Hornwort - a perennial herb that grows in the water column. It belongs to the hornwort family and is distributed throughout the planet. Hornwort lives in fresh water, mainly with stagnant water (swamps, lakes, slowly flowing stream). In culture, it is grown for landscaping aquariums or home ponds. The hornwort is so unpretentious that it is suitable for dimly lit, cold water. Even a novice aquarist can easily cope with it.
Botanical Description
Hornwort - a non-hives plant. It floats freely in the water column or is fixed by stem processes (rhizoids) to snags and stones at the bottom. Rhizoids are painted in a whitish or light green hue and are also covered with dissected foliage. In silt, they absorb nutrients and are fixed.
Thin winding stems are located in the water and can rise above its surface. Under favorable conditions, they grow quite quickly. In just a month, the stems can be extended by 1 m. The transport function inside the shoot is almost atrophied, therefore, nutrition is carried out by each individual cell on the surface of the plant.
Sedentary dissected leaflets are divided into narrow filiform plates. From a distance they resemble a fir branch. The color of the foliage is bright green or brown-green. Leaves grow in whorls. The lobes are expanded at the base, their length reaches 4 cm, and their width is 0.5 mm. With a multiple increase at the edges of the leaves, small teeth can be distinguished. The stems and foliage are quite hard, as they accumulate lime. With any carelessness they break. The surface of the whole plant is covered with cuticle - a greasy film that serves as a barrier between water and hornwort.
Flowers bloom right in the water column. Small leafless corollas up to 2 mm long are gathered in loose panicles. They are fixed in the internodes on a short peduncle. Flowers are pollinated right in the water. After this, small nuts ripen with awl-shaped growths ripen.
Species of hornwort
Hornwort is represented by only four species of plants. Three of them are especially popular:
Hornwort submerged. An aqueous non-hives plant grows 30-60 cm in length. Dark green dissected leaves of olive-green color grow in whorls of 5-12 pieces. The length of one leaf is 1-4 cm, with a segment width of about 0.5 mm. Greenish unisexual flowers without petals grow 1-2 mm in length. In one knot, only stamen flowers or only pistillate flowers can bloom. Anthers separate themselves from the flowers. First they float, and then plunge into the water and settle on the ovary. After such pollination, black achenes 4-5 mm long mature. Varieties:
- Krasnostebelny - a flexible dark red stalk looks pretty impressive, but it is very fragile;
- Light green - the shoots are densely covered with whorls of bright green leaves, closer to the surface of the water, the leaves come in contact with air bubbles and become more puffy.
Hornwort Cuban. The internodes are located on the stem close to each other and are plentifully covered with foliage. Therefore, this variety is the most decorative. It resembles a fluffy spruce or fox tail.
Hornwort semisubmerged. The stem is covered with soft filiform leaflets of a light green color. The length of the lobes reaches 7 cm. It grows more slowly, dissolves sessile, leafless flowers.
Reproduction and planting
At home, hornwort is propagated vegetatively. It’s not difficult to do this. It is enough to take an overgrown stem, which approached the surface of the water and cut it into cuttings 10-15 cm long. The lower part of the stem is fixed in the ground. Sometimes the process is simply left in the water. He does not need a period of adaptation, so the appearance of new leaves occurs from the first day.
A hornwort should be planted in the ground in a few pieces in a bunch. Then the thickets will be more lush and homogeneous. The best place for landing is the western or lateral part of the reservoir, where direct sunlight does not fall. The fragile shoot is fixed with tweezers. Sometimes the end is crushed with a stone or a wooden snag. But the crushed part can turn brown and begin to rot. It is much better to fix the hornwort with a fishing line tied to a sinker or suction cup. You can simply lay the stems in the water and let them float freely.
Aquarium Care
Hornwort is an unpretentious, tenacious plant. It develops normally even in cold (+ 17 ... + 28 ° C) water. The optimal hardness for the plant is 6-15 dHG, and the acidity is 7 PH and higher.
Hornwort is a shade-loving plant. In direct sunlight, he dies. But this does not mean that he does not need light at all. It is necessary to provide moderate diffused lighting for 12-14 hours daily.
It is not necessary to feed the plant. It develops normally in a normal environment. Moreover, hornwort is a natural water purifier. Foliage and shoots absorb ammonium salts. Also, fish waste products, garbage and water suspension settle on it. Just a few twigs of hornwort will make the water in the aquarium transparent. To save the shoots from plaque, they are removed and washed with great care under running water. With all efforts, debris is indispensable. They can be thrown out or also thrown into the water and allowed to grow.
The natural amount of carbon dioxide is enough for the hornwort, it does not need additional recharge, as well as top dressing. Leaflets absorb nutrients from water. This prevents the plant from developing other algae and, again, makes the aquarium cleaner.
In open water, the hornwort dies almost completely in winter. Its stems turn black and die, but the tiny buds remain even at low temperatures and resume the growth of shoots from early spring.
Plant use
Hornwort is used for landscaping an aquarium or pond. Inexpensive, unpretentious and fast-growing plant is suitable for beginner aquarists who can not yet provide ideal conditions for a more capricious flora. The plant is planted along the back wall as a background. It gets along well with any fish. Even with gold, near which many plants die.
In addition to decoration, hornwort serves as food and protection for aquatic inhabitants. Rigid leaves scare away large fish, so ciliates and other unicellular inhabitants hide closer to the stem. Fish and fry eat hornwort shoots, but it is extremely difficult for them to completely destroy it. Under favorable conditions, the plant daily adds 3 cm in length.
