Elodea

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

Elodea (lat. Elodea) - plant for water bodies and coastal areas; perennial plant of the Hydrocharitaceae family. Another name is water plague or water hyacinth. The homeland of Elodea is South America. The plant was brought to Europe in 1836, and to Russia in 1882.

Plant characteristic

Elodea is a herbaceous plant grown for landscaping artificial reservoirs and aquariums. Elodea is an oxygen generator plant, as the plant cells produce oxygen, which saturates the water. Differs in the ability to reproduce quickly. Stems are thin, highly branched, up to 2-2.5 m long. Leaves are small, lanceolate, whorled. The flowers are male, female and bisexual.

Common types

* Elodea Canadian (lat. Elodea canadensis) - the species is represented by perennial plants, completely submerged in water, with a weakly expressed root system. Shoots are highly branched, leafy, up to 1 m long. Leaves are bright green, transparent, slightly curly, sharp, linear-lanceolate or oblong-ovate. Flowering is inexpressive, does not represent much decorative effect. Plants form a dense emerald network in the reservoir and grow them to decorate the underwater landscape. Elodea Canadian cold-resistant, hibernates in the ground without problems, and gives new shoots in spring. Other names are Water contagion or Anacharis. In Russia, it is distributed in Western Siberia and the European part.

* Elodea toothed, or Elodea leafy (lat. Elodea densa) - the species is represented by plants with long, thin and fragile stems. The leaves are elongated, slightly curly, 1.5-2 cm long, 3-5 leaves on the stem. The roots are long, rather thin, white, up to 35 cm long. The flowers are small, inconspicuous. Elodea serrata is rarely grown in garden ponds, mainly in aquariums.

Growing conditions

Elodea is a plant that prefers reservoirs with slowly flowing or stagnant water, located in open sunny areas. The water temperature for normal growth and development is 20-24C, the acidity is 6, 0-7, 8, and the hardness is 10. The depth of the reservoir is desirable from 20 to 300 cm. conditions are rising to the surface again.

Reproduction

I propagate elodea vegetatively, or rather by cuttings. Cuttings 20-25 cm long are broken off from the mother plant, thrown into a pond or fixed in the bottom soil.

Car

Elodea does not need special care, from time to time it is necessary to remove overgrown thickets of the plant. For these purposes, a large landing net or rake should be used. The plant is not susceptible to diseases and pests, therefore, it does not require preventive treatments.

Application

Elodei are used for self-purification and landscaping of artificial and natural reservoirs. In small ponds, plants form picturesque emerald networks. It is not recommended to use elodea for large reservoirs, since the growing thickets of plants are very difficult to remove later, in fact, it will not work to remove plague forever. In aquariums, elodea is used as an ornamental plant.