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Giant Vallis - in Flower!

Every time you can see the mid rib, wich can be seen pics above, the plant can`t belong to genus Vallisneria . The margin of vallis is slightly serrated, you can feel it but not see without magnifying glass. The leaf of vallis is totally flat and smooth when touched. One possibility to confuse is also Helanthium `Angustifolium` ( from Alismataceae-family) , its leaf is flat, feels a bit "plastic like" and is slightly rough and rigid, where Sagittaria is smooth and soft (=not so rigid). The leaf of Sagittaria subulata is lenticular when cut half. Since H `Angustifolium`is quite rare in our hobby, I always bet for Sagittaria when this "how to differentiate" question is asked.

Briefly:

Vallisneria: smooth leaf, margin serrated, no mid rib, loose way of growing, flat when cut half
Sagittaria (subulata): smooth, margin entire, mid rib, lenticular when cut half
Helanthium (`Angustifolium`) bit rough, feels like "plastic", mid rib, slightly rigid, margin entire, flat when cut half

Hope this helps. I have had similar problems when I tried to find H `Angustifolium` (never succeeded), but got kind help from Mr Falck who knows (current and past) Alismataceae-family pretty well I think. I hope I can remember right all details of each and every plant! I made precise notes when talking to him, but unfortunately cant find them right now.

Cheers, Maria
 
OK, thanks for that Maria, using those pointers I have just cut a piece off and I can confirm it's got a centre rib and is quite smooth. The fact it's got a centre rib confirms it's not Vallis and the fact it's smooth and not rough tells me it's not H. Angustifolium - Then when I looked at the link above posted by Hoggie I found this under Sagittaria subulata - so I reckon that pretty much identifies it as Sag

This plant may cause problems because in certain conditions it suddenly grows to a height of 50 cm when it grows older. But if it is then moved into the background it may become low again. In the aquarium it sometimes sends a long flower stem to the surface, and small white flowers unfold just above the water surface.

Agreed?
 
hogan53 said:
Helanthium `Angustifolium
Ive also had this plant very rough leaf structure like sand paper.
Cheers
hoggie
Click to expand...

Yes, when I read Marias descriptions I started to think that maybe thats what I've got, until I felt how smooth it was so that was out! Thanks Hoggie.

So we still looking at it being Sagittaria subulata
 
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