Marsilea Quadrifolia - Water Shamrock

["William Vannerson" <William_Vannerson at ama-assn_org>]

My son and I are heading to Boy Scout summer camp in a few weeks, so I picked up a few Peterson Field Guides to bone up on plant and animal identification.  I'm browsing through _Ferns_, by Boughton Cobb, and stumbled on a Water Fern, Marsilea Quadrifolia or Water Shamrock, that seems to be a suitable specimen for a planted killie tank as it sends it's stem to the surface and the shamrock shaped leaves open at the surface.  Hence, it would help reduce a kellies need to jump.  Or it could be a suitable sunning platform for Rivulus <G>.

Anyone have any experience with this plant.

BTW, this is an excellent book, both for identifying ferns and as a general introduction to the group Pteridophyta.  There's even some minor discussion on several species whose scientific name has changed multiple times, causing some confusion. (sound familiar?)  In fact, the author leads with the following quote:

"If you have remarked errors in me, your superior wisdom must pardon me. Who errors not while perambulating the domain of nature? Who can observe everything with accuracy? Correct me as a friend, and I as a friend will requite with kindness."

Carl Linnaeus

Very interesting in light of the fact that he's the father of the binomial nominclature system for scientific names!  I think I will try to remember this whenever a fellow hobbyist mislabels a bag.  ;-)



Bill Vannerson
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/william_vannerson

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