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Aponogetons
I've been haphazardly hybridizing Aponogetons for quite some time just
to see what develops. Being that much of what is in the trade are
hybrids themselves it didn't seem to matter much which species were
cross pollinated. That being said what I started out with looked a lot
like A. rigidifolius, A. crispus, A. natans and A. ulvaceus.
Several viable varieties developed, the most interesting being a plant
that has the wide wavy leaves of A. ulvaceus. The foliage is mostly the
color of the reddish leaves of A. rigidifolius, illustrated on page 57
of Windelov's Tropica Catalogue Aquarium Plants, 1987, T.F.H.
Publications, Inc. The color, shape and size of the plant I describe,
although somewhat striking, is not it's most interesting aspect.
The plant puts up a one-spiked inflorescence, of which there are now two
breaching the surface, one has white flowers and the other beautiful
purple ones. I have not heard of, read or seen anything like it, one
Aponogeton with two different colored flowers. The plant was moved to
it's present location about a month ago, however I don't remember the
exact type of root stock it has, but when the plant once again goes
dormant, although all the leaves look pretty much the same and I'm
pretty sure it is a single plant, I'll double check to see if there is
more than one plant there.
Who else but all of you would find this interesting. My family,
especially the children, think my enthusiasm for such an observation is
somewhat misplaced. In other words, the kids think I'm nuts <G>.
Ed Hengel
AGA