Ripe for Picking: a Guide to Collecting your own Bountiful Botanicals

[Tyko_N]

Very impressive work @shangman , I definitely understand why you were a bit overwhelmed before.

This evening I've added a bit more to Palms & Ferns, let me know if you have any additions to here.

I can recommend Davallia ferns and parlour palms (Chamaedorea elegans) as something that you can easily grow indoors and get an interesting leaf from now and then. I have used small amounts of Davallia fronds numerous time without ill effects, and they hold up well under water, the leaves are also much smaller than many other ferns so it could be useful for nano tanks. Chamaedorea leaves look great, and could again be more of a nano option compared to those of date palms etc.. They are not that sturdy though, so expect the leaflets to come off after a couple of weeks or so (depending on how boisterous fish you have), but they still take a while to break down after they have fallen off so you could probably make a very natural display if you kept adding new ones.

Avoid Nephrolepis fern fronds, the leaflets are both quick to decompose and quickly detaches leaving you with an empty leaf stem.

 

[Myrtle]

I picked up some crab apple (Malus sylvestris) from my local park yesterday, often found in front gardens too if you've no local park!

 

[shangman]

Very impressive work @shangman , I definitely understand why you were a bit overwhelmed before.

I can recommend Davallia ferns and parlour palms (Chamaedorea elegans) as something that you can easily grow indoors and get an interesting leaf from now and then. I have used small amounts of Davallia fronds numerous time without ill effects, and they hold up well under water, the leaves are also much smaller than many other ferns so it could be useful for nano tanks. Chamaedorea leaves look great, and could again be more of a nano option compared to those of date palms etc.. They are not that sturdy though, so expect the leaflets to come off after a couple of weeks or so (depending on how boisterous fish you have), but they still take a while to break down after they have fallen off so you could probably make a very natural display if you kept adding new ones.

Avoid Nephrolepis fern fronds, the leaflets are both quick to decompose and quickly detaches leaving you with an empty leaf stem.

Thank you! Yes it was quite a lot, especially as before I started with writing the guides and got overwhelmed with the writing lol. I prefer doing it this way though, makes it feel a bit easier - get all the bulk info out there and then write up bit by bit. It feels like already it's a good way there, and already got useful lists for people to try, even if they have to do some more googling for pics.

Excellent suggestions, I've added them! The ferns and palm sections are ones I've like to update with more options, as they're probably the most exotic looking leaves which need to be collected yourself rather than bought. With the Davallia ferns, when do you collect them? It is in particular season, or just one or two at a time year round?

I have the same problem with fern fronds like the nephrolepis, my dad keeps a big collection of ferns and the majority of them fall apart before I can ever get them in a tank. Very rude and their leaves and stunning! But there are a few more options I can try...

I picked up some crab apple (Malus sylvestris) from my local park yesterday, often found in front gardens too if you've no local park!
View attachment 198268

Ah of course! I've added these to the list. At the same time as collecting the leaves, you can collect the fruit too and make some fabulous jelly from it, the best is crab apple jelly with sauternes wine and herbs, with cheese at Christmas it's DIVINE.

___
Another edit this morning - added a Shrub & Bush section, with a few contributions to that list. Also added everything from the 'to add' list to the trees, and a few palm & fern updates.
Please let me know if I've made any mistakes which need updating, it's quite a lot to add all together so it's easy to miss things.

 

[Tyko_N]

With the Davallia ferns, when do you collect them? It is in particular season, or just one or two at a time year round?

I grow them indoors (not sure if any species would be winter hardy in the UK) just picking any dying or fallen fronds, so yes you only tend to get one or two every now and then, depending on how many you have 😉 If you put freshly fallen ones into a tank they tend to retain their shape, but if dried they get wrinkled and a bit more brittle, so best used directly.

 

[shangman]

I grow them indoors (not sure if any species would be winter hardy in the UK) just picking any dying or fallen fronds, so yes you only tend to get one or two every now and then, depending on how many you have 😉 If you put freshly fallen ones into a tank they tend to retain their shape, but if dried they get wrinkled and a bit more brittle, so best used directly.

That's perfect, a really good option for someone who wants to grow their own botanicals but doesn't have a garden 🙂 I've added the extra info to the table.

 

[shangman]

I've added a bit of an introduction and started doing other bits to the first page.

Would anyone like to volunteer to write about how to prepare botanicals? I am very lazy and just chuck them in! Maybe someone else who does it more properly could write that section.

It would also be AWESOME to get some pics of your collected btoanicals in your tanks for the inspirations post 🙂

 

[Courtneybst]

sauternes wine

One of the best.


Did a forage at work today. Picked up Apple, Hazel, Walnut, English Oak and Nettles 😍 All from a 10 second radius!

 

[Buggy]

This is right up my street. Thank you for your efforts @shangman

I have been collecting all Autumn and finally started to cycle the new tank last week.
It's purely based around botanicals, and has all kind of mulch, cones and leaves.

I met with my mother tonight and she had a small bag of alder cones. She joked about how I've encouraged her to walk around looking at the ground. Which I find amusing. I even bought her a tree identification book for her birthday in August. It's almost like I knew I'd be roping her into collecting botanicals come autumn time.

 

[Buggy]

Picked up Apple, Hazel, Walnut, English Oak and Nettles 😍 All from a 10 second radius!

I still need to get some nettle leaves. I got stung a couple of weeks back and eventually ended up walking home rubbing myself with a doc leaf. Gave me childhood flashbacks!

 

[shangman]

One of the best.

View attachment 198275
Did a forage at work today. Picked up Apple, Hazel, Walnut, English Oak and Nettles 😍 All from a 10 second radius!

It's so satisfying when you realise how many 'botanicals' we're surrounded by in Autumn! Makes collecting them for your tank a breeze.

This guide has got me to finally think about setting up my South American 200l again, and I'm v into searching out for the more tropical looking botanicals. We need to try some more London parks !

I basically made this guide because I'm a leaf snob lmao

This is right up my street. Thank you for your efforts @shangman

I have been collecting all Autumn and finally started to cycle the new tank last week.
It's purely based around botanicals, and has all kind of mulch, cones and leaves.

I met with my mother tonight and she had a small bag of alder cones. She joked about how I've encouraged her to walk around looking at the ground. Which I find amusing. I even bought her a tree identification book for her birthday in August. It's almost like I knew I'd be roping her into collecting botanicals come autumn time.

Thanks Buggy, I hope the guide is useful to you and your new aquarium 🙂

I really like this about botanicals, it encourages us all to get out, explore local parks and see plants in a different light. You could even pair it with a bit of mushroom foraging too for maximum fun scavenger hunt vibes.

 

[Buggy]

I really like this about botanicals, it encourages us all to get out, explore local parks and see plants in a different light.

Absolutely! That's the real beauty of it. I meet up with my mother and sister once a week for a walk now. That wouldn't have been a thing without my interest in botanicals.

 

[Courtneybst]

I got stung a couple of weeks back

I avoided being stung right up until the last minute when I was picking the bag up to go home. 🥲 Nettles 1 - Humans 0.

 

[Witcher]

Absolutely! That's the real beauty of it. I meet up with my mother and sister once a week for a walk now. That wouldn't have been a thing without my interest in botanicals.

I got completely shocked when realized that my mum is true expert (and my grandpa was a master of mushroom foraging, but that's another story) in herbs etc which we can find around us - not a placebo ones but those which are really useful in daily life (I've tested majority of them). The best moments of my life are when we go to the meadows and woods and she is like: "oh, look! yet another wild carrot* here but be careful as there are toxic plants very similar to them (I think she meant poison hemlock/conium maculatum - this is an extremely dangerous plant, most of its parts can be deadly toxic even in small quantities, so please make sure you know what you're picking if you do. There are certain sources saying that deadly hemlock and not cicuta virosa/water hemlock was a poison used to kill Socrates), and there are wild hops climbing on that viburnum tree, very useful when you can't sleep - just make a tea of them, you can also make wonderful jam of viburnum fruits" etc. etc.

I miss that a lot because unlike you it happens to me only once/twice a year.

A little story: my daughter got warts on her feet, most probably from the swimming pool. We've tried a lots of "official" medicaments which didn't worked. After one year or so we've visited my parents and my mum obviously noticed warts and went straight away to the nearest meadow (my parents live in small city surrounded by forests/meadows etc.). She brought few stalks of the greater celandine (chelidonium majus) and squeezed out just few drops of orange sap directly on the warts. Within 4 days or so the warts turned black and fell off and they never turned back.
And that's when I've became a wannabe herbalist.

*surprisingly wild carrot root is usually white-ish and its taste (unlike cultivated one) varies depending on the soil it grows.

@shangman I'm sorry for trashing this topic with no aquatic info but I can bet most of botanicals useful for our little friends are also useful for us humans. And other way round.

 

[Jaseon]

Im always collecting dried leaves for my shrimp tanks, and have nettles growing in the garden which they enjoy.

What about live plants though? Ive always wanted to have a tank with native plants that are suitable for the aquarium.

The only one i have tried native to the UK is water starwort that did ok.

Common water crowfoot,

 

[Tyko_N]

It would also be AWESOME to get some pics of your collected botanicals in your tanks for the inspirations post 🙂

I have a recently started blackwater tank, although I think I went a bit overboard because the water is the colour of very strong tea, hopefully this will clear a bit over the coming weeks. Some ambiance shots:

Also, me trying to photograph a tank where you can't see a thing:

A couple of better pictures of what leaves start to look like after a while, along with the nice thick layer of detritus that develops (rife with ostracods and other little critters), from my Fundulopanchax gardneri grow-out tank:

What about live plants though? Ive always wanted to have a tank with native plants that are suitable for the aquarium.

The straggly stem plant in the tank above is Utricularia intermedia, which has done pretty well for a few months so far.

 

[John q]

Experiment 1 with Alder cones and Catappa leaves now concluded, will tackle Beech and Oak leaves at the weekend.

 

[Tyko_N]

Results from week one of leaf trials done, added to earlier post for ease of comparison. The next batch is for top row: rooibos tea, benjamin fig (Ficus benjamina), and Davallia sp. fern. Bottom row: Grey alder cone (Alnus incana), parlour palm (Chamaedorea elegans), and bracken (Pteridium aquilinum). Interested to see how the alder cones compares to rooibos tea, also, not sure if you have experienced the same @John q but to me it seems like alder cones tint the water to a certain colour and then keeps that, if you then add fresh water the cones will start tinting heavely again until the colour has returned to previous level. When I was experimenting with making my own blackwater extract a few years back I found that I 2 or 3 batches of water (with about the same colour) from one batch of alder cones.


Edit: After 8 days, looks like my alder cones might have been a bit old, I would have expected them to tint almost as much as the rooibos tea.

 

[John q]

to me it seems like alder cones tint the water to a certain colour and then keeps that

Yeah I'd agree with that. The alder cone tint seemed to peak around the 24hr mark and then remained constant, even though they were clearly still leaching. Unfortunately I only left the cones in the new water for 12hrs, so didn't get chance to see if the original tint colour returned.

 

[AlecF]

Just to say, while it isn't contributing to tint, I find that gingko leaves last very well, and the golden ones add an unexpected bright colour to a tank.

 

[fishandting]

Thanks for taking the time to put this together, looks like a great resource.

I've collected a load of leaves from magnolia, English oak and what I think is Chinkapin oak (had to use a plant ID app to find out) and have had them in the tank for a few weeks. There's not much of a tint, but the amano shrimp seem to love them.

I'm definitely inspired to forage and try a few more after reading this thread.