Guys a friend of mine just asked me a question for which i'm a little stumped. And that is, do aquarium plants ever flower ?. I've owned many in the past and have never seen or heard of one actuqally producing flowers, anmd I suspect the answer is no but can anyone give me a definate answer ?
Do Aquarium Plants Flower ?
- Thread starter Vyper
- Start date
Many of them flower above the water. I believe there are a few that occasionally flower submersed.
but I wanted to add I just has 2 plants flowering again last week! A nice thick stem shoots up in a few days and a white flower opens.
Yes, most aquatic plants flower. Some may not do it readily in an aquarium, but they do do it. Anubias species flower underwater. Many will flower when they reach the surface and begin to grow emersed.
Here's my favorite aquatic plant flower I've ever grown. It's a Nymphaea (lotus) species.
The bud forms underwater and opens when it breaks the surface. Beautiful nocturnal flowers. Last several days. I've had sword plants flower, too. Again, flowers out of the water. Mine had many little pansy-esque flowers.
Aponogetons have gorgeous flowers, too:
http://www.aquarticles.com/images/p-Raj Aponogeton Henkelianus.jpg
http://www.aquahobby.com/tanks/img/jennifer2.jpg
Here's an anubias flower:
http://www.lavonardo.net/fishblog/pix/anubias_flower.jpg
Here's my favorite aquatic plant flower I've ever grown. It's a Nymphaea (lotus) species.
The bud forms underwater and opens when it breaks the surface. Beautiful nocturnal flowers. Last several days. I've had sword plants flower, too. Again, flowers out of the water. Mine had many little pansy-esque flowers.
Aponogetons have gorgeous flowers, too:
http://www.aquarticles.com/images/p-Raj Aponogeton Henkelianus.jpg
http://www.aquahobby.com/tanks/img/jennifer2.jpg
Here's an anubias flower:
http://www.lavonardo.net/fishblog/pix/anubias_flower.jpg
Last edited:
Anubias, Aponogeton, Echinodorus (swords), Crinum, Val, Sag, & many, many more. For most the flowers are emerse. Anubias barteri cultivars seem to flower underwater - perhaps they don't "know" that they are submerse and flowering is ineffective underwater,,,
I own some red tiger lotus and if I put the light/nutrient level higher they could flower. of course then they would shadow the rest of the plants in the aquarium...
Hey thanks for the info guys, I'd love to get hold of some plants that flower underwater, I'll pop down to my LFS at some point soon and ask one of the nice chaps there to give me some advice on getting some nice flowering plants in my aquarium.
Nymphaea are water lilies, although some are (mistakenly) called "lotus". You cannot easily grow true lotus in tanks as they are emergent and have massive tuber systems as well as requiring full sun.
The small water lilies with colorful foliage are pretty easily grown submerse, so long as you remove any floating leaves which develop. For flowers you do need multiple floating leaves (which will shade out any other submerse plants) and strong light (3-4 WPG) with several inches clearance so that flowers do not burn.
The small water lilies with colorful foliage are pretty easily grown submerse, so long as you remove any floating leaves which develop. For flowers you do need multiple floating leaves (which will shade out any other submerse plants) and strong light (3-4 WPG) with several inches clearance so that flowers do not burn.