Re: Ammania

• To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
• Subject: Re: Ammania
• From: Ken McNeil <mcnei002 at maroon_tc.umn.edu>
• Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1996 02:57:20 -0600 (CST)
• In-Reply-To: <199602260839.DAA08189 at looney_actwin.com>

> 
> From: "Peter Hughes (X)" <peterh at pican_pi.csiro.au>
> Subject: "Ammania"
> 
> I have a quick question about a plant that was sold to me as "Ammania". 
> It is a cutting plant that is reddish on the lower leaves, turning to 
> brown on the upper new leaves. The leaf margins are bordering on 
> crispulate, and are long and lanceolate. Here good plant information is a 
> bit difficult to fins and I was wondering what sort of conditions does 
> this plant really need? It is like many plants that I have got from the 
> local plant supplier, once you get them home they sit there for a long 
> time before doing anything.
> 
> To give a bit of background it is in a 120L tank with 70watts of light 
> from an actinic halogen lamp and a flourescent 20W. Hardness is about 
> 100ppm, kH60ppm and the pH 7. The substrate is high iron podsolic soil 
> covered with gravel, fertilising is with a mixture of iron chelate that I 
> mix at work (no use having access to the worlds best chemistry set and not 
> using it), iron levels are consistently about the  .2ppm level. The other 
> plants in are doing well, particularly the green tiger lotus.

Peter, 

Sounds like Ammannia gracilis, but could be senegalis. The Ammania 
senegalis is shown in the 1st Baensch Atlas, and the gracilis is in Atlas 
2. The two species look similar, but the senegalis leaves are turned down 
and appear crinkled, while the gracilis is flatter and smoother.
I purchased a large amount of the gracilis for our local 
aquairum society in December. Since then I have had to take cuttings 
twice, each time there had been about 7 inches of new growth. 
My conditions vary slightly from yours, but water chemistry is 
identical. For lighting the 67 gallon tank (254 liters) I have 4x40 
daylights (Chroma50), on 12 hours/day. CO2 is added to a Fluval 303 by 
bubbling the CO2 directly into the intake. The plants seem to grow best 
close to the spray bar, whether it's due to the water movement, higher CO2 
level, or other factors I don't know. 
The only big difference seems to be CO2, which you don't mention whether or 
not you're using.
Like you, my fertilizer mix is homemade and the biggest problem I have 
with it is making sure there is enough around when some friend comes by 
to "borrow" some. 

Hope this helps a little,

Ken

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