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Unknown Plant & UK native plant suggestions.

Tallon

Seedling
Joined
19 May 2019
Messages
14
Location
Uk
Hello everyone.I'm new here.
I've kept fish for years (mostly Malawi) but this is my first dabble at a planted tank.

I'm basically setting up a UK native tank, and found the plant in the pictures below growing in a local natural pond halfway up a mountain. It was around the waters edge semi submerged but mostly floating just on the surface. Absolutely tons of it there.
I took two clumps and have weighed one down with some wood, and tied the other to a coconut cave. It's been fully submerged for about a week and is looking healthy with new growth coming.
It's matted with some kind of moss, but does anyone know what the main stems are?

Also does anyone have any suggestions for UK native plant types/names I can look to buy. The tank is a fluval edge so low/slow growing preferably.

Hopefully someone can help. Thanks.

IMG_20190519_101110.jpg
IMG_20190519_101148.jpg
 
Sorry not sure on names but I have seen some beautiful plants growing in British waters. Is that a small pike among the weed in the first pic? Sticklebacks are cool


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I think its a Crassula sp. most likely the C. helmsii (New Zealand Pigmyweed), thus not realy native but an invasive exotic, first recorded in Europe/UK somewhere in the mid 1970's since it never went away.

Some native sp. you could think of are several Potamogeton sp. - P. Natans as floater and P. perfoliatus as submersed (Pondweed). It's quite a large genus..
Or especialy sticklebacks appreciate it Ceratophyllum demersum - Hornwort. They can use parts of it to build a nest.
Another nice floater Hydrocharis morsus-ranae - Frogbit. Or nymphoides peltata - Floating heart.

All are native all over Europe and readily available in pond shops. :)
 
Hi all,
I think its a Crassula sp. most likely the C. helmsii (New Zealand Pigmyweed), thus not realy native but an invasive exotic, first recorded in Europe/UK somewhere in the mid 1970's
found the plant in the pictures below growing in a local natural pond halfway up a mountain.
It is definitely <"Crassula helmsii">.

cheers Darrel
 
Thanks guys. Brilliant info. Much appreciated.

TBRO no pike, just sticklebacks. I've always loved them since I was a kid. We used to catch them in the local stream using my Nans kitchen sieve

This little tank is actually my children's, I'm just "helping". We went stickleback hunting a few times to get what we've got. It was much harder work than when I was a child. They definitely seem more scarce nower days.
They're definitely enjoying the new home though. After two days the coconut has been turned into a nest and is full of eggs.

Once I've got the Scape looking half decent I'll take some pictures and post them here.
 
Myriophyllum spicatum
Hottonia palustris
Ranunculus aquatilis
Myosotis scirpoides
Willow moss
Are great plants in addition to those mentioned above.
 
Hi, me again.
After researching all of the plant types you kindly suggested I was about to start venturing to near by pond supply shops to see what I could get but before I did I visited another little pond not far from my house which is fed by a stream just on the off chance that there may be some sort of plant life there and hit the jackpot.

There were at least 4 different types there so I took a small bit of the 3 nicer looking ones and would now like your help again in possibly identifying them.

This first one I'm assuming is Hornwart?
IMG_20190608_124445_2.jpg


The second plant looked really nice in the pond but when I took it out it was very stringy and didn't hold any shape. I struggled with putting it in the tank so resorted to bunching what I had with an elastic band and put it in one corner. I'm hoping it will look better as it grows.
IMG_20190608_124409.jpg


The third plant looked like a stem plant to me but was rooted into the silt at the bottom of the pond. I pinched the tips from a few plants and have pushed them into my sand. They have doubled in size in about 4 days but the leaves are still small compared to the full size ones I saw in the pond.
IMG_20190608_124215.jpg


Any help on what these may be would be greatly appreciated, mainly just because I'm curious and like to know these things. If not I don't mind because I'm happy that the fish have a very natural, locally sourced habitat.
It's not the best looking aquascape but it's definitely natural. I'll post a picture of the whole tank tonight because the reflection on the glass is spoiling it at the moment.

Thanks for reading.
 
Yup the first is hornwort :) The second is i think a Callitriche spp. Starwort :) The 3th yet no idea. ?
 
A wild guess the 3th one might be it's a still young and leggy Potamogeton spp. Don't actualy know wath the terminology for it is in the botanica. But my guess is based upon how the leaves grow around the stem. As 1 leaf per internode, for indigenious aqautic plants this is typical growform for Potamogetons spp. (Lucens and perfoliatus for example).. Other plants that resamble the leafshape of the plant in your picture, but they grow leaves in pairs per internode for example Creeping jenny does that and thus it can't be this because of that. :)

It can be difficult to determine young plants since it yet didn't fully developed its characteristics. Thus than looking at such details, in what patern do the leaves grow on the stem is a character to narrow it down a bit. But still it's a wild guess..
 
Thanks very much zozo. I think you are definitely spot on with the starwort. I've googled it and the pictures and information I've read match perfectly.
The 3rd plant however doesn't seem to match lucens or perfoliatus from the Google images I just looked at. Next time I'm walking my dog past the pond I'll try to get a good picture of the mature plants I took my cuttings from.
Brilliant info though, very much appreciated.
 
Looking at Google images I don't think it's water cress but thanks for your thoughts.

Here's the tank anyway, I'm not really happy with it but it's ok for the moment. I'll tinker and re arrange things over the next few service intervals I'm sure.

IMG_20190608_213551.jpg


The substrate is Argos play sand, and most of the decorative stone is actually Alfagrog. There's a coconut cave covered in pigmyweed in there (shown in my original post) but literally everything else is from local ponds and streams, along with a few small snails and tiny shrimp type things that hitched a ride on the plants.
 
Looking at Google images I don't think it's water cress but thanks for your thoughts.

I think i see it every day, but can't realy get to it without getting muddy behind my ears. There is a rather large meadow with a shallow creeck close to my house down hill. It's a large ditch in the land a swampy flood plain with loads of shallow puddles bursting with swamp plants. I see large bushes of it growing at the creeks edge partialy in and out of the water. It probaly aint a true aqautic, maybe not even a true swamp plant but a herb that likes or doesn't mind wet feet. :) And i yet never seen a flower at least not from the distance i alwasy see it.. That's another thing to watch out for, a flower will definitively ID it..
 
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We have a complete data base of all "Wild plants growing in the Netherlands and Belgium", this data base has a good search engine with filter.
It has a full description and lots of pictures and copies from old botanical drawings etc.

It aint in English but it's pretty straight foreward. What you want are the pictures only anyway and the scientific name if its a hit. And search on with that for UK sites.
What grows main land Europe has 99% chance also growing on the british Isles..

Anyway, i filtered the search on Biotoop and growing places Bog or Swamp. It found 277 hits and gives 25 results per page.

That would be 11 pages for you to dig through.. :) Bottom page you'll find <<Vorige | Volgende>> it says <<Previous | Next>>

Good luck diggin.. Chances are very high you'll find your plant in there..

http://search.freefind.com/find.html?id=75904586&pageid=r&mode=ALL&n=0&lang=nl&_charset_=UTF-8&bcd=÷&scs=1&q1=Groeiplaatsen+moerassen&q2=&q3=&q4=&rpp=25&dl=m&stm=
 
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