Ammania

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Ammania (Latin Ammannia) - herbaceous perennial moisture-loving plant from the Derbennikovye family.

Description

Ammania is a herbaceous perennial that boasts powerful rhizomes. The height of its straight and fleshy stems, which do not have branches, can reach sixty centimeters. All stems are densely covered with numerous sessile leaves, arranged crosswise and forming whorls, each of which has four leaves. Lanceolate leaves with colorful embossed central veins reach a length of two to six centimeters, and their width varies from one to two centimeters. As for the color of the leaves, it can be as varied as you like: there are both reddish-brownish and olive-green leaves.

Ammania inflorescences are formed by six to seven buds of light purple shades. As soon as pollination occurs, rounded achenes are formed in their places, each of which is endowed with two nests.

Where grows

Under natural conditions, Ammania grows in reservoirs located in western Africa, especially in Senegal and the Gambia. Ammania feels best in wet coastal or well-wetlands, as well as in rice fields.

Varieties

Ammania includes as many as twenty-four species, but not all of them are suitable for decorating aquariums. Moreover, all these varieties will be an excellent choice for creating interesting plant compositions.

The most popular variety is

Ammania Gracefulgrowing on flooded soils. Despite the flooding, the tops of this plant are always on the surface. And it also boasts a very unusual color of leaves - the upper leaves are always greenish-olive, and the underwater leaves, like the stems, are almost always painted in burgundy or brown tones. The backs of the leaves are always darker. Ammania graceful should be placed in aquariums of solid size - for each bush, consisting of five to seven stalks, there should be up to one hundred liters of water, but even in this case, it will actively grow and branch, that is, it will still have to be cut from time to time.

It looks like graceful ammania and

Ammania Senegalese, the stems of which stretch up to forty centimeters. True, this species is developing much less actively than its graceful fellow tribesman. Ammania Senegalese leaves are more elongated (their length ranges from two to six centimeters) and slightly narrowed (they reach 8-13 mm in width). And the loose inflorescences of this plant, as a rule, are formed by one or three buds.

A variety with a very interesting name

Ammania Bonsai was developed by breeders specifically for small aquariums. This plant is much smaller than its predecessors, and it grows extremely slowly, and the height of adult specimens almost never exceeds fifteen centimeters. Ammania bonsai is endowed with thick elastic stems, covered with a huge number of rounded leaves, the diameter of which does not exceed one centimeter. As for the width of the entire branch, it is about one and a half centimeters. In case of a lack of light, the bright green leaves of Ammania bonsai gradually turn red.

The most attractive and especially elegant is considered to be a very demanding

Ammania Sulawesi, which is a slow-growing low plant with purple or bright pink rounded and slightly elongated leaves, the edges of which are turned down, and the sides are slightly twisted around the central axis. The shoots themselves are painted in pale green tones and have a rather fleshy structure.

An incredibly tender variety is also very popular -

Ammania Multiflora, which is characterized by a rather impressive size and wide leaves, painted in bright lemon tones. And under intense light, these leaves almost always turn red. The height of the aquarium specimens is about thirty centimeters, and in the summer, Ammania multiflora releases spectacular above-water shoots, dotted with small purple or pink flowers.