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Living Clay background test

  • #21
I would love to see some sort of Utricularia growing up that wall...
 
  • #22
You can't see it too good in the overall shot but there is a small pinch of Utricularia longifolia getting established just above the lowest twig on the right side. I just used a small pinch cos I didn't know if the moss would stay wet enough, seems good but since i used so little it's taking a while to develop but all the leaves you see now have been made since planting it so hopefully I'll get some larger leaves soon and maybe flowers someday, dare I hope for it! LOL

clay23.jpg


Here's some more closeups:

Dendrobium princetei , weird cone shaped leaves, I don't know what it's doing, hasn't bloomed but hasn't made a new growth yet either but still nice and green. The moss is doing well around it.

clay24.jpg


Philodendron on the left and a miniature fern that I believe I got from RSS but I don't recall the name. The dangling bead-chain plant is a Peperomia sp. also from RSS.

clay25.jpg


I am not sure what the structure is emerging from the clump of Riccia fluritans. Is this a spore bearing "frond"? Has anyone seen this before from a floating/semi attached mat of Riccia?

clay26.jpg
 
  • #24
Those pygmy chameleons are neat, I got to see some at a reptile show a few years back. I got a D. auratus from a friend in the aquarium club when I lived in Hawaii. I've always read that Java moss grew terrestrially, I've just used it in aquariums.
 
  • #25
Taliesin, I don't know have you see such a thing before? I've never seen a fern germinate in water, on LFS but never in water - is that possible? I would think at the sexual stage of germination the swimming parts would get lost in all the water since it's so much more than a few raindrops...????
Will be neat to see what comes of it regardless!


As long as it doesn't dry out (soak it at least once a day) Java moss will happily grow out of water, much faster than in water too I might add! :)

I'm gonna try some of that xmas moss, flame moss, weeping moss and other fancy aquarium mosses and see how they do out of water and what they look like. I wonder if the java moss will grow into an ever thicker mat or get long and shaggy?

I have never seen any pygmys in person but I've handled my friends and cousins veiled chameleons but these guys are just the right size for me at just 2-3" full grown and liking the high humidity of a planted vivarium. I will have them in a 40 gallon cube so they have plenty of space to get away from one another if they feel like being alone.
 
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  • #26
I have never seen a fern actually germinate underwater before but it looks so much like a fern im pretty sure it's just that :p
 
  • #27
I was thinking it could be a reproductive organ on the Riccia, which is an aquatic Liverwort here's a diagram of a more standard wood land Liverwort showing their reproductive structures:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/File:Liverwort_life_cycle.jpg


So far I haven't found any pics of reproductive structures on any Riccia pics on google.

But it could be a very young fern too as this diagram shows (it is shaped more like the fern sporophyte in this diagram):
http://www.uq.edu.au/_School_Science_Lessons/9.48.4.GIF
 
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  • #28
I've never seen liverworth make things like that, over here they all look like the typical umbrella's.
Every fern sporophyte i've seen started out looking like that.
I can usually tell the difference between liverwort and fern gametophytes bec the gametophytes seem to form 2 lobes (sometimes 2 small branches at the ends of both lobs) and liverworts just look like 1 lobe at the same size.
I've read a bit about sexual reproduction in aquatic plants/moss/ferns but from what i read none of those spread by seed/spores underwater, just vegetative reproduction, or the flowers emerge above the water to do the pollination etc.
My guess is that it's just a fern gametophyte that germinated somewere and somehow ended up below the water after it did that.
 
  • #29
Excuse me while I go set fire to my terra.
Your terra is awsome!!!
 
  • #30
Ask and you shall receive i guess! Utricularia flowers would look beautiful in there.

And I agree with you, Taliesin, it does not look like a liverwort sporangiaphore, but rather just a leaf from a developing sporophyte fern somehow washed down to under the water table!
 
  • #31
If it's going to be a fern it'll be neat to see what kinda fern it is. I had one leaf of a "ressurection fern" which had a few roots and was covered in spores but the leaf did not root and it finally withered but I was hoping some of the spore would shed from the leaf and germinate. Maybe this is that finally happening - it would be cool! :)
 
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