salvinia auricolata will it attach

[Johnn]

Will the roots of salvinia auricolata attach itself to driftwood if tied down or will it try to detach as its a floating plant?

 

[zozo]

Salvinia is indeed absolutly a floater it might grow it's roots into soil and survive a while when flooded. But it's leaf is not realy evolved for submersed life. With it's hairy texture trapping air and making it repel water..

I always wondered how this plant realy propagates, because i'm growing it for over 2 years now and throw loads of it away. I never realy investigated it, i see it make new leaves but at some point it seems to dettach something that grows on a seperate plantlet. It doesn't grow as one string attached to eachother. So even if you tie it down and keep it submersed, if you can make it propagate like that with loads of co2 in the water, a plantlet will dettach from the mother plant and float.. 🙂

P.s.

In nutrient rich waters it may reach a density of 30 000 small plants per m² and under ideal growth conditions it can double its biomass in two days.

The plant propagates by vegetative growth and sporadic fragmentation, resulting in small vegetative propagules that are dispersed by water currents

http://www.iucngisd.org/gisd/species.php?sc=569

 

[Johnn]

I got it yesterday in a little tub from pets at home in UK, its a tropica brand plant, says on instructions use tweezers to plant, i fixed it into holes in drift wood and placed it half submerged into tank to see if it will root.

I assumed soon as I got it into water that it was a floating plant some eventually ended up in slow moving parts of the tank. My tank flow is pretty fast everywhere. I'm just hoping it will survive afloat as its been bopping constantly under surface.

When I first removed it from the pot I checked to see how the plantlets were attached together, most were singles n bunches of 2 not more than the odd 5/6 together I'm guessing they detach purposely and will detach from the wood once fully submerged

 

[Johnn]

I've read similar salvina can grow in a thick mass downwards into the water so wouldn't that result in it being submerged?

 

[Edvet]

http://tropica.com/en/plants/plantdetails/Salviniaauriculata(011TC)/4767
doesn't mention submerged use

 

[zozo]

thick mass downwards

is related to

In nutrient rich waters it may reach a density of 30 000 small plants per m² and under ideal growth conditions it can double its biomass in two days.

Guess what happens if you grow 1m² worth salvinia in 0.5m² tank? It will stack on top of eachother pushing itself down it has no other way to go. 🙂

says on instructions use tweezers to plant,

I guess it same as for the Dennerle labels, all have the same general instructions. It would be to expensive to put the 100% correct instructions per plant on each lable. It means if it is to be planted in the substrate please use tweezers. Obviously for a floater not applicable..

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
What @zozo says, it is an obligate floater. The whisk shaped hairs are highly water repellent. If you find the older leaves are sinking, and the new leaves are very small, that is usually a sign of low nutrients. Because floating plants aren't CO2 limited they are a useful <"visual indicator of nutrient status">.

I have Salvinia on all my tanks, although I mainly use Amazon Frogbit (Limnobium leavigatum) as my "duckweed".

cheers Darrel

 

[Johnn]

guess what happens if you grow 1m² worth salvinia in 0.5m² tank? It will stack on top of eachother pushing itself down it has no other way to go. 🙂

.

Coco that's what I mean, when it ends up submerged because it has no where to go, do those that end up submerged beneath the surface mat survive? If so how as its contradicting to it ' not surviving submerged ' ?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Salvinia is indeed absolutly a floater

It is.

do those that end up submerged beneath the surface mat survive?

They don't survive, once they are pushed under the water it is curtains for that plant.

cheers Darrel

 

[kadoxu]

Yup.. it starts dying if submerged.