.

By far the largest group of aquatic plants are botanically referred to as flowering plants (angiosperms). So, most aquarium plants WILL flower. The trick is to find out if the individual species will flower while submerged or if it only does so emersed.

James Purchase
Toronto


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## Bavarian3 (Oct 21, 2004)

jppurchase said:


> We keep a number of types of plants in aquariums, mosses, ferns, etc.
> 
> By far the largest group of aquatic plants are botanically referred to as flowering plants (angiosperms). So, most aquarium plants WILL flower. The trick is to find out if the individual species will flower while submerged or if it only does so emersed.
> 
> ...


ahh thats very interesting..i didnt know most all plants will. Id like to get some plants that will flower above the surface..(ermersed?)


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## Bavarian3 (Oct 21, 2004)

any pictures guys?


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

My nicest flowering plant so far has been the Crinum Natens. I'll try to post a pic later.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Okay, here are a couple of the Crinum flower.
One thing I learned is to let it come out of the tank when it wants. I tried to make it stay in and the light browned a few of the edges.


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## Bavarian3 (Oct 21, 2004)

JanS said:


> Okay, here are a couple of the Crinum flower.
> One thing I learned is to let it come out of the tank when it wants. I tried to make it stay in and the light browned a few of the edges.


wow thats sweet!! and this can all be done without co2 injection?


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Thanks.
I was going to say it was C02 injected, but that was last winter before I had the pressurized on the tank, so it is possible without it.

As we speak, there is another bud forming on the same plant, but it doesn't look as healthy as the one from last year, so maybe they do better without C02??? :???:


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## Bavarian3 (Oct 21, 2004)

JanS said:


> Thanks.
> I was going to say it was C02 injected, but that was last winter before I had the pressurized on the tank, so it is possible without it.
> 
> As we speak, there is another bud forming on the same plant, but it doesn't look as healthy as the one from last year, so maybe they do better without C02??? :???:


my tank willl is a low light non co2. 80 watts over a 55gallong long. which plants would u recommend for my setup. I was looking at Zosterella dubia,








this pic on tropica.com shows it flowering. Howbout any vallisneria or saggitaria species?


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## jcolletteiii (Jan 30, 2005)

I bought this sword a few weeks ago. It was just floating about in another tank setting this 'infloresce'. When I planted it, it had 2 more budding 'babies' attached to it. Planted them, and they're off like weeds. Not sure exactly what variety of Echinodorus it is, but it does flower. Looks like just 3 sepals developed on these submerged buds, but I didn't look all that carefully.



















Not an impressive flower, but... I hear that if they grow up out of the water, the flowers are small and white.

-joe


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## Bavarian3 (Oct 21, 2004)

jcolletteiii said:


> I bought this sword a few weeks ago. It was just floating about in another tank setting this 'infloresce'. When I planted it, it had 2 more budding 'babies' attached to it. Planted them, and they're off like weeds. Not sure exactly what variety of Echinodorus it is, but it does flower. Looks like just 3 sepals developed on these submerged buds, but I didn't look all that carefully.
> 
> [IG]http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/gallery/files/1/7/5/2/amazon1_original.jpg[/IMG]
> 
> ...


tanganyikan tank eh?? :razz:

im keepin a malawi tank myself. Thats a great looking sword you have. what kind of setup do u have?


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

I have flowered swords  So far kleiner bars and Lothario (aka autumn leaves). Working on horizontalis and red flame.


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## jcolletteiii (Jan 30, 2005)

Bavarian3 said:


> tanganyikan tank eh?? :razz:
> 
> im keepin a malawi tank myself. Thats a great looking sword you have. what kind of setup do u have?


Its a mixxed Tanganyika/Malawi tank. Only 2 from Tanganyika: N. brichardi, and N. Leleupi. Malawi: Pseudotropheus crabro, P. lombardoi, M. chipokae, and a yellow lab. Here's a pic of the Melanochromis chipokae - I think it's groovy looking.










The tank is a 30 tall (29), caves in one corner, piece of driftwood in the other. Plants are (so far) the big swords, a patch of E. tenellus, and Java fern on the drift. There will be quite a bit more when I figure out what I want.

-joe


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## lowcoaster (Dec 6, 2004)

I have had Nymphea stellata flower a few times. A big beautiful purple bloom that lasts a week.


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## Bavarian3 (Oct 21, 2004)

jcolletteiii said:


> Its a mixxed Tanganyika/Malawi tank. Only 2 from Tanganyika: N. brichardi, and N. Leleupi. Malawi: Pseudotropheus crabro, P. lombardoi, M. chipokae, and a yellow lab. Here's a pic of the Melanochromis chipokae - I think it's groovy looking.
> 
> [MG]http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/gallery/files/1/7/5/2/Melanochromischipokae.jpg[/IMG]
> 
> ...


good lookin fish, although im not much a fan of melanochromis and their behavior :neutral:

Are u injecting Co2? how is the tennelus doing? i may try keeping some myself..good to see the fish arent shredding any of the plants either.


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## jcolletteiii (Jan 30, 2005)

Bavarian3 said:


> good lookin fish, although im not much a fan of melanochromis and their behavior :neutral:
> 
> Are u injecting Co2? how is the tennelus doing? i may try keeping some myself..good to see the fish arent shredding any of the plants either.


Yeah on the CO2. The tenellus is taking off kinda slowly. Battling algae mostly right now. The fish seem to all be picking it off the leaves of the swords, though. Yeah, melanochromids can be a little pushy, although the Neolamprologus brichardi is currnent king of the tank.


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

I actually have a whole gallery of just plant flowers on my site! I have gotten various stem plants to flower, Moneywort, Heteranthera zosterfolia, Lysimachia, (this one is currently flowering for me for the first time, has a nice little yellow flower), Ludwigia repens... stem plants only flower when the stems grow above the water


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

_Hetanthera zosterifolia_ will also flower submerged. That and _Cryptocoryne beckettii_, _Blyxa japonica_ and _Anubias barteri var. nana_ have done the same for me.


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

Well I bet the flower did not last more than a day or two! I had zosterfolia flower when floating, never seen it flower underwater. The flowers are so tiny!


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

No, they didn't last long. Neither did the crypt's. The Blyxa last a good while though, and usually pollinate themselves, so I've gotten quite a few seeds.


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## glenhead (Jan 29, 2005)

I've had one bloom that I didn't know was possible: _Cabomba caroliniana_. At first I thought it was yet another in an unending string of weird stuff with the Cabomba - one place I saw said it's easy to grow, but I've seen several others that rated it difficult. When we had low light, it got reaaaaallly leggy - over an inch between leaf whorls. Then we got more light, and I started the CO2, and almost all of the older stems shed the top 1-2 inches of growth and died back - we stuck the shed tops back into the substrate. Then they started staying very short, but extremely dense - quite pretty. Then they got this weird maroon growth at the top. I thought it was just some manifestation of new growth, but then I got my reading glasses out (it's tough getting old!) and noticed that no, by dingies, those are flowers! They lasted a couple of days, and were too small to get a decent picture. I'm going to order some closeup filters for my camera, so if they do it again I'll post pictures. Very strange!


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## Svennovitch (Oct 25, 2004)

I've had Ludwigia and Bacopa flowering emersed. Aponogetons are very easy to flower in your tank. The nicest flowers I had were of Eichhornia diversifolia:




































It went all very fast: one day the buds, the next the 3 flowers and the second day the flower was gone.


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## Bavarian3 (Oct 21, 2004)

Svennovitch said:


> I've had Ludwigia and Bacopa flowering emersed. Aponogetons are very easy to flower in your tank. The nicest flowers I had were of Eichhornia diversifolia:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


dang! thats awesome.


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

I have Vallisneria var. nana flowering in my tank right now. It too, happens quickly and I wasn't home yesterday to see the full flower.  Hopefully, I can catch one of the other two buds when they open up and snap a pic.


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

I got a picture of the Vallisneria var. nana flower. It is the somewhat blurry picture that is now my avatar.


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## arellanon (Jan 2, 2005)

glenhead said:


> I've had one bloom that I didn't know was possible: _Cabomba caroliniana_. At first I thought it was yet another in an unending string of weird stuff with the Cabomba - one place I saw said it's easy to grow, but I've seen several others that rated it difficult. When we had low light, it got reaaaaallly leggy - over an inch between leaf whorls. Then we got more light, and I started the CO2, and almost all of the older stems shed the top 1-2 inches of growth and died back - we stuck the shed tops back into the substrate. Then they started staying very short, but extremely dense - quite pretty. Then they got this weird maroon growth at the top. I thought it was just some manifestation of new growth, but then I got my reading glasses out (it's tough getting old!) and noticed that no, by dingies, those are flowers! They lasted a couple of days, and were too small to get a decent picture. I'm going to order some closeup filters for my camera, so if they do it again I'll post pictures. Very strange!


It took me about a month of no maintainence on my cabomba to get it flower. I let my cabombas grow all over the tank (they grew over three feet) and two plants are flowering. I only have one flower at the surface so far. Really nice white flowers. I have a rather large sword that has a adventitious shoot right now; I wish for it to reach the surface so flowering can start but it's about two inches shy of the surface. Maybe when it gets bigger. My goal is to have as many of my plants to flower as possible so I still have a ways to go.


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