# (Probaby not) Glossostigma from seed - impulse eBay buy.



## three-fingers

Hi all,

Today I received a surprise in the mail - a wee glass bottle full of seeds. I'd forgotten impulse buying this for £1.14 on eBay about a month ago, probably after a few beers, as I'd normally avoid this type of listing.

They were sold as "Glossostigma" seeds, here's the listing:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/391509822507
I very much doubt glosso seeds are available this cheap, but am interested to find out what the seeds actually are.  Would be nice if it's an aquatic species, I think this is unlikely though.  There are loads of scam seed listing on eBay, my favorite are the "rainbow rose seeds" .

I've put some seeds in a small plastic pot filled with carnivorous plant soil (peat+sand) as this is all I have to hand atm, it's under an 11w florescent on a north facing windowsill, and I'll post pics to let you know what sprouts .

Here is what I received, will update with more pics later:





I've tried to translate the text using an app but no success so far, if anyone who speaks some Chinese could give me the gist of what the leaflet says, I'd be very interested to hear .


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## Nelson

Not sure what they are,but I now fancy a sandwich .


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## Mick.Dk

Most likely Herniaria glabra............."Rupturewort"
- used for quick carpeting inbetween rocks in japan-style gardening.
.........and Herniaria is not an aquatic!


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## three-fingers

Nelson said:


> Not sure what they are,but I now fancy a sandwich .


Hmmm, me too now, egg and cress is a favorite and that sandwich looks great thanks .



Mick.Dk said:


> Most likely Herniaria glabra............."Rupturewort"
> - used for quick carpeting inbetween rocks in japan-style gardening.
> .........and Herniaria is not an aquatic!


Will be interesting to see if it is this species, there was both small "S" and large "L" types available in the listing, so presumably two different species. I went for the "L" large size.


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## funkycat

I also bought the 'S' version for kicks. 

 I was gonna put it in my tank but once the seeds got wet they forms this mucusy slimy coating and all stuck together. I took it out but some seeds evidently remained. They look like this 






Kinda cool but definitely not glosso

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## zozo

three-fingers said:


> I've tried to translate the text using an app but no success so far, if anyone who speaks some Chinese could give me the gist of what the leaflet says, I'd be very interested to hear .


I do not speak nor can read a word Chinese, but seeing the non Chinese symbols on the leaflet it obviousy is a guide with instructions about how to grow it. 
A rough guess what it says with some logic 1+1 = 2, most likely for both types large and small,It is enough seeds to carpet 50cmx50cm square. Ample co2 is recomended at 15 to 26° C,  S plant gets 2 - 5 cm large and place seeds 1-2cm apart.. L plant gets 3 to 5 cm and place seeds 2 cm apart.. In 5 to 10 weeks you have an awsome planted carpet making everybody jalious..


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## Martin in Holland

Sounds like Glosso... they are talking about 2 leaves facing eachother, easy to grow, water quality, and so on..( describing Glosso's needs in a long a boring way as only Chinese can do)


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## three-fingers

Well, nothing sprouted, the windowsill may have been too cold though.  

I also sprinkled some seeds into the tubs of water I have carnivorous plants in...the seeds just floated and went fuzzy with mould.  I have no idea how funkycat got their seeds to sink, maybe I should have bought the "S" version.

I still have loads of seeds, so next I'll try some on some rockwool in a plastic pot attached to the side of a tank with suction cups.


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## three-fingers

The ones on rockwool have germinated, as have some that i sprinkled into a breeding net. Once germinated they seem to have neutral buoyancy, and the slimy/fuzzy seed casing separate from the cotyledons.  I painstakingly planted the ones from the breeding net into a pot full of soil/sand in one of my tanks...only for the Amano shrimp to quickly gobble them up! 

At least the shrimp can't reach these ones in a different tank:


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## Progen

I'm curious to know what the L grows into.


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## three-fingers

Still growing.


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## Stuart Deavy

Hi, do you have an update to how these are growing. I too had a beer induced impulse buy of same seeds from China. They have just gone into a cheap second hand tank I have acquired along with some hairgrass seeds(paruva I think) and some star grass seeds(pelargonium) 


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## Alex J

Watching with interest. I bought some "java fern spores " from Ebay a while ago, i have just sown them in the last couple of days, not entirely convinced that they are actually java fern spores but for £2.99 delivered i thought it's worth a try. I believe that if genuine they can take some time to germinate, would be interested to hear if anyone else has tried these and what if any success was achieved.


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## Stuart Deavy

So the hair grass is germinating well, no movement on the other 2 as yet

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## three-fingers

Update - slowed in growth and starting to go slightly yellow, I have it in a heavily planted goldfish tank, floating/submerged plant growth is so fast under my high lighting +micro ferts that the API test results look like 0ppm NO3. I don't trust the results from most test kits, but was surprised at the yellowing so thought I'd test just to see if NO3 was on the high or low end of the scale (can't trust the exact value).

Look's like I'll have to add macros to the tank or repot into soil on a windowsill.

Certainly not _Glossostigma_!


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## Stuart Deavy

Hmm that doesn't sound too promising for my project! But as they are sown now I'm gonna ride it out and see where it leads. On a plus the hairgrass has reached 3inches tall in 5 days. But will have to see what the counterfeit Glosso ends up like

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## Stuart Deavy

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## Alex J

Definitely not Glosso! Wouldn't be surprised if it develops a daisy like flower i bet the people  selling these are laughing thier socks off. More and more iam wondering what i have , if I'm lucky i might end up with some kind of fern , just not java.


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## Stuart Deavy

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## dw1305

Hi all,





three-fingers said:


> Certainly not _Glossostigma_!


Looks like lettuce seedlings, but they could be plenty of other plants.





Stuart Deavy said:


> On a plus the hairgrass has reached 3inches tall in 5 days. But will have to see what the counterfeit Glosso ends up like


The "hair-grass" is a real grass (Poaceae).

The grass "seed" is a fruit (<"Caryopsis">), but _Eleocharis_ species (below) are from the <"Cyperaceae"> have a little black fruit like a sedge (_Carex_).





A thought occurs that if I wasn't too scrupulous about what I was selling as "_Glossostigma_" etc. agricultural seeds would be a good option as they are cheap to buy and will germinate quickly, with a high percentage germination.

cheers Darrel


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## Stuart Deavy

Thanks for the information Darrel, I think it probably would be best to accept I've been done, and restart this whole project with my eyes a little wider. 

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## three-fingers

Update, still not sure what it is:



 
I also have one single seed that sprouted underwater, it's still alive, but hasn't really grown.


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## Alex J

Looks a bit like basil . My "java fern"  spores i bought from ebay are growing nicely, shame  i didn't know  that" java fern" is a chinese name  for grass because thats what's sprouted


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## Progen

These are the S versions after 6 months. Most likely Hygrophila polysperma "tiger". I have both red and green versions.


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## GHNelson

Triffids......


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## three-fingers

Still growing! Although it seems to be deficient in iron and/or nitrogen, and the top part of the plant has grown past the T5 luminaire so doesn't receive much light. Also the two big fancy goldfish in the tank have eaten most of the roots . I've placed more stones in the tank to help protect the roots and may get some some osmocote to eliminate any deficiency.


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## Progen

Could also be the heat from the light causing them to shrivel.


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## Alex J

This is my "java fern"   not all is lost though as i have a small  bald patch of lawn in my garden that needs filling in 



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## Progen

I got some marketed as Java moss. I didn't notice the 'seeds' at the end of the title. Haven't planted them yet.

I don't mind if my seeds turn out to be grass and are aquatic. As for Java fern, I personally can't imagine anyone buying seeds especially when I have over a hundred plantlets in my tank now.


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## Joellll

My Anubias seeds.


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## dw1305

Hi all, 





Joellll said:


> My Anubias seeds.


As you've probably gathered from this thread that is definitely not _Anubias, Anubias_ is a an <"Aroid"> and they are <"monocotyledons">, your plant is a dicotyledon.

cheers Darrel


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## three-fingers

Just thought I'd post an update - this plant is still growing well, it has flowered and now has what looks like seed pods:



 



Still no idea what species it actually is though, it tries to grow submersed too but I have it in a goldfish tank so any new shoots are quickly eaten. The main stems are too thick to be eaten by the goldfish, it's  constantly putting out new roots as well although all but he thickest get eaten.  Every week or two I remove a chunk of it to stop it blocking out too much light (it's under 2x24w T5s), as seen below:


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## LondonDragon

Gigantic glosso!!


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## Tim Harrison

It'd make a nice lawn...in a gigantic tank


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## zozo

Joellll said:


> My Anubias seeds.
> 
> View attachment 109095



This is funny.. A while back i ordered a batch of Drosera peltata seeds at Ebay from Singapore.. Forgot to photograph the seeds, but they looked like little shiny black 0.5mm perfect round golf balls.

This is what hatched.  Looks surprisingly simular to your Anubias.. 




Anyway, i contacted and confronted the seller with this picture and he excused himself with claiming he accidently sended me the wrong seeds and offered me a refund or a resend.

Gave hime the benefit of the doubt and accepted a resend after sending him this for comparisson.





Still waiting in anticipation what i get this time.


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## dw1305

Hi all, 





three-fingers said:


> it has flowered and now has what looks like seed pods:


Flower looks like a _Hygrophila.



 
_
From @hydrophyte's <"Proven Riparium ....">.

cheers Darrel


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## three-fingers

Awesome, well spotted, cheers Darrel!

Definitely a _Hygrophila _spp.! Could be_ H.corymbosa _of some variety, time to sift through hundreds of Google image search results lol!

If the Chinese eBay seller had just sold these has "_Hygrophila_ sp. seeds", I would have bought them anyway .

Some of the seed pods seem to have matured as I found some sprouts stuck behind a breeding net, these mystery seeds have been fun to watch develop!


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## zozo

three-fingers said:


> Awesome, well spotted, cheers Darrel!
> 
> Definitely a _Hygrophila _spp.! Could be_ H.corymbosa _of some variety, time to sift through hundreds of Google image search results lol!
> 
> If the Chinese eBay seller had just sold these has "_Hygrophila_ sp. seeds", I would have bought them anyway .
> 
> Some of the seed pods seem to have matured as I found some sprouts stuck behind a breeding net, these mystery seeds have been fun to watch develop!



Well just thinking out of the (glass)box, why would somebody be interested in cultivating and collecting Hygrophila sp. besides aquarium hobbyists. Obviously the collectors and sellers don't have much affiliation with aquarium hobby don't realy care for details and only see the exploit.. Anyway, since the majority of flowering plants in the aquarium hobby are herbaceous plants. First thing that comes to mind with Herbs is Medicinal and or culinary use.

Now we finaly know it's a Hygrophila sp.  we can narrow the search with looking into which Hygrophila is cultivated/collected for other means as well.

The first one i found is Marsh Barbel..
Hygrophila auriculata / syn. spinosa / syn. longifolia

The smart @$$ that got to the idea to  put them seeds in pots and sell it as aquarium plant, likely even don't know or care it as Hygrophila. For them it could be known as Kokilaaksha, Talimakhana, gokulakanta, Ikshura or Ikshugandha and it grows in wet places and it sells.. 

https://examine.com/supplements/asteracantha-longifolia/


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