What are some emergent plants?

[SDartifex]

Hello, hopefully someone will be able to gelp me where google has failed. Im looking for tropical marine plants that will grow out of the water. Mangroves are an obvious example, but I have been unable to find anything else.. Im sure there must at least be a couple more plants that grow in tropical marshes and such. So If anyone has any ideas as to what some of these plants would be or even better where I cOuld source some of them I would ve very grateful.

[Weetabix7]

Honestly, mangroves are the only ones I know of.

You should ask John Maloney @ Reef Cleaners or keydiver.

[uglybuckling]

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/wetlands/...docs/fg_man.pdf

 

 

(page 2 is where the money is)

 

 

Not all of these are true emergent-growth; some just live among the mangroves. Still, even the ones that are epiphytes or just grow through the mangroves have to contend with salt creep and would be reasonable choices for similar placement in a captive system.

 

I personally am quite partial to mangrove vine. There's a build on this site somewhere in which the person posting got hold of some mangrove vine.

 

Also +1 for asking John. He'd know. And probably be able to get some of it for you.

[uglybuckling]

Porterasia coarctata

 

Sonneratia alba (huge)

 

Heritiera fomes (also a big tree)

Acanthus ilicifolius

Phoenix padulosa

Brassavola nodosa (the "mangrove orchid")

Acrostichum species

 

This article talks about the absence of an understory in mangrove ecosystems: if it roots in soil, it is a tree.

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2559...=21101396238001

 

 

PS: some of those may be illegal to collect.

[uglybuckling]

The search term "halophyte" will help you too.

[SDartifex]

Wow thanks alot guys, that was quite fast and helpful I will send a message to John and see if he can help me out. I did try looking for halophytes but it turned up a bunch of results on future fuels and such, though I did find out about eel grass that way.

 

One more question, has anyone tried acclimating a temperate halophyte to tropical temperatures? There are quite a few neat species here in the san diego area, but goung through all the red tape to gather some of these species would be very difficult just to watch it whither away.

[uglybuckling]

No idea on the temperate vs. tropical thing.

 

I'm doing research to build a similar emergent-growth tank myself, although I have not decided on fresh vs. saltwater yet.

 

Also, look what I found:

 

http://www.walkingtreefarms.com/mangroves.html

 

http://www.floridanativeplants.com/trees.html

 

Totally illegal to COLLECT huge mangroves. Totally legal, however, to raise them from propagules, which is what these awesome folks are doing. No idea if they'll sell to the public though.

 

15g pot red mangroves ftw. Wonder if they have aerial roots at that size.

[SDartifex]

That's awesome, a little to large for my 24"x12"x7" system though. I really like those Brassavola sp. and I think the lady friend would appreciate a flower on the reef tank. Just gotta look into whether it'll last with constant water or if its more like other orchids

[uglybuckling]

Well, Brassavola is an epiphyte like other orchids; the roots should not be placed in water (and especially not in salt water!). You'd have to suspend it from something above the tank. Some Brassavola species are native to mangrove swamps, so the use of that specific orchid in a mangrove ecosystem would, I suppose, be geographically accurate.

 

I think it would like the humidity, and you'd have to mist the roots with RO water (same as you do for mangroves), to simulate a storm washing the salt off the leaves (in white mangroves, which excrete salt at the leaves) / allowing for higher humidity at the leaves and thereby higher levels of moisture within the plant (in red mangroves which do not excrete salt, but rather limit water intake at the roots when in salt water, thereby partially dehydrating themselves).

 

There are probably some other epiphytes (I'm looking in the general direction of "spanish moss" and various bromeliads here) that are native to mangrove forests as well.

 

Other orchids would have similar requirements (keep them away from the salt, mist the roots) but would be less geographically accurate.