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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V4 #336




>Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 16:11:16 -0700 (PDT)
>From: Cavan <millsman7 at yahoo_com>
>Subject: Pa Native Plants?
>
>Yesterday, a friend of mine and I took my black lab to
>Racoon Creek State Park which is pretty close to
>Pittsburgh.  I noticed Najas guadalupensis in
>abundance.  I thought this stuff was only in the
>southeren states.  I also found some Ludwigia repens
>and, believe it or not, a medium sized Echinodorus
>(looked like a blehri) growing by the waters edge.  I
>was pretty surprised about the latter.  Either some of
>these plants grow farther north than I thought, or
>someone is releasing things.
>
>Is there a site or something that gives the ranges for
>native plants?  Thanks guys, Cavan.
>
E. cordifolius is said to be in the southern U.S., and it might get as far
north as Pennsylvania. I have an old book, A manual of Aquatic Plants, by
Norman C. Fassett, published 1940, that says that the northern limits of E.
cordifolius are Illinois to Kansas, south to California and Florida.
Are you sure that the sword you saw isn't cordifolius?  That species is
common in the drainage ditches around Jackson, Mississippi where I live.
The ditches are sprayed once or twice a year with Roundup, but the E.
cordifolius always bounces back faster than anything else.  It is a tough
plant.  E. tenellus is also said to exist from Massachusetts to Minnesota,
south to Florida and Mexico.

 There are a lot of species of Najas in the U.S.  Fassett says N.
guadalubensis local in S. Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Quebec to S.
Michigan, S. Minnesota, and Oregon, southward to Peru, Bolivia, and
Argentina.  Najas flexilis, he just says is "common and widespread".  I
have seen flexilis in Lake Mendota, in Wisconsin, and in the Ross Barnett
Reservoir, in the Jackson, Mississippi area.

Ludwigia repens isn't listed in Fassett, but L. palustris is, and it is
given a range of Nova Scotia to Manitoba to Oregon, south to Florida, West
Indes, Mexico and California.  Fassett mentions several forms of palustris,
and one of them may now be what we call repens.  L. palustris is everywhere
in Mississippi, growing in any ditch or depression where puddles form after
a rain.  It adapts easily to aquarium life.


Paul Krombholz, central Mississippi, moisture is on the increase, and we
may get some rain over the next three or four days.