# Looks like my limnobium laevigatum has flowered?



## castle (22 Mar 2022)




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## dw1305 (22 Mar 2022)

Hi all,
I told you they were looking healthy.
Female flower.
<"I usually get these">, rather than the male ones, other than in the glasshouse in summer (warm and loads of light) when I get both sexes.

cheers Darrel


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## MichaelJ (22 Mar 2022)

Is that what that is?  That's awesome! I've had those, but looked slightly different. Geez... didn't even realize that was a flower! They dont last long though - and didn't fully develop I think as they were hitting the glass cover.


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## dw1305 (23 Mar 2022)

Hi all,


MichaelJ said:


> I've had those, but looked slightly different.


The males flowers are marginally more <"flower like">, with obvious petals and stamens. I've had to re-assess my "_looking healthy_" in light of this image, this is <"what success looks like">.





I'm assuming that is basically limitless light and nutrients.

cheers Darrel


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## Hufsa (23 Mar 2022)

dw1305 said:


> I've had to re-assess my "_looking healthy_" in light of this image, this is <"what success looks like">.



You wake up suddenly one morning to a large explosion coming from the aquarium and a terrified cat trying to jump out the window.
The frogbit has blown out the lid of the tank, muscled straight through a wall and is currently making its way up the stairs to the second floor.

You wonder how youre going to explain this to the insurance agent

Limitless light and nutrients
Never again.


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## Wookii (23 Mar 2022)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> The males flowers are marginally more <"flower like">, with obvious petals and stamens. I've had to re-assess my "_looking healthy_" in light of this image, this is <"what success looks like">.
> 
> ...



That's monsterous! So its turns out my 'massive' low tech Frogbit are just slightly chubby babies?!


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## greenbliss (23 Mar 2022)

“Dwarf” water lettuce can also be the same. I don’t think there is a dwarf variety, just a plant kept under sub optimal conditions. I had it in an EI dosed 20l and it pushed the lid right off the tank making it fall off. Flowered constantly too.


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## dw1305 (23 Mar 2022)

Hi all,


Wookii said:


> That's monsterous! So its turns out my 'massive' low tech Frogbit are just slightly chubby babies?!


Mine have <"produced emersed leaves"> off and on when they have been crowded and under a lid, but not on that scale.







Hufsa said:


> The frogbit has blown out the lid of the tank, muscled straight through a wall and is currently making its way up the stairs to the second floor.


This is the other photo from the "Flora of Zimbabwe" link, and I'll be honest I wouldn't have turned my back on them.....<"_feed me Seymour, feed me now..._">





cheers Darrel


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## mort (23 Mar 2022)

greenbliss said:


> “Dwarf” water lettuce can also be the same. I don’t think there is a dwarf variety, just a plant kept under sub optimal conditions. I had it in an EI dosed 20l and it pushed the lid right off the tank making it fall off. Flowered constantly too.



I've had two grow to nearly 9" across over the winter in a low light, low fertiliser,  low stock tank. I know they can get far bigger but it shows potential. Interestingly only two got this big, a few more half that and the rest much smaller.


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## sparkyweasel (23 Mar 2022)

I wonder what the guy in the pic would think of the size and price of the plants in our shops.


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## castle (23 Mar 2022)

My impression is that with a rich substrate, with a fairly shallow depth, that the roots reach and root into, they might actually grow into something like you've show @dw1305 

I’m just thinking a mixing bucket filled 85% with compost and filled with water to the top could get like those images in a summer. 

I’m also now seeing that the leaves on mine are turning upwards and have become much thicker, but it’s overly crowded in the aquarium now; could the plants we see above look like that from extreme crowding from the environment and not their natural form?


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## dw1305 (24 Mar 2022)

Hi all,


castle said:


> could the plants we see above look like that from extreme crowding from the environment and not their natural form?


Yes, it is just a change in growth form, stimulated by over-crowding. Producing aerial leaves and flowering are both signals that there isn't any further room for vegetative spread,  so it makes sense to go up, rather than out.

cheers Darrel


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## castle (18 Apr 2022)

Went away for a few weeks: 











Survival of the fittest I guess. In a back corner, the red roots aren’t giving in: 





I’ll have to clean out the dead leaves. Looking good tho 👍


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## castle (25 Apr 2022)

I'm going to take out the frogbit soon, but I've observed something I think is "interesting". 

I don't think I have more than three "individual" plants, it looks like there are mother plants that are sending out runners that it remains attached to. Plants that look like they're dying are from smaller "mother plants", they're clearly out competed.  When a "mother" plant sends out a runner, the runner immediately sends out 1 or two thick roots that are just going to substrate, the leaves are different too, they're "aerial" and are on stems above the waterline.  I think there was a race to dominate, I think there is actually only two mother plants, and the rest come from them. 

I could be wrong, but these plants aren't sending out those tiny single leaf frogbit, that we've all seen. Could these runners be to "go out and find better water" as opposed to what I'm seeing, which remain attached? ~4mm thick connection roots.


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## castle (26 Apr 2022)

Stripping down the aquarium tomorrow,  so I’ve taken a couple of final photos. I have little doubt these would get somewhere near what @dw1305 showed earlier 😅 I’ve got both male and female flowers too, which is cool, I guess.  They do require more humidity than I give them though, evidenced in the drying at the edge of aerial leaves.

They’ve out competed everything, I cleared some on the left.  

Full tank shot: 





The runners from mothers, note they’re larger and angrier!  They do not detach.





Finally, from the top:


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