Jake’s Planted Aquarium Pages

( Not quite finished… coming soon!)

You know the plant goes somewhere in that tank of water and substrate, but how?

The main type of plants we’re going to go over, ( and eventually how to plant them when I get that far) are Epiphytic , Rhizome , Stem, Bulb, Rosette, and the ones I like to call ” Ridiculously small”.

Epiphytic - Literally, it means that it’s related to a plant that grows on another plant upon which it depends for mechanical support but not for nutrients. In the aquarium, we’re mostly talking about plants such as java moss, java ferns, etc. , which do the best when they’re attached to something. They typically grow the best when allowed to root into a hard surface, such as driftwood, stone formations, and the like. Some epiphytic plants, like java ferns, are also rhizome plants.

Rhizome- Plants which have a rhizome are considered to have a horizontal stem that often sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. A good picture of this can be found in the Plantgeek.net glossary. Anubias and java ferns, among others, are in this family. The rhizome can NOT be buried in the substrate or it will rot and the plant will die.

Stem - This usually describes those plants that grow their roots and leaves off of one stem. Good examples of these are your ludwigia, rotala, etc.

Bulb - Fairly self explanatory, these are plants that start from….. a bulb. Aponogetons are a good example, as are plants like the tiger lotus.

Rosette -  This type of plant typically has leaves which come from a central point. If you imagine a flower with the petals going around, this is basically how these plants are with their leaves and/or leaf stems. An amazon sword is a good example of this type of plant.

Ridiculously small - This is the group of aquarium plants that are teeny weeny that usually require a good set of tweezers to plant, or at the very least a set of fingers that aren’t chubby. Glosso, HC ( Hemianthus callitrichoides ) , and so forth.