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Finding Out Plant Names?

Egmel

Member
Joined
28 Mar 2008
Messages
729
Location
Guildford, Surrey, UK
or alternatively, using a plant name to find out what a plant is.

I see things pop up in the sell/wanted section and I a) often have no idea what's in my tank and b) often have no idea what they're asking for!

So the question is, where do you start. I know the tropica website is a good start for most name->plant identification but they don't always have all the species. If you Google a name you get about 10 different possibilities!

Then there's the matching it with what's in my tank, other than bugging you guys with photos of plants is there a relatively easy way of finding out what a plant is. Sometimes I know the genus (eg Cryptocoryne) but don't know which one it is, other times I don't even know that!

Maybe as I find out about various plants I ought to build up one of those 'does it have red leaves' flow chart identification tools!
 
I always keep a list of all the plants in my tanks so I know what I have in there ;)
when I need to find what something looks like, I just do a search on google images. works most of the time.
 
Egmel said:
Sometimes I know the genus (eg Cryptocoryne) but don't know which one it is, other times I don't even know that!

Don't worry too much about identifying Cryptocorynes - They're a huge family, with lots of groups that hybridise amongst themselves quite freely, and even individual plants can differ in appearance wildly in different conditions.

If you can get it close, that's great (so you don't plant eg crispatula in foreground and parva in the back corner). But group is close enough. Just look at tropica's site, and see how many have var. xxx, or "green" etc in their names. Even tropica's plants (whisper it) seem to vary over time - two different C parva's I bought from different sources in the same month have gone into the same tank, and I can still see them as two different varieties, even the new plantlets from the rhizome. Of course, I'm not taking into account that I believe that some resellers are obtaining/making fake tropica labels and sticking them in plants from other growers - I know, conspiracy theorist, but I have my suspicions.

I agree completely with you, in an ideal world, I'd love to know exactly what plants are in my aquarium, but for practical purposes, if you can get close enough to know what conditions the plant likes, where in your aquarium it will look good, and what form it will take, you'll be fine.

And keep bugging this board for IDs, you probably won't find a more knowledgeable crew! I've learned loads (and hopefully given a bit back too, occasionally).

Keep enjoying your 'waterweeds' whatever they are!

Mark
 
LondonDragon said:
I always keep a list of all the plants in my tanks so I know what I have in there ;).
That assumes I knew what they were when they went in ;)
vauxhallmark said:
And keep bugging this board for IDs, you probably won't find a more knowledgeable crew! I've learned loads (and hopefully given a bit back too, occasionally).

Keep enjoying your 'waterweeds' whatever they are!
In which case when I get five minutes at home with the lights on I'll try and get some close up photos and see if I can get the names right before coming here for confirmation :)
SuperColey1 said:
http://www.plantgeek.net
Oooh, how to waste an entire afternoon, Thanks Andy :lol: I might have to wait until after this paper deadline before I explore that site to its full, it's definitely being bookmarked :D
 
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