Ponds Floating Plants list | tropical-hobbies

Ponds Floating Plants list :

1- Butterfly Fern
Salvinia rotundifolia

Hardy Floating plant (per portion)
Hardy zones 7 - 10 [See Map]
One portion equals approximately 1/3 cup.
Makes a good fish treat.

Other websites :

- aquaplant.tamu.edu/plant-identification/alphabetical-index/giant-salvinia/

- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvinia

- www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/107785

2- Frog Bit
Limnobium spongia

Hardy zones 6 - 10 [See Map]
Leaves average between 3/4 to 1-1/2 inches but in the right conditions can be several inches across
Plants most often have floating leaves but (especially when crowded) can have emergent leaves as well
Flowers are small and do not add much to the beauty of the plant
Spreads by runners

frogbit floating pond plant has green heart shaped leaves that float on the waters surface. It resembles a miniature water lily when it spreads. At the nurseries, the frogbit roots in to the soil, which is what we ship. It can be planted if you want, but it won't send out the runners that float. At first the plants might tip over when first put into the pond. It takes about two weeks for it to send out the runners, but then it spreads like crazy and you have a really nice floating plant. Frogbit will form buds that winter over at the bottom of the water garden until spring. If Frogbit roots into soil in the bog areas of the pond, it will grow upright as a marginal plant.

Frogbit (Limnobium spongia)
Hardiness Zones: 6B-10
Light Requirements: Full Sun to Part Shade
Height: 1/2" - 1"
Water Depth: Floating Surface Pond Plant

3-Fairy Moss
Azolla caroliniana

Hardy Floating plant (per portion)
Hardy zones 5 - 10 [See Map]
One portion equals approximately 1/3 cup.
Makes a good fish treat.
Plant color may be green or red depending on water conditions

A small, usually floating fern, in places growing in the mud. Green to red in color, depending on sunlight exposure. It forms dense mats on the surface of the water. A good source of supplemental food for Koi and Goldfish. Looks especially good when allowed to grow on a ledge in a water fall or stream. Very nice in terraria. One portion is approximately the volume of a 1 cup measure. This is a member of a special group of ferns, the Salviniaceae, which includes one other genus, Salvinia. Azolla comprises 6 species, the most common two are A. caroliniana and A. filliculoides. We make no attempt to separate the two because the differences are nearly imperceptible. Azolla makes a great cover for water or mud. It is great food for Koi and Goldfish. The fish will eat whatever is out over open water butgenerally leave patches of it in harder to reach areas. These make a good source for more for the fish to eat as they break loose and float free. It is also possible to grow it over algal mats in drip zones in water falls. Tolerates considerable cold. Turns red in full sun, green in shade.

Fairy Moss Azolla caroliniana

Fairy Moss is another plant that Koi love to eat. The tiny leaves can be green or reddish to dark reddish brown. Sunlight and water temperature determines the color of the plant.

ABOUT the color, fairy moss can vary in color from moss green to reddish brown. The color will change from time to time depending on the temperature and the amount of sun light. It is not uncommon to see both brownish red and moss green in a shipment or ONE solid color.

NOTE: most do not grow this in the pond but grow it outside of the pond in large containers to grow to feed it to their fish. If you have a skimmer this plants will very likely end up in the skimmer unless you have fish that eat it quickly. My own guys get 3 pounds a few times a week.

Hardy zone 8 or higher

4-Water Lettuce
Pistia stratiotes

Prefers partial shade.
Hardy Zones 9-11 [See Map]

Care Of Water Lettuce: Info And Uses For Water Lettuce In Ponds

courtesy to : www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/water-plants/water-lettuce/water-lettuce-in-ponds.htm

By Amy Grant

Water lettuce pond plants are commonly found in the slow moving waters of drainage ditches, ponds, lakes and canals in water anywhere from 0 to 30 feet deep. Its early origins were recorded to be the Nile River, possibly around Lake Victoria. Today, it is found throughout the tropics and the American Southwest and is quantified as a weed with no wildlife or human food uses for water lettuce recorded. It can, however, make an attractive water feature planting where its rapid growth may be corralled. So what is water lettuce?

What is Water Lettuce?

Water lettuce, or Pistia stratiotes, is in the family Araceae and is a perennial evergreen that forms large floating colonies that can be invasive if left unchecked. The spongy foliage is light green to gray-green colored and is 1 to 6 inches long. The floating root structure of water lettuce can grow up to 20 inches in length while the plant itself covers a 3 by 12 foot area typically.

This moderate grower has leaves that form velvety rosettes, which resemble small heads of lettuce — hence its name. An evergreen, the long dangling roots serve as a safe haven for fish but, otherwise, water lettuce has not wildlife uses.

The yellow flowers are rather innocuous, hidden in the foliage and blooming from late summer to early winter.

How to Grow Water Lettuce

Reproduction of water lettuce is vegetative through the use of stolons and may be propagated through division of these or via seeds covered with sand and kept partially submerged in water. Water garden or container uses for water lettuce outdoors can occur in USDA planting zone 10 in full sun to part shade in the southern states.

Care of Water Lettuce

In warm climates, the plant will overwinter or you can grow water lettuce indoors in an aquatic environment in a mix of moist loam and sand with water temps between 66-72 F. (19-22 C.).

Additional care of water lettuce is minimal, as the plant has no serious pest or disease issues.

Other websites :

- wimastergardener.org/article/water-lettuce-pistia-stratiotes/

- aquaplant.tamu.edu/plant-identification/alphabetical-index/water-lettuce/

- keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/eafrinet/weeds/key/weeds/Media/Html/Pistia_stratiotes_(Water_Lettuce).

5- Bladderwort

Utricularia spp.

Description:

Below is courtesy to:aquaplant.tamu.edu/plant-identification/alphabetical-index/bladderwort/

True free-floating bladderworts are annual plants that lack roots but have flowers on erect stems above the water. The entire floating plant is only about 8 inches tall. Flowers emerge above the surface and are yellowish with 3-lobes and a spur underneath. Underwater the leaf branches or petioles are fleshy and inflated with air which allows them to float. Leaves are whorled with 4 to 10 lateral leaves which fork often giving them a very delicate capillary appearance. Bladderworts are unique in that the underwater leaves bear small oval “bladders” that trap and digest small aquatic creatures. Bladderworts are usually found in quiet shallow, acidic waters and can form dense mats.

Bladderwort has no known direct food value to wildlife, but does provide food and shelter for some small fish species, as well as habitat for minute animals upon which they prey.

Distribution and habitat:

Below is courtesy to : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utricularia

Utricularia can survive almost anywhere where there is fresh water for at least part of the year; only Antarctica and some oceanic islands have no native species. The greatest species diversity for the genus is seen in South America, with Australia coming a close second.[1] In common with most carnivorous plants, they grow in moist soils which are poor in dissolved minerals, where their carnivorous nature gives them a competitive advantage; terrestrial varieties of Utricularia can frequently be found alongside representatives of

the carnivorous genera–Sarracenia, Drosera and others–in very wet areas where continuously moving water removes most soluble minerals from the soil.

About 80% of the species are terrestrial, and most inhabit waterlogged or wet soils, where their tiny bladders can be permanently exposed to water in the substrate. Frequently they will be found in marshy areas where the water table is very close to the surface. Most of the terrestrial species are tropical, although they occur worldwide.[2]

Approximately 20% of the species are aquatic.[2] Most of these drift freely over the surface of ponds and other still, muddy-bottomed waters and only protrude above the surface when flowering, although a few species are lithophytic and adapted to rapidly moving streams or even waterfalls.[8] The plants are usually found in acidic waters, but they are quite capable of growing in alkaline waters and would very likely do so were it not for the higher level of competition from other plants in such areas.[8]Utricularia vulgaris is an aquatic species and grows into branching rafts with individual stolons up to one metre or longer in ponds and ditches throughout Eurasia.[2]

Bladderwort distribution

Some South American tropical species are epiphytes, and can be found growing in wet moss and spongy bark on trees in rainforests, or even in the watery leaf-rosettes of other epiphytes such as various Tillandsia (a type of bromeliad) species.[3] Rosette-forming epiphytes such as U. nelumbifolia put out runners, searching for other nearby bromeliads to colonise.[4]

The plants are as highly adapted in their methods of surviving seasonally inclement conditions as they are in their structure and feeding habits. Temperate perennialscan require a winter period in which they die back each year, and they will weaken in cultivation if they are not given it; tropical and warm-temperate species, on the other hand, require no dormancy. Floating bladderworts in cold temperate zones such as the UK and Siberia can produce winter buds called turions at the extremities of their stems: as the autumnal light fails and growth slows down, the main plant may rot away or be killed by freezing conditions, but the turions will separate and sink to the bottom of the pond to rest beneath the coming ice until the spring, when they will return to the surface and resume growth. Many Australian species will grow only during the wet season, reducing themselves to tubers only 10 mm long to wait out the dry season. Other species are annual, returning from seed each year.[2]

The tip of one stolon from a U.K. instance of U. vulgaris, showing stolon, branching leaf-shoots and transparent bladder traps.

Other websites :

- oak.ppws.vt.edu/~flessner/weedguide/utrspp.htm

- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utricularia

- www.koi-pond-guide.com/bladderwort.html

- diy.sepro.com/bladderwort

6- Sensitive Plant

Neptunia Aquatica

Sensitive pond plant has fern-like leaves that close when touched. Sensitive plant floats on the water's surface or can be planted in a container and it will then spread across the water. It has a small yellow flower.

Sensitive Plant (Neptunia aquatica)
Hardiness Zones: 9-11
Light Requirements: Full Sun to Part Shade
Height: 1"-4" tall running spread
Water Depth: Floating surface pond plant or can be planted