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Florida Natives

Started by Guest_crwnpt_* , Mar 08 2012 07:53 PM

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11 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_crwnpt_*

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Posted 08 March 2012 - 07:53 PM

Just moved to Southwest Florida and am planning a local biotope type nano. I haven't had a chance to get mucking around to collect any plants yet and probably won't for a while so I was wondering what some of our local aquatics were and if they are commercially availabe. Would prefer some easier varieties, as I will be going low-tech. Anybody have any ideas for me?? Thanks in advance.

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#2 Guest_Newt_*

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Posted 09 March 2012 - 06:12 PM

Hi Charlie,

Florida has an excellent aquatic plant website: http://plants.ifas.u...4?categoryId=13. You can also search for species or genera on USDA Plants: http://plants.usda.g...ile?symbol=BACA.

I think you'll find that many of your local natives are also commonly available commercially. In addition, several exotic aquarium plants are established in Florida- big surprise, right?

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#3 Guest_crwnpt_*

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Posted 09 March 2012 - 06:55 PM

I'm always surprised that exotics have established themselves in Florida

Thanks for the links, I will check them out. I'm not too good with names of plants yet, so bear with me...

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#4 Guest_danawhicker_*

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Posted 12 April 2012 - 08:23 AM

Charlie if you visit a few drainage ditches near your home or office you'll quickly realize that you would not ever need to visit a pet store again for aquarium stock. Collecting things is easy. The hard part is figuring out what's native and what's invasive. I agree with Newt on the UF website. It's awesome.

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#5 Guest_crwnpt_*

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Posted 12 April 2012 - 10:12 AM

I am starting to realize just that. I haven't had a chance to collect anything yet, as I don't even have a tank set up, but I will be setting something up very soon. I did find a local spot that is chock full of Oscars, which I fully realize are invasive, but cool to see nonetheless.

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#6 Guest_danawhicker_*

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Posted 12 April 2012 - 01:19 PM

Yeah, I know what you mean. The most beautiful, intensely blue supermale Tilapia (Oreochromis aureus) I've ever seen was in a springfed stream in central FL.

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#7 Guest_crwnpt_*

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Posted 12 April 2012 - 03:09 PM

My father-in-law, who is an outdoorsman, but not much of a fisherman was with us that day. We were standing on a boardwalk above this pond, I was pointing out gar and bass, etc, etc when he says, "what kind of fish are these?" I went over where he was and just bust out laughing. Big school, probably about 15 or so, of beautifully colored adult oscars. A few had bugged out eyes, but other than that they all looked super healthy. Bright oranges and deep greens that looked black in the dark water. Fun to see for sure. I wish I could fish there but its a county preserve.

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#8 Guest_don212_*

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Posted 06 August 2012 - 08:56 PM

i have a small pond here, all the plants, and fish were collected localli, i dug up a lilli, and a some pickeral weedon the riverbed during dri season, also i scooped upnonnative but omnipresent waterhacinth, hdrilla and a couple i dont recognize,filled it with topminnows , mollies, mosquitofish, dwarf livebearers, and bluefin killies

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#9 Guest_Alspond_*

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Posted 07 August 2012 - 07:48 AM

Hi Charlie,

Collecting plants from public land in Florida requires a permit. Florida owns all lakes and most streams.
More important it is illegal to posess, transport, collect, or culture class I exotics which include hydrilla, Water spinach, water hyacinth.....

this is a pretty good overview with a table of the exotics
http://www.dep.state...atic/62c-52.pdf

Another thing to watch for is the invasive channelled apple snail. They are everywhere in the Witlacoochee drainage just look for pink egg masses. They have changed the pond landscapes. Input area. Ponds filled with pickeral weed a few years ago have none the snails ate it. Moving plants has the risk of moving these exotics.

Anyone who owns a pond has more plants than they can keep.

Al

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#10 Guest_Alspond_*

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Posted 07 August 2012 - 07:53 AM

Forgot,
Plants I like in my pond.
Submerged Ellegrass, coontail, baby's tears
Emersed Pickeral weed, string lily, blue flag iris red ludwegia, lemon bacopa.
Floating leaved. Yellow water lily(mexicana). Floating hearts.

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#11 Guest_crwnpt_*

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Posted 08 August 2012 - 02:42 PM

Thanks for the info Al. Fortunately, I haven't been out collecting anything yet. Do you know how difficult it is to get a collection permit? Or should I not even worry about it and just try and get plants from local folks.

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#12 Guest_Alspond_*

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Posted 10 August 2012 - 12:25 PM

Thanks for the info Al. Fortunately, I haven't been out collecting anything yet. Do you know how difficult it is to get a collection permit? Or should I not even worry about it and just try and get plants from local folks.

The permits as I understand it from limited research are for specific species from specific area of a lake. They are geared toward commercial use of the collected plants. A long time ago I called the DNR permit folks. Long story.
They sent me a letter authorizing the taking of a specified number of 5 species within a specific time window from Lake Parker.

Maybe you will meet someone with a pond. One of any water plant becomes many each summer.
Also look for places that sell water lilies or pond building materials, these often have all kinds of water plants for sale.