Forward-Mystery Plant and Native Plant Conservation

[Cavan <millsman7 at yahoo_com>]

The following is part of a conversation between Tom
Barr and myself.  I post it here at his request.  I
tried it forward it to the list with no success.  Cut
and paste job.  Cavan.

(on a mysterious plant Tom sent to me)
I found it today. It is Veronica anagallis-aquatica
(family
Scrophulariaceae). It's introduced as are many aquatic
plants. It is quite
invasive and should be a noxious weed really IMO. Do
not let it out! This
ones a native of Europe.Interesting enough I found
Eleocharis pavulus and 
acicularis here as well.There's about 5 families here
in this area (CA) 
some with potentials.Gratiola is in the same family as
Veronica and I 
have one of these now aswell. There are some other
representatives and a 
very interesting vernalpool plant and a rare as hell
Sagittaria out here 
as well. Only 3 locationleft anywhere. I think I can
change that issue. 
There's some Val near hereup north a ways.
There's a reference but no info to speak of in
Aquarium Plants(Rataj, pg
399) and of course he says it's no good for a plant
tank due to being a cold
water plant which is blatantly not the case here with
either of these
figworts. Damn stuff grows like no tomorrow if you ask
me.

I guess the common name seems to be "water speedwell".
You can find it on
the web.I would consider this Veronoica to be a good
replacement for Hygrophila
polysperma but we could expect it to be axed by the
USDA at some point as
well. Till then -behave! I think a few places list it
as a "potentially
invasive", too which I say, it is invasive.
It is quite variable in its forms. A person could walk
right by it and not
know having only seen the aquatic form.
  
Simply because a Gymnocornis etc(fill in the blank)
means little on
whether or not its growing out here in the wild. Many
places seldom have
purely native plants anymore.Many birds also transfer
many plants all over, 
not just us or the wind.There's exceptions to every
rule when dealing 
with plants. Seems to me wecould do a service by
growing out rare endangered 
plants or bring them intothe trade so they could be
kept and sold back to 
repopulated the wild insome cases. Sounds fun and a
good service rather 
than being viewed asvectors for invasive weeds. I
think a program 
could even get funded to dosuch a thing perhaps.
Wishful thinking but that's 
how it always startsout...

Regards, Tom Barr

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