Aponogeton
Encyclopedia
Aponogeton is a genus
of 45 - 50 species of flowering plants, the only genus of the family Aponogetonaceae
. The Aponogetonaceae
is considered to be allied to the Potamogetonaceae
- Najadaceae complex of families.
The name was published in Supplementum Plantarum
32: 214 (1782). The name is derived from a geographic location. Some species are used as ornamental plant
s in aquaria.
s, which are found in tropical to warm temperate regions of Africa
, Asia
and Australasia
.
Aponogeton distachyos is originally from South Africa
but has become naturalised in South Australia
, Western South America
, and Western Europe
.
Individual plants are not always easy to identify due to hybridization (particularly those sold as A. crispus - which are often cultivated hybrids with A. natans).
Generally an Aponogeton from Asia will have a single bloom, while those from African heritage (including Madagascar) will have multiple blooms on the same flower stalk.
grow in temporarily still or flowing waters and live through the dry period as a dormant tuber
. They are fully aquatic herbaceous
plants with milky sap, becoming dormant
during drought conditions. Most species grow from tubers. Most Asian species remain submerged all year round, whilst the starchy tubercles of the African species are able to survive the dry season
by shedding their leaves and undergoing a dormant period.
or pond
s.
Sources:
and not a tuber) experience a natural rest period, corresponding to their habitat drying out in the wild. The Asian species may also have a rest period, but this is temperature related. As the plant stops growing it can be taken out of the pond or aquarium and put in a bowl of damp sand. Keep the bowl in a dark, cool place with the sand kept damp for approximately 2 – 3 months at a temperature of about 50 - 64F (10 - 18C) until small leaves
are seen to sprout from the tuber when they can be returned to the pond or aquarium.
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of 45 - 50 species of flowering plants, the only genus of the family Aponogetonaceae
Aponogetonaceae
The Aponogetonaceae are a family of flowering plants in the order Alismatales.In recent decades the family has had universal recognition by taxonomists. The APG system and APG II system treat it in the order Alismatales in the clade monocots...
. The Aponogetonaceae
Aponogetonaceae
The Aponogetonaceae are a family of flowering plants in the order Alismatales.In recent decades the family has had universal recognition by taxonomists. The APG system and APG II system treat it in the order Alismatales in the clade monocots...
is considered to be allied to the Potamogetonaceae
Potamogetonaceae
The Potamogetonaceae, commonly referred to as the pondweed family, is an aquatic family of monocotyledonous flowering plants. There are roughly 120 species spread across six genera in the Potamagetonaceae...
- Najadaceae complex of families.
The name was published in Supplementum Plantarum
Supplementum Plantarum
Supplementum Plantarum Systematis Vegetabilium Editionis Decimae Tertiae, Generum Plantarum Editiones Sextae, et Specierum Plantarum Editionis Secundae, commonly abbreviated to Supplementum Plantarum Systematis Vegetabilium or just Supplementum Plantarum, and further abbreviated by botanists to...
32: 214 (1782). The name is derived from a geographic location. Some species are used as ornamental plant
Ornamental plant
Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...
s in aquaria.
Distribution
They are aquatic plantAquatic plant
Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments. They are also referred to as hydrophytes or aquatic macrophytes. These plants require special adaptations for living submerged in water, or at the water's surface. Aquatic plants can only grow in water or in soil that is...
s, which are found in tropical to warm temperate regions of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and Australasia
Australasia
Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...
.
Aponogeton distachyos is originally from South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
but has become naturalised in South Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Western South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, and Western Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
Individual plants are not always easy to identify due to hybridization (particularly those sold as A. crispus - which are often cultivated hybrids with A. natans).
Generally an Aponogeton from Asia will have a single bloom, while those from African heritage (including Madagascar) will have multiple blooms on the same flower stalk.
Ecology
Many speciesSpecies
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
grow in temporarily still or flowing waters and live through the dry period as a dormant tuber
Tuber
Tubers are various types of modified plant structures that are enlarged to store nutrients. They are used by plants to survive the winter or dry months and provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing season and they are a means of asexual reproduction...
. They are fully aquatic herbaceous
Herbaceous
A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...
plants with milky sap, becoming dormant
Dormant
Dormant means lacking activity. It can refer to:*Dormancy in an organism's life cycle*Dormant volcano, a volcano that is inactive but may become active in the future...
during drought conditions. Most species grow from tubers. Most Asian species remain submerged all year round, whilst the starchy tubercles of the African species are able to survive the dry season
Dry season
The dry season is a term commonly used when describing the weather in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which oscillates from the northern to the southern tropics over the course of the year...
by shedding their leaves and undergoing a dormant period.
Economic uses
The tubers of several; species are eaten by humans and their livestock. Some are grown as ornamental plants in aquariaAquaria
Aquaria may refer to:*Aquarium, in the plural*Aquaria , a computer game*Aquaria , a Brazilian metal band*Aquaria, one of the Twelve Colonies in Battlestar Galactica...
or pond
Pond
A pond is a body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is usually smaller than a lake. A wide variety of man-made bodies of water are classified as ponds, including water gardens, water features and koi ponds; all designed for aesthetic ornamentation as landscape or architectural...
s.
Selected species
- Aponogeton abyssinicus Hochst. ex A. Rich.
- Aponogeton afroviolaceus Lye
- Aponogeton angustifolius Ait.
- Aponogeton azureusAponogeton azureusAponogeton azureus is a species of plant in the Aponogetonaceae family. It is endemic to Namibia. Its natural habitat is freshwater marshes. It is threatened by habitat loss.- Overview :Aponogeton azureus is known only from the type locality...
H. BruggenHarry van BruggenH. W. E. van Bruggen was a Dutch amateur botanist.- Personal life :After finishing secondary school, van Bruggen became an accountant, first in his uncle's company, later with Koninklijke Hoogovens, where he became the head of the Administration... - Aponogeton bernerianus (Decne.) Hook.
- Aponogeton boivinianus Baill. ex Jum.
- Aponogeton bogneri H. Bruggen
- Aponogeton crispusAponogeton crispus-Origin:Native to southern India and Sri Lanka, where it usually occurs in seasonal ponds, becoming dormant in the dry season, Aponogeton crispus is found naturally in both still and running waters.-Description:...
Thunb. - Aponogeton desertorum Zeyh. ex A. Spreng.
- Aponogeton distachyos L.f.
- Aponogeton elongatus F. Muell. ex Benth.
- Aponogeton fotianus J. Raynal
- Aponogeton junceus Lehm.
- Aponogeton longiplumulosusAponogeton longiplumulosusAponogeton longiplumulosus is a submerged aquatic plant that is native to Madagascar. It possesses an elongated rhizome 2–3 cm in diameter. The leaves are an olive green-brown, 8 - 14 inches long and 2.5 inches broad, with a fluted margin and a petiole up to about 24 inches long. No floating...
H. Bruggen (1968) - Aponogeton madagascariensis (Mirb.) H. Bruggen
- Aponogeton natalensis Oliv.
- Aponogeton natans (L.) Engl. & K. Krause
- Aponogeton nudiflorus Peter.
- Aponogeton ranunculiflorus Jacot Guill. & Marais
- Aponogeton rehmannii Oliv.
- Aponogeton rigidifoliusAponogeton rigidifoliusAponogeton rigidifolius is native to Sri Lanka. In the wild it grows in deep water at temperatures of 68 to 77F in sandy soil with the water pH at 7.2.-Description:The creeping rhizome is cylindrical and about .5 inch thick...
H. Bruggen - Aponogeton stuhlmannii Engl.
- Aponogeton subconjugatus Schumach. & Thonn.
- Aponogeton troupinii J. Raynal
- Aponogeton ulvaceusAponogeton ulvaceusAponogeton ulvaceus is a submerged aquatic plant with a small cone shaped, slightly hairy rhizome about 1.18 inches in diameter. The leaf blades have a base that tapers gradually, pale green in colour , 20+ inches long and 3 inches broad, with a wavy margin on petioles of an equal length, and in...
Bak. - Aponogeton undulatusAponogeton undulatusAponogeton undulatus is a species of aquatic plant, sometimes used in aquariums. Some taxonomists consider this should be under the name Apontogenton stachyosporus.-Description:...
Roxb. - Aponogeton vallisnerioides Baker
- Aponogeton satarensis
Sources:
Cultivation
All Aponogetons are easy to grow when their preferences are met. The Madagascar lace plants (A. madagascarensis) require special handling as they like it cool - 70F max. As of 2010, the Australian species exist in very small numbers in the hobby.Rest periods
The African species in particular (with the exception of A. rigidifolius that has a rhizomeRhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...
and not a tuber) experience a natural rest period, corresponding to their habitat drying out in the wild. The Asian species may also have a rest period, but this is temperature related. As the plant stops growing it can be taken out of the pond or aquarium and put in a bowl of damp sand. Keep the bowl in a dark, cool place with the sand kept damp for approximately 2 – 3 months at a temperature of about 50 - 64F (10 - 18C) until small leaves
Leaves
-History:Vocalist Arnar Gudjonsson was formerly the guitarist with Mower, and he was joined by Hallur Hallsson , Arnar Ólafsson , Bjarni Grímsson , and Andri Ásgrímsson . Late in 2001 they played with Emiliana Torrini and drew early praise from the New York Times...
are seen to sprout from the tuber when they can be returned to the pond or aquarium.