Re: plea for help to identify some plants

["Robert H" <robertph3 at attbi_com>]

>>Man, those newsgroups were a bad idea. Who invented them anyway?<<

I thought you did Richard! It's all your fault!

>>A is the Mriophyllum species sold as "Parrots feather". B is a hybrid
Aponogeton bulb; common in the aquarium trade.<<

I am pretty sure it is natans, not a hybrid. It is pretty common in the
states, but Kasselmann describes it as "rare", I guess it hasn't made its
way to Europe.  " This delicate and rare Aponogeton hardly forms any
submersed leaves but predominantly floating leaves instead, rendering it
hardly suitable for aquarists."  I guess she presumes most of us dont want a
floating leaf plant...  It grows like a weed however in the aquarium. I had
a pack of dry 2 year old natans bulbs that I opened up the other day put in
an aquarium. In a few days all the bulbs developed 4" growth.

A natans is native to Sri Lanka and India. I understand it easily hybridizes
with ulvaceus, (which is from Madagascar) where it retains the ulvaceus
submersed growth leaves, as well as the floating natans leaves. These are
also quite common. Kasselmann's pic of natans looks identical to the pic of
the person inquiring.

Robert Paul Hudson
www.aquabotanic.com
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