hydrophyte
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- Joined
- 22 Aug 2009
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If we turn to the brackish waters of the Black Sea (and the Sea of Azov, it may be even more interesting for you) there are no brackish plants in it. None of the pondweeds is able to acclimatize and flourish in the water with salinity higher than 15 ppt. And I haven't seen any freshwater/brackish plant in the waters of the northwestern part of the Black Sea (with the lowest salinity).
- Zannichellia palustris is freshwater, found in rivers, and I really doubt its chances to grow in the brackish water.
- Stuckenia pectinata is extremely hard to keep even for freshwater biotopes
- Ruppia maritima looks a promising one and I also hope to get some for my own experiments
- Eleocharis parvula from a local marsh now happily grows in my blackwater biotope with ph <6, so I can't imagine it in a marine aquarium. But who knows...
Our Black Sea is dominated by the algae, the only higher plant species are Zostera marina and Zostera noltii. Both look pretty beautiful, they can tolerate wide range of salinity and are on my wishlist to get after our victory.
Pondweeds are quite tricky plants and need special care. Is the Potamogeton perfoliatus from your photo still alive?
I had forgotten about it, but now you remind me about Zostera marina. Maybe I will try that one too. Some references describe it as higher-end brackish (20-31ppt) while others mention 10ppt as lower tolerance. I'll see how the Halodula wrightii—supposed to get here with the mail this week—does first, then try to get Z. marina if I get some results.
There are various sources including scientific papers describing Eleocharis parvula and Zannichellia palustris for moderate salinity brackish. I'll see how it goes with the Elecoharis and try to find some wild Zannichellia here this summer. I hope I can find Ruppia maritima somehow too. We don't have any salty water n this area, but closely related R. spiralis is documented with records here and is described for Black Sea brackish waters as well.
I'm pretty sure the fine-foliage stuff in our creek is Stuckenia pectinata. It's literally just 60 meters away from the front door, but I will have to wait probably till the end of May for foliage to appear.
The Potamogeton perfoliatus seems to be doing great. The foliage has already about doubled and it shows aggressive development of new shoots and roots. Algae is growing too, but this will diminish as foliage expands.
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