# Best terrestrial plants for Emersed growth



## Macman6

Hi,


I'm currently in he process of making my tank open top and growing Emersed plants using DIY suction cup planters and was having trouble finding a good list of the best Terrestrial / lower humidity plants to grow Emersed?

i'll start off by saying i've got as far as Pothos(Epipremnum) Maidenhair Fern(Adiantum) and peace lily(spathiphyllum). 

what else is a good start?

Cheers


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## Edvet

Tropical vivarium/bog plants. Just google them.


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## dw1305

Hi all, 





Macman6 said:


> i'll start off by saying i've got as far as Pothos(Epipremnum) Maidenhair Fern(Adiantum) and peace lily(spathiphyllum).


 They are all good.





Macman6 said:


> I'm currently in he process of making my tank open top and growing Emersed plants using DIY suction cup planters and was having trouble finding a good list of the best Terrestrial / lower humidity plants to grow Emersed?


_Hygrophila corymbosa_ does well. There is a picture in <"this thread">.

_<"Cyperus alternifolius">_ is another good one if you have space, I've also been successful with <"_Maranta leuconeura">.
_
Former poster Devin @Hydrophyte has a number of threads with <"emersed plants">. 

There is also the <"GuitarFish blog"> as well.

cheers Darrel


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## zozo

Syngonium a very common house plant grows well in these conditions. Chamadorea palm also rather common can do as well, this ones shows up regularly in open top emersed setups. Look the Dennerle Plant database and use the Search Filter, filter on "Usage - Terrarium" than you get a small list of terrestrial plants you probably also find in some LFS as aquarium plant, they aren't. But do well in emersed bog condition. Most of these spp can be found in local garden centres as well, but than grown much bigger than what  the lfs provides.

Actualy depending on the size you are planning when it comes to houseplants the list is rather extensive, plants suitable to grow on Hydroculture can more or less grow like that. All don't mind having their roots constantly in a puddle of water. Some don't like the plant base in the water longer term, than you need a little soil above the water level.

For example the list contains Peperomia spp. originaly this is an epiphyte, this one realy hates a constant wet rhizome and it will rot if its permanently to wet, but above the water level planted on to a piece of wood in a damp patch of moss it can do extrmely good and eventualy can grow some roots into the water. I've grown it like this for quite some months and it did good.  On top of the wood is Peperomia caperata rosso.





This also goes for most ferns, never dip the rhizome.. Even with such an extensive list of possible plants, you need to research or know them a bit how to plant them above an open top tank.

As Edvet says Vivarium Bog plants can do, aqaurium also is a vivarium and 90% of the plants we use are originaly bog plants rather growing emersed but can do submersed. The most truely tropical are the less suitable, these require a rather high air humidity and are very temp sensitive.. But we also use aquarium/bog plants from more temporate or subtropical regions for example we have a rather large list originating from temperate America's, such as Juncuns or Sagitaria even some Echinodorus grow in north America, these are plants also available in the lfs which with a little patience can addapt realy good emersed with lower humidities. So scanvange the aquarium databases filtered on region, what grows as bog plant (not true aqautic) in Europe or any other continental region with North in it is temperate or sub tropical and likely can easily addapt to lower temps and humidity.
https://www.flowgrow.de/db/aquaticplants

Visiting pond shops in the spring time, can give you loads of inspirations..

So we have an enormous list of possibilities and choices if you want to put in the time and effort..  Making these aqurium plants from the nursery addapt to dryer invironment requires some patience and time. These are all nursed under high humidity invironment, because they grow best like that. That's the nurseries goal after all they want to produce numbers to sell. Than it takes a while to transition them back to get used to lower humidities again.


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## splatteredbrainz

Any moss would work, definitely bog plants/carnivorous plants but they like it soft and make the water nutrient deprived so fish stocking can be limited. Discus and Ultums would love an environment like that though

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## Macman6

Thanks everyone, got some pennyroyal and an anthurium today that I’m going to try, want to try HC or hydroctyle tripartita overflowing from the tubs. If it turns out ok I’ll get some pictures on


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## zozo

Macman6 said:


> HC or hydroctyle tripartita



Both do relatively good emersed.. HC thrives at the water level, way easier than it does submersed.. 

RH side at the water level is HC above it is bog pimpernell.. LH side lilaeopsis brasiliensis among others. The big boy is a Echinodorus


 


Tripartita also and even way beyond, but keep an eye on Green fly.. Tripartita is a very fragile soft tissue plant, green fly loves and distroyes it in no time. Strange little greedy buggers actualy, finaly finding something it loves and than completely distroy it.


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## sciencefiction

Parlour palm.

I love mine. Although it is big now, I've had it for about 5 years until it got to that size. It grows really slowly.  I have a second one on the window sill which was planted at the same time, from the same original plant,  and it is half the size, if not smaller, than the below one planted in water in the tank. They flower all the time once established.


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## AverageWhiteBloke

Apologies for jumping in the on this thread but how does Monte Carlo do emersed  and will it cling to wood?


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## sciencefiction

dw1305 said:


> _Hygrophila corymbosa_ does well. There is a picture in <"this thread">.



The hydrophila needs humidity. I live in the most humid country you can imagine...I've kept it for years. It always tried its way out the water but the tops died right there. Now recently though, because my tiny fish room can get really humid due to the pond in there, it's been lurking its tops out for weeks without the leaves curling and drying out, though its in another tank. First time I see it not dying out of the water.


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## zozo

AverageWhiteBloke said:


> Monte Carlo do emersed and will it cling to wood?



More or less no it doesn't, not as an epiphyte at least. It depends a bit in the wood shape, it needs some nooks and cranies to root into.
Basicaly, plants do not realy need substrate for feeding, if it gets enough from the water column it will grow. So you can grow them on Rockwool, sponge, PU foam or anything else porous where roots can penetrate. So if yu have wood wit cavities than you can push in pieces of rockwool with plants as you get them from the lfs. As long as the water column has enough ferts to support it it'll grow.

Mc is not realy a climber it more is a trailing plant, but you can lead it a bit growing up onto wood. First growing mosses to the wood is a very good starting point. It provides a substrate for other plant roots to get a hold into.

Using materials as Hygrolon/Epiweb can also benefit both..


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## AverageWhiteBloke

Thanks @zozo just wondered as I'm throwing  a load out tomorrow. With you saying hc did well at the water line wondered if mc did as well. I have a piece of wood  with some nooks on water line just wondered if it was worth while stuffing some in. I'll look at your other suggestions, have to be short though as it's right under the light fitting .


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## zozo

AverageWhiteBloke said:


> With you saying hc did well at the water line wondered if mc did as well.



It did, what you see in the picture at the waterline is HC that was previous in the substrate. After some trimming some little floating stems got tangled in the moss on the wood. I just left it there end it grew exeptionaly good. It didn't survive an algae attack in the substrate and i replaced it with MC bottom right corner in that above pic is MC. Also had that growing up there in the HC. But the HC was there first grew faster and finaly won with overshadowing MC.

It didn't realy attach very firmly, it more like grew around the wood tangled its roots in the mosses and hang to it like an apron. At one point it grew so big i was to heavy to support itself and during a waterchange it almost fell off..  One day i over trimmed it a bit and that was the end of it.


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## Macman6

HC lobelia cardinalis and Lilaeopsis definitely grow well as shown in the pictures, strugglesdto get spath or pothos going, I think I might be letting the water levels vary too much.  Currently trying an anthurium and palms.


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