Finding your own plants from nature?

[Tacit Blues]

So for work I have to visit a dam and monitor the outlet channel. Three times a week I see this...

...and I think "I wonder what kind of plants those are?" Not that I really want to try and pick some plants and lug them back up the dam, but still, I'm curious.

Does anyone know what these might be? And does anyone have any experience with finding plants from just outside your door to use in your aquarium?

 

[absolutangel04]

First off, make sure to know the legal situation regarding native plant collection in your area. It is good to know if it is ok, and if there are banned plants. Also, what areas is it allowed to collect from. Generally, that info shoudl be pretty easy to find at your state's natural resources division's website.
Next off, plenty of people do actually collect plants from outdoor habitats. I have done it, though personally never had much luck with anything rooted. Duck weed did well, but my filter ate it all.

 

[BBradbury]

Plants

So for work I have to visit a dam and monitor the outlet channel. Three times a week I see this...

...and I think "I wonder what kind of plants those are?" Not that I really want to try and pick some plants and lug them back up the dam, but still, I'm curious.

Does anyone know what these might be? And does anyone have any experience with finding plants from just outside your door to use in your aquarium?

Hello Tac...

Looks very similar to Frogbit to me. However, plants not grown in an aquarium like environment and then put into one, don't do well, long term. I've tried this on several occasions and the plants grow well for a time, but die off. I guess it's because I wasn't able to duplicate the original growing conditions.

B

 

[MICEY]

probably work better in a pond than a tank or at least in a cold water tank

 

[aqua_chem]

Looks like watercress to me. Google some pictures and let me know what you think; we really can't see much from that picture. I know that there's plenty of it growing around the western slope area.

 

[Tacit Blues]

I think this should be a higher resolution version in case you wanted to zoom in on it a bit more. Looking at watercress from google, it seems similar. The leafy stuff definitely isn't a floating plant, or at least, the stems go all the way to the bottom of the channel. What do you suppose the plant on the right hand side of the photo, that's all submerged, could be? It's pretty frond-y, like Hornwort, maybe, but finer. Guess I could bring my wading boots with me the next time I go and get down in the water to fish some out for better pictures...

 

[Tacit Blues]

And apparently it's not THAT much of a higher resolution...

 

[mitnart]

Hello. The resolution of the photo looks fine. I am able to zoom in on my iPad2. My guess the plants on the left looks very similar to Duckweed and the ones on the right looks like some sort of moss. Then again perhaps a mixture of moss and algae?


Sent from my iPad 2 using Aquarium Advice

 

[aqua_chem]

The problem is that we can't really see the leaf/stem structure in that picture. I agree that it doesn't look much like a floating plant.

Other plant could be an algae, or could be a native moss, eg fissidens. Once again, we don't have the resolution to really make anything too distinguishing in that picture.

 

[Tacit Blues]

I think I'm going out there tomorrow, so if I can get down in there I'll try to take some better pictures.

 

[Tacit Blues]

The plant with the little white flowers that seems to be mostly on the surface of the water:

And the other plant, that seems to stay mostly under the surface and is much more frond-y:

 

[Brookster123]

Top almost looks like lobelias cardinale?? Probably not though

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[Tacit Blues]

I don't think I've ever seen it get that red, though right now the very tops seem to be starting to turn purple--but I thought that was because the days are getting cooler for autumn.

 

[aqua_chem]

I feel pretty good about the top being watercress, but I'll have to blow up the second pic to get a better idea of what it is after I get home from work.

 

[bettaowner]

I've seen anacharis grow wild in many streams here in Hawaii. On a neighboring island I found a stream with a plant that looked like some sort of ludwigia.

 

[Tacit Blues]

I'm going to agree with you that the first one is watercress.

 

[jetajockey]

2nd pic looks like hornwort to me.