Quote:
Originally Posted by bactrus
Rich, Looks like you're leaving quite a legacy in Indonesia and Malaysia.
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Ban, I could live with that!
@ Khoas, I've always wondered about that too, that Aldrovanda is found north and south of Malaysia and Indonesia, including Africa, Japan, and many European countries, but hasn't been found (at least recently) in your countries. It should do well in rice paddies, where the shallow dystrophic water and the roots of the rice should provide fine companion plants. Any shallow pond, or swampy grassy meadows should provide suitable habitats.
Those tall monocot companion plants provide the required amounts of CO2 on a constant basis. Kims last pic shows a good presence of these companion plants, whose roots spread out, and get under the Aldrovanda; they also absorb the excess nitrogenous mater that Aldrovanda releases from their captured prey. Without this reciprocal, symbiotic (mutualism) relationship, algae becomes a problem.
A healthy population of copedpods, small snails, and other zooplankton also feed on the algae that may attack the Aldrovanda, and get caught in their traps, keep them growing and dividing, in fact, during a mosquito outbreak, they feed so heavily on the mosquito larvea that they branch constantly, almost every few axils.
It's a pretty complicated relationship for such a simple looking rootless plant.
They also seem to do better in shallow water, only a few inches (about 10 cm) deep so that they are closer to those roots of their companion plants. Otherwise the CO2 become too diluted. They can even survive being dried out without any standing water at all for several days, even weeks.
Again, good to see these plants finally making a presence in this part of the world!
- Rich