Overhanging grasses in riparium

[Schuyler]

I'm planning a riparium setup to mimic an undercut riverbank. I want to have grass (or something similar) that hangs over the edge and to the water.
Here's some of my inspiration:



So far the options seem to be:
1) Acorus gramineus (which seems alright most of what I can find has yellow on it)
2) Ophiopogon japonicus

Are there other options? Preferably things that have thick, green blades

 

[Tyko_N]

Preferably things that have thick, green blades

I would go with Cyperus 'zumula', not that thick leaves but looks very "grassy" and tolerates most conditions as long as the leaves are allowed to at least partly poke out of the water. Chlorophytum comosum (spider plant) might also work, and there are all-green varieties that could look pretty good, it prefers to have the rosette mostly out of the water though.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Chlorophytum comosum (spider plant) would be a good one. I have an "all green" one if you can't find it anywhere else.

I want to have grass (or something similar) that hangs over the edge and to the water.
Here's some of my inspiration:

You could try <"fresh Lemon grass"> (Cymbopogon citratus), 60p for two in Sainsbury. I've grown it like this <"a couple of times">.

A bit of a left field suggestion is "Lemon Grass", (Cymbopogon citratus). I haven't tried it in a sump, but it grows like mad and is easy to grow if kept warm. To obtain it you go to the supermarket of your choice, and buy a pack for thai curry etc. Place the bases in some water (or potting compost) and it will start growing.

cheers Darrel

 

[tam]

Actual grass? Cocksfoot is a wider bladed, clump forming one - you can find it in a field.

Or there might be an ornimental grass that would suit - this looks like it might be an option if you aren't planting directly into the water. Buy Hakonechloa macra from Woodhams Plants

Or just go for a bit of turf from a garden - most of it gets more interesting looking when you don't mow it 2" short all the time.

 

[tam]

There is a list of 'pond edge' grass species here: Pond Edge Seed Mix
Common Bent Agrostis capillaris
Crested Dogstail Cynosurus cristatus
Slender-creeping Red-fescue Festuca rubra
Meadow Fescue Schedonorus pratensis - (Festuca pratensis)

The dogstail looks promising: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Kamgras_(Cynosurus_cristatus).jpg

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Common Bent Agrostis capillaris

Agrostis stolonifera (<"Creeping Bent">) would work, but it grows like mad. If I was going to try a UK species, I'd go for a Sedge (Carex spp.), rather than a grass, mainly because most grasses are going to get big quickly.

<"Carex pseudocyperus">? might be an option and is easily obtainable as a pond plant.

cheers Darrel

 

[zozo]

No idea what scaling you are after, most grasses need to grow quite tall before they go hanging. For a miniature world on a limited footprint tall plants with thick leaves easily will grow out of proportion.

Personally, I had great success with Lilaeopsis brasiliensis, this plant also grows very well in outdoor conditions and is often sold as (an oxygenator) pond plant in garden centres in much cheaper and bigger (1-litre pot) portions.

It grows very easily in terrestrial/marginal form as well as submerged and thrives relatively well under limited indoor light conditions. There are a few taller Lilaeopsis sp. in the trade but I have no experience with these.

With indoor paludarium and marginal growing plants, your light intensity will be the limited factor of success... Most plants hate soaking wet roots with insufficient light intensity and will not thrive and have a hard time surviving. I can't give any numbers on this it's a trial and error in the trade they speak only of Lumens and it's what you see is what you get without any expensive measuring equipment. In my experience, Lilaeopsis sp. did best whereas a lot of others failed under the same conditions.

Lilaeopsis brasiliensis - Tropica Aquarium Plants

The right aquarium plants

tropica.com

As Tropica states, Easy plant but it still needs relatively high light conditions to grow into full potential up to 7cm tall... It stays significantly smaller if this is not met.

 

[X3NiTH]

Lilaeopsis would be my choice also and if I didn’t want uniformity in height I would mix the species, Brasilensis, Novae-Zelandiae and Mauritiana.

 

[Schuyler]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I guess it would have helped if I had shared that I was going to try doing in in a small tank.

Lots to investigate! I'm thinking Lilaeopsis Mauritiana looks pretty promising. Bonus, it's mildly biotypical for my setup.

 

[zozo]

Lots to investigate! I'm thinking Lilaeopsis Mauritiana looks pretty promising.

- Tropica Aquarium Plants

The right aquarium plants

tropica.com

According to Tropica it's in the Medium range, but this obviously points to submerged growth in an aquarium. How well it will grow in emerged form outside of a climate-regulated greenhouse is the investigative part. Anyway, for all plants you buy in the LFS, it doesn't matter from which nursery they come it will be the terrestrial form nursed in a greenhouse with sufficient +90% air humidity and ample light. There are very few that transition very well to sudden lesser conditions, then you need to take the Wabi Kusa approach and slowly transition the plant to an environment with less air humidity. For example, put it in a jar with a closed lid open it daily for an x period and close it again. This you do daily and every day a little bit longer till the day you can leave the lid off permanently. Depending on the sensitivity of the plant this can take weeks.

To find out about aquarium plants that fare well in emerging and livingroom conditions it's good advice to follow some Wabi Kusa communities. Then still it might be a long shot, one's success isn't always something universal and the same approach still can be another's demise. We are dealing with microclimates, little things can mean big differences from day to day.

I guess it's pretty common to have the idea of air humidity above an open-top aquarium. riparium or paludarium is always sufficient since the plant will be close to the water line it must be in a rather moist air bubble. But this unfortunately ain't the case... The indoor house environment is pretty dry and the lights above the tank are warm moist air that evaporates from the tank and is sucked away much too fast mixing with the warm and rising dry indoor air. I monitored the air humidity 2 inches above an open-top tank for months with a permanent hygrometer and it never got any higher than 25%. Strangely the airhumidity 2 inches above the water line was dryer than the average air humidity in the room the tank was in. This I can only contribute to the warmth updraft of the lights above the tank. It didn't make any sense, but the numbers didn't lie. As said microclimates, are strange things.

 

[tam]

I've grown Lilaeopsis Mauritiana on a window sill, that was under a plastic lid, but I didn't try it without that I recall. Now you've said that, I also grew Echinodorus tenellus (I think they renamed it but I can't remember the new name) in the same way and emersed it has a much broader leaf. Might be worth experimenting with too.

 

[SirBuce]

- Tropica Aquarium Plants

The right aquarium plants

tropica.com

According to Tropica it's in the Medium range, but this obviously points to submerged growth in an aquarium. How well it will grow in emerged form outside of a climate-regulated greenhouse is the investigative part. Anyway, for all plants you buy in the LFS, it doesn't matter from which nursery they come it will be the terrestrial form nursed in a greenhouse with sufficient +90% air humidity and ample light. There are very few that transition very well to sudden lesser conditions, then you need to take the Wabi Kusa approach and slowly transition the plant to an environment with less air humidity. For example, put it in a jar with a closed lid open it daily for an x period and close it again. This you do daily and every day a little bit longer till the day you can leave the lid off permanently. Depending on the sensitivity of the plant this can take weeks.

To find out about aquarium plants that fare well in emerging and livingroom conditions it's good advice to follow some Wabi Kusa communities. Then still it might be a long shot, one's success isn't always something universal and the same approach still can be another's demise. We are dealing with microclimates, little things can mean big differences from day to day.

I guess it's pretty common to have the idea of air humidity above an open-top aquarium. riparium or paludarium is always sufficient since the plant will be close to the water line it must be in a rather moist air bubble. But this unfortunately ain't the case... The indoor house environment is pretty dry and the lights above the tank are warm moist air that evaporates from the tank and is sucked away much too fast mixing with the warm and rising dry indoor air. I monitored the air humidity 2 inches above an open-top tank for months with a permanent hygrometer and it never got any higher than 25%. Strangely the airhumidity 2 inches above the water line was dryer than the average air humidity in the room the tank was in. This I can only contribute to the warmth updraft of the lights above the tank. It didn't make any sense, but the numbers didn't lie. As said microclimates, are strange things.

Ah I agreed strongly with that - recently I am thinking more and more about getting a closed tank for my next vivarium/riparium project (permanent home for my turtles ha).

From my experience (My Turtle Vivarium with Buce (98L), i should make an update on that soon...), it is not even a big tank and I have been so disappointed with the air humidity/wetness for the land part setup. I thought ok maybe this is Ireland having not ideal room temp/humidity for open-top tank setup; recently I got some Thermometers/Humidity indicator for each room confirming the humidity is not low at all (hovering around 60-70%), room temp 18-25+C (after the summer months it should around ~20C) - all doesn't sound that bad for an open-top tank but it has been not easy at all to maintain the vivarium for the past 9 months (and many failed experiments/plants ha).