How do you remember what plants are what when you have them planted in your tank? The obvious ones are easy for example you only have one species of that type of plant but when you have three different species of the same plant in the same tank that look very similar. Do you make a planagram of the layout?
Hi Jason, A plant planagram Great Idea. I have problems sometimes wondering is it that plant or this in my scapes
I'm the same Roy, when you get to the point of 3 or 4 of similar species with slightly different shades or leaf shape it starts getting really difficult to I'd them. I always list the plants in the tank but forget where I placed them and have to go online to confirm if that plant..
I really like planograms; search and collect them for inspiration, or when I'm thinking about making a copycat of a scape
Menky That is a very good example of what can be done. I have been known to make a few full size drawings but in the end it finishes up as just a guide. Keith
For me it's a kinda of a sport to know 'm when i see them, i got around 30 sp. collected now and i know them all by name, even if the have a common name in my language i want to now its etymology and if there is any history to it why they have that name. I refuse to make plantograms, then it wont be a challenge anymore.. Every time i forget one i punish myself with having to look it up with only remembering parts of it's name and find other interesting stuff along the way. Still i do not know them all 100% correctly, how to spell or pronounce it and brake my tongue many times but I'm pretty close. Well another makes puzzles, this is my puzzle.. Friends often look at me like I'm totally lost it when i passionately talk about it and forget they actually don't give a flying figure.. I just can't help it.. Many times it is easier to know it's common name too, because it's often a derived translation from its scientific name. Like Hygrophila = Water friend or Gratiola, which means "The Grace" because it has alleged medical properties and people found this plant send by the Grace of god. Or Anubias from Africa named after Anubis the Egyptian god of the underworld. Hence Anubias is a plant which grows in the shades.
These days I am lucky if I can remember plant names, when it comes to garden plants Marg knows most of the garden plants we have Botanical and common names. Keith
Marcel I'm with you on that and can tell you all the names of the plants I have in my new tank but... Once i start to add similar ones with a slightly different leaf shape or color tone I have to admit I'm confused so make a planagram just in case. I suppose at the end of the day it all comes down to experience, like any pro in any subject, when I was into dart frogs I could name lots of them just by looking at them. I'll get there
Jason. It becomes even more complicated when you are using an old reliable plant book and, a new updated book has new name for the plant. I am not referring to the local common names or a name the LFS uses because their name sounds better. Keith
I had a similar problem recently trying to find a plant that had been renamed. Rotala indica "Ammania sp. Bonsai?"
Lol yes they change names, sometimes like it's just fun to do. That Ammania sp. Bonsai is indeed such a nursery invention. I bought it and there is nothing realy bonsai about it, it all depends on the way you grow it, like co2 and light demand and how you trim it, on which they do not realy elaborate. I grew it in my tank and instead of the max 15cm the nursery stated it grew over 40 cm if left to it's own devices. It was probably still a test phase Rotala indica what they sold me with the idea they created something new.. Pond shops also sell it still as Rotala Indica in immersed form, it does very good in swamp conditions outside, i did put some from my tank in a bucket in the garden and it even survives low freezing temps in the fall. I always was such a freak, trying to know all those names. I remember one day at school i was like 13 of age. We had to make an essay, so i took my hobby for it. Man that was a mistake. I started my essay and threw around all Latin names from plants and fish i had, the teacher stopped me in 5 minutes and said.. That's not an essay you copied this from a book and gave me a rather low grade for it. I didn't even struggle, the next time i did like the rest, play stupid, gave better grades with that teacher. Not that i was so very smart, i just knew my hobby inside out, i studied my aquarium books better than my school books, that was also a mistake. That's why they didn't believe me.
Marcel That reminds me of one of my Architecture design courses I spent hrs designing a cliff top beach house and I got hammered for it. I grabbed a big piece of white paper a big thick felt pen in a few minutes I had drawn a big concrete pipe with a floor, holes for windows and, a pipe for a chimney in the cliff face, next thing he ranted how good it was to the adult class. Keith
