La Dense Eggeria, also known as the water plant called Elodea, has a growth that can reach up to 4m in depth, the stems are conductors of up to 2m or even more in length.
The leaves are arranged in groups of four to eightThey are 1 to 4 centimeters long and 2 to 5 centimeters wide, with a sharp apex.
Features
It is a plant that has both female and male flowers, produces flowers that have between 12 to 20 millimeters in diameter, it has three petals that are wide, white, with a rounded shape, a measure of up to 10 millimeters long when the plant is male, and up to 7 millimeters if the plant in female.
The plant has a fairly long stem that is green in color, the small leaves with a lanceolate shape are arranged in a whorled shape of between three to five. The intense color that the leaves have as well as the stems, make it a widely used plant for aquariums.
Habitat and distribution
The Elodea It is a plant native to temperate waters in South America, which occurs in countries such as Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Having escaped from cultivation activities, it became naturalized to be a plant that invades the temperate and subtropical regions of the world, including Europe, areas of South Africa, Australia, Asia, North America and New Zealand.
It is also likely that find in the lakes that are artificial or also in the natural ones, in the fountains of certain squares, in the ditches that are to one side on certain routes, in puddles or also in those areas of periodic flooding due to the overflows of streams and rivers.
Caring for the Dense Eggeria
It is advisable to place a supply of iron in liquid form at least one day a week. This plant grows very quickly and secretes a kind of substance that prevents blue-green algae from developing.
For having such a great growth, the plant is a problem when pruning is not done regularlyTherefore, pruning should be done for the formation as well as for marking when the growth is too thick. However, it is necessary to avoid pruning continuously as elodea prevents the development of algae.
This plant can be adapted to growth in bright light and in low light. When grown in a lot of light, the stems will have a dark green color and will grow up to two meters in length in a very short time. When grown in low light, internodes and leaves will be longer, the stem is much smoother as well as thin and the overall plant color will be dull green.
Ideally, it should have a substrate that allows it to absorb all the nutrients, carbon dioxide must be supplied In order for you to photosynthesize correctly, keep control of the temperature values as well as the pH levels.
Management
Chlorosis It is a disease that affects the development of elodea when the soil has a too high pH or is found in a calcareous soil. It is very simple to identifyas it causes a yellow color in the veins of new leaves, but it can also appear on older leaves. When iron chlorosis is quite acute, causes a yellowish color, as well as necrosis in the leaves and even the death of the plant.
In the event that the plant is in poor soil, a little iron chelate should be added to the irrigation to treat the disease. In the event that the water is calcareous or alkaline, the ideal is that the water for irrigation is treated with an acidifying product. In the most serious cases such as alkaline or calcareous soils, the solution to treat this disease may be to use various chemical products or also to replace part of the whole soil with some other kind of soil that is acidic.