# Help identify this new growth.. from SEEDS?!



## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

The tank is doing real well now. I've started a dosing regime and the plants are back to life. GH is down from water changes, and things are looking good.

Today when I was testing I noticed some new growth in the marsilea crenata.. Considering nothing grew for two weeks due to lack of nutrients I was amazed at how fast things have rebounded. But this is not m. crenata.. it does not look like it at all:

right in the center there is a tiny bush-like sprouting.









I needed to top off about 2 cups of water and I poured it in over this one drift piece, and then I noticed another sprout floating around the top of the water. Not the same one as in the pic, another one! then I looked at it closer and yes.. it is a sprouted SEED!










those brown dots are the seeds shell halves.

The thing is, all of my plants (m. crenata, e. tenellus, an cryptocoryne wendtii) are sideways runner propagation plants. Except my new Ammania sp. 'Bonsai'.

It does look like it could be the ammania. But seeds? How common is this? A friend is saying that most plants don't grow from seed underwater.. but I have two cases of this happening.

I plugged the little guy under a light layer of gravel as it is just sprouted and should be able to push through and root in the next couple of days. Neat, but how common is this?


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

Well, you won't get seeds unless you had flowers. True, some flowers are inconspicuous, but aquatic plants, AFAIK, usually have floating seeds/fruits.

The submersed leaves of Marsilea only have one lobe, unlike the four-leaf clover form of the emersed leaves, IIRC. So I think what you've got there is your Marsilea coming back from melting with submersed-type new leaves, and that little 'seedling' is a broken off piece from the end of a runner.

I could be wrong, so let us know what happens next.


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

it was no where near the marsilea. there are two of them, the one in the marsilea i am not touching, the one that came out of the sand when topping up.

I see a similar 'tiny bush' like sprout on the ammania sp. bonsai, so I am pretty sure my one plant is now three.. in different areas of the tank.

I will just keep maintaining the growth and hope they grow big. 
Im really surprised at how quickly everything turned around except my danoi/pogostemon.

the amania pearls nicely too, so im really excited for more growth.

I've noticed all sorts of tiny sprouts (7 in total) throughout the tank, but not all are ammania.


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

I see another 'tiny bush' floating on my surface.. I'm wondering if my ammania sp. bonsai is dropping them? that would be reason why they are in different parts of the tank. 

It appears that there are nodes on the parent's stem that can grow these new starter plants. I might be wrong on that, but I'll see what research brings me.


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