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of little plants that get To Big


Folks,

I have two plant varieties that consistently get bigger than I *thought*
their species were supposed to get.

First is E. tenellus.  I have two varieties.  One is the small, reddish
plant pictured in Amano's books.  The other is a narrow-leafed green
plant that get's larger.  In fact, *way* larger.  The plants I pulled
out of my 55 today were 8 inches high with leaves over 10 inches long. 
They were reaching for the light a little, but I have the same plants in
other tanks where they get good light and consistently grow to a height
of 5-6 inches. I also have E. quadricostatus.  E. quad. is about the
same height, but has wider leaves.  It's also not a sagittaria; I've had
dwarf sag before and their roots are different.

Is this relatively large, narrow-leafed chain sword really E. tenellus,
or could it be some other species?  Rataj and Horeman describe an "E.
angustifolius" that sounds like this big tenellus.

Second is Cryptocoryne "willisii".  I thought this plant was a small,
docile foreground plant.  Today I tore out my entire Frankenstein's
monster of a stand and replanted just a few individuals.  The plants
were as much as 10 inches high and varied in color from light green to
bronze.  The leaf blades are narrow and lanceolate with slightly
undulate margins.  The petioles were about as long or slighly longer
than the blades.  The roots were a white, brittle and tangled mess. 
Plantlets arose from the base of the larger plants and from runners that
extended as much as 18 inches across the tank.  All in all it looks a
bit like C. wendtii's little brother, but I've never seen C. wendtii put
out long runners.

Does this sound like a real C. "willisii"?  The shop where I bought it
frequently mislabels plants, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if it
isn't C. "willisii"


Thanks,

Roger Miller

Incidentally, I have several bagged individuals of both of these
plants.  I can trade if anyone is interested, otherwise they're going to
the shop tommorrow.