# Plant ID



## ckl (Sep 9, 2013)

Yesterday I went looking for plants at King Ed Pet Center and had my eye on some plants. However, a lot of them don't have ID's on them so here's some pictures I took.

Can anyone ID these plants for me?

thanks.


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

1) Some sort of sword? 2) Cabomba Caroliniana 3) ?

Some plants found at LFS may not always be true aquatic plants (survives totally emmersed).


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## ckl (Sep 9, 2013)

I was worried about that. I especially worried about that sword looking plant.


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## Transposon (Sep 19, 2012)

The first plant is not aquatic.
It's Dracena sanderiana - Lucky Bamboo.

The second plant might be Limnophila sessiliflora. But I can't really tell if that's what you have or not...









The third plant might be Alternanthera bettzickiana `Green'. Alternanthera bettzickiana `Green' might not be aquatic as well. There's very little information I can find. So I am really not sure what it is.


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Transposon might be right about the ID on the 2nd plant. 
From plantedtank.net: " Cabomba, each of the "fans" sits on a separate stem, while the fans are directly attached to the stem with Limnophila"

I say you're only safe with the 2nd plant as being truly aquatic.


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## ckl (Sep 9, 2013)

Yeah. Sorry about the bad quality phone camera pictures...

Lucky Bamboo eh? Maybe I'll just get it and plant it in a pot instead. I'll be needing some luck...

Anybody have any ideas on the third plant... is it some kind of anubias or something?


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

As far as I know Anubias = leaves grow from a rhizome. Seeing from the picture that the leaves are growing from a stem it's not likely to be an Anubias.


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## ckl (Sep 9, 2013)

Ok. thanks. Looks like I have a lot to learn about plants.


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Haha. Stick around and you'll learn lots from this forum. A few of us have also practically memorized every plant from here: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/plantfinder/all.php


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## ckl (Sep 9, 2013)

Thanks for that link - bookmarked. Very nice.

What LFS do you go to to get your plants?


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Hm. I try to support our sponsors first but I'm a big planted tank guy so I try to find time to hit various LFS if I hear they have rare plants or something I need for a scape.

I get aquaflora pots from Canadian Aquatics.
Island Pets Unlimited got a great shipment of hard to find plants about 2 weeks ago.
Fins and more sometimes gets rare stuff. I go by whenever I'm in surrey, which is probably x1 every 2 months.
I might make special order requests at Aquariums West or Roger's Aquatics. However, both stores bring in great plants on a semi regular basis. 
Pet Boutique in North Vancouver brought in a whole bunch of awesome rare (and easy to keep) swords about 8 months ago.


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## ckl (Sep 9, 2013)

Reckon said:


> Hm. I try to support our sponsors first but I'm a big planted tank guy so I try to find time to hit various LFS if I hear they have rare plants or something I need for a scape.
> 
> I get aquaflora pots from Canadian Aquatics.
> Island Pets Unlimited got a great shipment of hard to find plants about 2 weeks ago.
> ...


Ok. Yeah, I went to King Ed as it was one of the sponsors and it is very close to where I work. However, as this thread has shown, King Ed is probably not the best place for a newb like me. I'll probably drop by IPU in Richmond after work today - which is the only place I get my fish.

BTW, when I was cleaning my old tank the other day, I managed to suck up a Java Fern root or rhizome that I suspected was dead. It was buried in the gravel. I'm wondering if it can be revived. It looks like this thick black root with smaller roots protruding around it. I also see similar ones stuck to the driftwood in the tank. That tank is about to be retired and has no lighting. Do you think I can revive it in the new tank?


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Well, the thing to be aware of with some plants is that some of them are grown emerged from the farm, so they're hard to ID and will often melt a bit when totally submerged. Other plants are not labelled to indicate that they are actually sensitive plants that require CO2 or other special growing conditions (Ie. the Erios, Ludwigia Cuba, Limnophila Aromatica at IPU). Though these are usually the rarer and more challenging ones I go in to get. So definitely ask the people at IPU to help you choose . 

I'm always surprised to see that plants can come back from a practically dead state. I had a couple very expensive buces that I thought I had killed. I wanted to cry but I left them in the tank as little brown stems and they're now making an albeit painfully slow, recovery. 
I think if the plant hasn't actually melted away, then leave it and give it the right growing conditions. There's a good chance it'll come back, especially if it's growing from a stem or rhizome. Given a week of good growing conditions, if it still doesn't show signs of growth, cut a small tip off the stem or rhizome to stimulate growth. If it still doesn't grow after another week - well, by that time it would've probably melted anyways.


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## ckl (Sep 9, 2013)

thanks. I guess it doesn't hurt to try.


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