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Old 15-08-2004, 05:50 AM
John Owens
 
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I must admit.. I'm impressed with this report. I've purchased those some
bulbs several times and I have yet to have one that actually lived past it's
first "bloom". I've never had one put forth any seeds, and I've had
several packs that just never sprouted. Guess it's just me... :-)

"Cichlidiot" wrote in message
...
chas good wrote:
They seem to be a mix of 3 kinds. looks like 3 different growth rates.
Fastest growers flowered first. Smallest havent flowered. The package
only said hybrid. Tallest is half the height of the 37gal tank.
2 bulbs turned out to be lilly's. Have one lilly pad almost to the
surface. The package was just a few dollars at wal-mart.


The "lily pad" ones are likely actually Nymphaea, not Aponogeton. These
bulbs often end up in those mixed "Aponogenton" bulb packages. It might
also be Aponogeton natans as those produce floating leaves. As for IDing
what you have, what is the nature of the flower spikes? The color and
number of spikes (ie single spike, 2 split spike, etc) usually pinpoints
the variety. Leaf color, leaf shape and tuber shape also go into
identifying species or speculating on their hybrid nature, as some of the
hybrids are not possible to ID fully. I would hazard to guess that you
have crispus (white, single spike flower), crispus hybrid or ulvaceus
(yellow, two spike flower). You might also have undulatus, which has
translucent sections of the leaves and produces plantlets rather than
seeds and it rarely flowers. Most likely I bet the prolific ones are
crispus hybrids as these are known for being prolific and it's rare to get
a pure crispus these days. A lot of times they're hybridized with hardier
varieties to make them more able to withstand lack of dormant periods.