6 replies to this topic

[minorhero]

Hello folks,

 

I was out walking today near the upper branches of the patuxent river in central maryland. On the way I came across a pretty deep rut in the road with some plants growing in the mud puddle. They appeared to be growing out of an old branch that was so rotten it fell apart as I tried to pick it up. Here are some pictures of the plants growing emersed:

 

 

And here they are after I got some of the ones growing submerged on the same branch after I got them home and cleaned them off:

 

 

 

I cleaned them off and put the in my quarantine tank, some in substrate and some glued to a branch of wood incase they are an epiphyte. Anyone know what plant this is?

 

The other plant was growing in tributary of the patuxent emersed. Here is what it looked like in the wild:

 

 

And here is what it looked like once I cleaned it up a bit at home:

 

 

Anyone know what this one is? And do they do well in the home aquarium? I tried looking up both but I am truly terrible at the plant identification game. Thank you for any help.

[Matt DeLaVega]

Smartweed of some sort. There are quite a few species.

[minorhero]

There is smartweed in the top right of the first picture but plant 1 is in the lower left of the first picture and has different leaves. I can't find anything that matches it when I look for smartweed.

[swampfish]

The first one, the one with the diamond-shaped leaves, appears to be Ludwigia palustris, commonly known as false loosestrife. Tropical species of Ludwigia are commonly used in aquaria, and this native species tends to be found in shady areas, so I bet it will do well in aquaria. I have grown it in stock tanks with fish outdoors during the summer, where it has done well. In natural situations, it produces  emergent rosettes of three-inch elongate leaves starting in late spring, so you probably want to keep it trimmed back to avoid these aerial leaves.

 

I do not recognize the second species of plant.

 

Phil Nixon

[minorhero]

The first one, the one with the diamond-shaped leaves, appears to be Ludwigia palustris, commonly known as false loosestrife. Tropical species of Ludwigia are commonly used in aquaria, and this native species tends to be found in shady areas, so I bet it will do well in aquaria. I have grown it in stock tanks with fish outdoors during the summer, where it has done well. In natural situations, it produces  emergent rosettes of three-inch elongate leaves starting in late spring, so you probably want to keep it trimmed back to avoid these aerial leaves.

 

I do not recognize the second species of plant.

 

Phil Nixon

 

Thank you very much! That does look exactly like ludwigia palustris which does grow in maryland a google search confirmed. I am pretty excited to have found it growing in the wild. I have purchased another species of ludwigia in the past, I feel like I just got a free plant and had fun going for a hike. 

 

I have both plants still in my quarantine tank. The dace I have in the tank with them uprooted the second plant but I shoved it back into the substrate earlier today. Hopefully both do well.

[gerald]

Long narrow leaf & pink flowers = Persicaria (Polygonum species, maybe P. pensylvanica

short leaves, red on stems & undersides = Ludwigia palustris

short all-green leaves & stems = Stellaria media ??? (chickweed ... not aquatic).

[gzeiger]

Ludwigia, if not trimmed to prevent it reaching the surface, will drop all or nearly all of the inefficient underwater leaves in favor of running along the surface. It looks pretty ugly if not maintained, but obviously can be very nice.