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Re: Onion plant
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Tim Ayers wrote, July 3:
>A couple weeks ago I asked for help identifying a green onion looking
>plant I bought at a local pet shop thinking it might be some form of
>Crinum sp........................................
>
>Well, now I know what a Crinum species doesn't look like. I've had
>other far more expensive learning experiences.
>
Well, well. Now we can add onions to the list along with ground pines,
small palm trees, and other miscellaneous house plants. Actually the
dealer may not be unscrupulous, just not knowledgeable about aquarium
plants. When I was in Milwaukee in the 70's I once saw someone trying to
sell an assortment of plain old backyard weeds to a dealer. Fortunately,
he didn't get away with it.
Actually, there is no good way to tell by looking at a plant whether or not
it is able to grow underwater. I have Hydrocotyle verticillata and some
species of Ludwigia growing in my back yard, and they look just like any
other weed. Who could imagine, looking at the emersed form of Hygrophila
diformis, that it could grow at all underwater, let alone what it would
look like. Alternanthera reineckii and A. sessilis look quite similar when
grown emersed, but, while the former grows well underwater, the latter has
never grown at all submersed for me.
Paul Krombholz Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, MS 39174, in
hot, dry Jackson, Mississippi, where 'dry' doesn't mean that the humidity
is low, just that it is not raining.