Bulletin of Russian Anubias Forum

Anubias afzelii blooming

2011-11-15T11:34:00.000-08:00

Anubias afzelii is quite a big plant compared with other aquatic plants, as its mature specimen can grow up to a meter’s high. Aquarists prefer young plants to decorate their tanks. Such bushes grow very slowly when planted submerged and keep their small size for a long time. In the tank Anubias normally has not more than 5-7 leaves (the old ones die off, the new ones grow too slowly). It blooms also very seldom, as a rule only in a full-grown state, and when kept in a greenhouse. My plant started to bloom only in the 5^th year. Its inflorescence is big and very beautiful, so these years of waiting were not spent for nothing. It’s worth seeing at least once!

Some parameters of my blooming specimen:

The full-grown leaf. The lamina is 38 х 9 cm. The petiole is 47 cm.

The inflorescence. The peduncle is 40 cm long. The spadix is 9 cm. The spatha is only 5 mm shorter than the spadix. The female part is 3 cm, the male part is 6 cm. On the first day of blooming the spatha bursts completely, exposing the female part. On the second day the female flowers excrete the clammy liquid. The blooming finishes on the third day, when the spatha covers the spadix tightly, and pollen ripes on the male part.

First day:

Second day:

Third day:

Anubias afzelii conventionally belongs to the group of narrow-leafed Anubia alongside with A. barteri var. glabra, A. barteri var. angustifolia and A. heterophylla. Though there is some similarity, Anubias afzelii differs through the big size of full-grown bushes, and there is no need to wait for it to bloom. Other varieties listed above normally have smaller size (full-grown plants rarely reach a half-meter height). However, it should be taken into account, that the conditions of keeping also influence the size of plants in a great extent.

The author of this note: Dmitry Loginov.

The author used info from the next Web pages: http://www.tropica.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=27547

Translated from Russian by Julia Tarasova and Alexander Grigorov

Photos: Dmitry Loginov.

© Dmitry Loginov

© Alexander Grigorov

Anubias plants rotting: facts, rumours and guessworks

2011-04-13T14:27:00.000-07:00

Last week we got an email from Sweden. The author, a fancier of Anubias plants, told us about his problems concerning the so called “Anubias rotting”. We publish the email of our reader and try to understand what can cause this disease.

Dear sirs

While looking for information on Anubias plants I found the Bulletin of the Russian Anubias Forum (http://anubias-engl.blogspot.com/).

As an aquarist, for the last decades my main interest have been African fishes, and I am now running a 2 meter wide paludarium devoted to animals and plants from Africa. Anubias has long been my favorite plants and they do very well in a paludarium.

However, we are a few local aquarists that have experienced a common fatal problem with our Anubias recently. As you seem to be experts in this area I hope you don't mind me asking you a question about this.

I recently had an issue with several Anubias plants I bought at a local pet store and planted submersed. They looked perfect. However a week or so after introducing them to my tank I started to find Anubias leaves floating on the surface. The leaves still looked fine, but the stems seemed rotten at the base where they attach to the rhizome. Every day I found several new loose leaves, and eventually the whole rhizome went soft and 'rotten' and the plant died. I had a few Anubias in the tank already and they were also affected, even though I had had them for years before without problem.

Do you have any idea what this could be and how it could be avoided? Is it a disease? Is an environmental factor, bad water quality or such, or maybe the environmental change when buying new plants?

We would be very grateful if you could shed some light on this.

By the way, the story about the 'Frazier'-Anubias was very interesting!

Thanks!

Daniel Lindström

Board member of Malmö Akvarieförening (Malmö Aquarium Society)

Malmö, Sweden

It is for the last few years that a ghost of Cryptocoryne disease has been wandering among Anubias plants fanciers. Almost every aquarist has come across the problem of the plants death soon after they have been purchased. Although it was only 15 years ago when the plants were compared with plastic models and thought to be of an ideal health. What may cause such a severe attack of disease? Though I don’t have any definite answer, I will readily share the guessworks and facts I’ve learnt with the reader.

To start with, I’d mention that I’ve already have to face several types of Anubias plants disease by my experience. The first type can be recognized when rhizome and leafstalk tissues become glassy quickly and die off within 2-3 days. As a rule, the disease is preceded by some abrupt changes of the plant conditions, such as delivering, replanting, undercooling or overheating. All this can be fully applied to Cryptocoryne plants. The only difference here is that the disease affects leaf tips tissues instead of rhizome ones. The rot of tissues may start due to poisoning with ammonia which is released during the plant respiration. Sometimes it results in a complete die-off. Yet I cannot say definitely whether it is caused simply by changing the plant conditions. Thinking about the cause, I recall an incident when several dozens of A. afzelii bushes were completely burnt by hot water due to a break in a water pipeline. The plants lost all their leaves, but soon recovered completely as their rhizomes survived. The entire state of the initial material may be of great importance. The better conditions Anubias plants have been grown in, the more tolerant they are to different factors.

The died off petioles.

Some aquarists blame misfortune on the hothouse conditions which the sold plants have been grown in. Yet it is utterly wrong. I’ve been growing Anubias plants out of water for many years and have never faced any problems. While being transferred into a tank they have never lost a single leaf! The first difficulties have appeared after getting the plants from large hatcheries where they have been grown hydroponically. It is still a puzzle for me why the plants which have undergone the process of meristem cloning (including tissue defertilization) are affected by diseases so often. It may be caused by some growth-promoting factors applied during the plants growing. Anyway the cause has nothing to do with inorganic nutrition of the plants, since I’ve already experienced that Anubias plants grown in a hothouse and fertilized with the solution strength of 3-4 gram per liter can easily establish in the conditions of a usual aquarium.

The second type of disease is called a “rhizome rot” in Russia. It is a slower ailment which can develop within years and is characterized by a spread to rhizome vessels (black spots are usually seen on a section plane). It is also a contagious disease, but its nature is not clarified completely yet, thus it can be either bacterial or fungal. It is possible that a fungal infection simply joins in the process after the rot of tissues has begun. The initial cause, however, is absolutely different. Italian colleges point out that similar types of rot can result from Rhizoctonia solani fungi. When root caps or calyptras of the plant get affected, the disease spreads further to the rhizome. Thus it is primarily important to pay attention to the root system of newly purchased Anubias plants and check it to be ideally healthy. The absence or scarcity of roots should be a sign of warning for a buyer. It should be noted that such members of the Arum family as Cryptocoryne, Aglaonema, Piptospatha and Lagenandra being kept together with an infected Anubias plant are not affected by the disease. Besides, in comparison with totally green Anubias plants, those having red leafstalks and rhizomes get afflicted very seldom due to fungicidal properties of anthocyanins creating their colour.

Spots on a section of rhizome.

The “rhizome rot” is a more malignant disease than the first one, and it is hard to cure it once and for all with the exception of some rare cases. Application of such contact agents and systemic drugs as fludioxonil, copper chloro-oxide, difenoconazole, erythromycin, and different bioprotectors cannot solve the problem completely. Besides, the treatment should be provided only if there are no hydrocoles left in water which can be killed by these drugs. Almost every antibacterial and antifungal drug mentioned above is phytotoxic and not only manages the infection, but also suppresses the plant immunity. It may take the plant a year to make a complete recovery. Meanwhile, the infection may return after a while. Thus it is primarily important to cut off all afflicted tissues during the treatment. Just as in the first case, stronger plants are less vulnerable to the disease than others.

Besides I’ve come across such a fungus disease of Anubias plants when there appears a black rash on the plant genicula followed by affliction of the rhizome as in case of the “rhizome rot”. The disease can be managed by means of a prompt (before the release of spores) removal of afflicted leaves.

Black rash on a genicula of petioles.

To conclude with, I would simply advise the reader to pay the closest attention to the purchased plants sold rather by reliable fanciers or suppliers.

The author of this note: Dmitry Loginov (Moscow)

Translated into Russian by Marina Bortnikova (Lipetsk) and Alexander Grigorov (Lipetsk)

Photos: Dmitry Loginov

The Mystery of Edwin …Frazer

2010-12-20T11:13:00.000-08:00

Not long ago some of us started keeping Anubias ‘Frazeri’ which we suppose was created by Mr. Edwin Frazer. Well I tried to google who Edwin Fraser is. My search in the Internet didn’t bring any results: no email, no address, no account on Facebook or Twitter… There was only a mention that Edwin Frazer was the breeder of some Anubias hybrids and then …at the foot of the page I saw a fax number that must have belonged to Mr. Frazer. “Come what may!” I said to myself and sent a fax to the number.

To my surprise next morning I got an email from Mr. Frazer. It was the moment of truth for many Anubias fanciers in Russia: we discovered the history of the mysterious Anubias ‘Frazeri’!

Mr. Fraser – he lives in Brisbane (Australia) and creates new hybrids of different species – was rather embarrassed about the Anubias ‘Frazeri’: “It is a name given to one of my hybrids by a Florida nursery…”

Then the Australian described how he had been working at this hybrid:

“The plant is an old hybrid I made many years ago by crossing an old form of A. barteri with A. congensis ( which is now A. heterophyla I think). I did a number of Anubias pollinations in the late 1980s and 1990s at a time when I was producing new cultivars of Dieffenbachia. I was doing this primarily to raise Dasheen Mosaic virus free plants as this disease is not usually passed through the seeds. I did a lot of crosses of A. nana and A. barteri including many that had been collected in the wild by Holger Windelov of Tropica Nursery. Mostly I crossed the plants back on themselves as I was trying to get clean varieties for tissue culture. All the A. nana and A. barteri were full of disease, both bacterial and viral, and very difficult to clean up for tissue culture. The results were superior varieties which we sold large numbers of tissue culture produced plants to Tropica and some of the Dutch, Singapore, Japanese and Florida aquatic nurseries. A. 1705, a form of A.barteri is one of these that was very popular and most of the A. nana sold now would have originally been from these plants. As well as selfing these species I did some crosses and A. frazeri is one of those. I have since done a number of newer hybrids, which you can see on our website piscesenterprises.com.”

I posted his answer on the Russian Anubias forum (http://www.tropica.ru/forum/index.php?showforum=35) and it caught the interest of forum members. They asked a wide range of questions concerned Mr. Frazer’s work, but he chose only this one: “Your description of the variety 'Lisa' contains the pictures of its parents - A. afzelii & A. 'Congensis'. How can you explain that ‘Lisa’ has a cordate leaf base, though the parents don’t have this feature?”

Here is the answer of Mr. Frazer: “There is a lot of variability in the progeny of the F1 crosses with the Anubias "species". This would not normally be expected and I am not sure of why it is so. The fact that there is a very large variability in the wild material probably has something to do with it. Another possibility is that the species we are working with are already hybridized. Unfortunately as there is no accession data with the species I worked with they can only be treated as "horticultural varieties" from a taxonomic point of view. I found the same applied to many of the Dieffenbachia crosses I made, with quite large variations in leaf shape, size and color patterns. Other possibilities are pollen contamination, but I think this is most unlikely as I remember we had a large range of seedlings to choose from rather than two different types.”

As you can see, our mystery is solved, but the world of Anubias has still many of them.

The author of this note: Alexander Grigorov.

Photos: Dmitry Loginov and Edwin Frazer.

Whimsical West Africans

2010-11-27T13:24:00.000-08:00

«Our country was not paradise,

Sometimes heavy rains fell upon us.

But if we lose such a place,

We’ll not be happy anywhere else. »

These lines from a poem of the Soviet writer D. Kedrin suit the majority of aquarian plants very well. For example, the native land for the most cryptocorynes (South East Asia) is located worlds apart from our homes, more than that echinodorus had moved from the other part of the world. Of course, you can disagree and doubt whether it is possible now to buy an echinodorus, which has been grown in a tributary of the Amazon, in an ordinary shop. And you will be absolutely right. The majority of the aquarian plants are grown in special man-made nurseries. In spite of it even 100 years in evolutionary process of higher plants are but drop in the bucket and can not influence their physiology considerably. Beyond any doubt we try to create conditions, resembling the existence of our pet plants in the native habitual. Most people use different hand books, which contain information about optimal conditions (temperature, water pH and others) for growing one or another species. Such figures always surprise me. Sometimes I think that most writers of such literature just copy each other. In some cases plants appear to be able to exist and to propagate in more wide range of figures. There are examples of successful echinodorus and nymphaea cultivation in climate of East Europe in summer (see «Aquarium» Nr. 5/2008, Nr.1/2009). Having read these materials I thought if my favorite plants, anubias, can be kept in our climate. More than that such experiments can explain some phenomena observed in the cases of aquarian cultivation of that plants, but we will discuss it lately. Now I am going to tell you about my trial to grow anubias in the climate of the Moscow Region.

A small brook with luxuriant vegetation in the Moscow Region reminds African jungle.

If you are mercenary, you will have nothing to do in the forest at the beginning of June, because soil is not enough warm for mushrooms growth and berries are not ripe. Though, in that season our nature just astonishes us at its riot of colours. Beams of summer sun penetrate through birch leaves which have become strong already, and the scent of blooming field grass creates a special atmosphere making you muse upon timeless questions. In that June morning I was tormented by a more down-to-earth question, if my anubias, which has been raised in hothouses in winter, will blend with the landscape. Their native land is West Africa. The Czech naturalist Joseph Wagner wrote about it: “Tropical forest does not look like our familiar temperate zone forests. It has always shadow, constant temperature, humid soil, and that is ideal conditions for rapid growth of trees. On the ground lie dead leaves, plants, roots, you can see moss and ferns about there, but everything rots at an incredible speed, that’s why humus layer is never so sizeable as in foliage forests of the temperate zone. Everything what falls from trees is edible, and eaten by different animals, fungi, and bacteria.” In nature anubias is a riparian helophyte of the shrub layer in topical rainforests. Taking that into consideration, I chose a tiny brook in a forest gully as a place for my “tropical garden”. The brook ran both in open areas with dense grass on banks and under the shadow of leaf-bearing trees crowns. As a result in a shady nook I bedded out Anubias sp. Gabon (see “Aquarium” Nr.4/2009) and place under the sun was given to Anubias heterophylla. Both plants were emergent, it means that only their roots and rhizomes were located under water, and leaves lied above. More than that in order not to make experiment too exotic, I bedded out a small bush of the well-known Anubias barteri var. nana, which was submerged. The brook’s current was strong, that’s why I had to tie small pieces of red bricks to the rhizomes otherwise the plants will be carried away by the current.

A. heterophylla was planted in the brook.

Anubias heterophylla in its native place, Gabon. Photo made by A.S.J. van Proosdij.

Air temperature in June fluctuated from 48, 2 to 86˚F. The brook’s water seemed to be cold (according to several measurement at different times - 50 – 62,6˚F ) and had not enough time to warm up during short period when sunbeams were penetrating through leaves of the trees surrounding the gully. Meanwhile, the maximal air temperature in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, everyday was the same – 82, 4˚F- as if it were mechanically produced by some heavenly conveyor. That’s why it does not seem strange that in the country there are 6 species of anubias from 8 species described in the current revision (W.Crusio, 1979). High and constant temperature together with almost hundred-per-cent humidity ensures ideal conditions for growing plants of that species. As for my anubia, they perceived their new home differently. Gabon lay steady in the shadow of a near alder without any symptoms of discontent, and it testified enough air humidity. The same could be said about the submerged nana. But heterophylla had the bad luck, during few days it lost all her leaves, which were dried out in the broiling sun. Meanwhile, it does not upset me much, because even before my experiment I had not cherished an illusion that everything would be fine. I had Anubias sp. Gabon and Anubias barteri var. nana as yet. But finely even their wellbeing became transient and was carried away by warm June breeze. They succeeded in existing in our climate only one month. The Gabon got dark blotches on its leaves, its apical point rotted off, and by September only few half-rotten leaves in the brook’s mouth still reminded about my experiment.

Anubias barteri var. nana after 2 weeks in the Moscow area climate.

After a month necrotic blotches appeared on Anubias sp. Gabon.

But after all, going to pick up mushrooms after a few days I visited my “garden” and was pleasantly surprised. Under the layer of duckweed I found the heterophylla’s rhizome with absolutely rotten roots. Two weeks had not passed after placing my find in a hothouse, when it made me glad with some new small roots and a light green leave. This example again shows particular features of the anubias rhizome which make the plant able to go through adverse conditions. In general, the plants, which seem to be Hercules of an underwater garden, are very whimsical in practice. C. Kasselmann in her «Aquarian Plants Atlas» writes that 35,6 – 78,8˚F is the temperature needed for successful anubias vegetation. And that figures do not make me doubt. Too low temperature must cause death of my plants.

The heterophylla rhizome went through three-month “exile” and give birth to a new plant.

Anubias reminds the majority of aquarians plastic plants. Such comparison may be right, but only if we speak about their appearance, because other then that the plants require care as many other inhabitants of aquaria. Buying a plant you must pay attention to the water temperature in trays. I hear a lot of questions and claims of aquarians that leaves of the plants, which had been bought shortly before, turned yellow, became perforated, and finely died off. Reasons for it are said to be the shortage of some microelements in aquarium water, eating by snails or herbivorous fish, the habit of sold plants to live in hothouse conditions etc. In practice it is caused by negligence of sellers and buyers toward those West African plants during transport and storage without aquarium. More then that low temperatures are able to cause development of fungus diseases, which are typical of anubias, but it is another story…

The authors of this note: Dmitry Loginov.

The note is based on the next article: D. Loginov “Nezhenki”, Russian Journal “Aquarium”, 2010, № 1.

Translated from Russian by Elena Belyaeva and Alexander Grigorov

Photos: Dmitry Loginov and A.S.J. van Proosdij.

Otto Gartner’s book “Anubias”

2010-10-03T08:31:00.000-07:00

First I’ll relate some events preceding. During my holidays in Europe in August 2010 I managed to meet Dr. Anton Lamboj, an editor of the Austrian aquarium-terrarium journal “Aqua-Terra-Austria” (АТА). I’ve been taking the journal for about a year already, and it attracts me for its homeliness first. There are no “epoch-making” descriptions of new fish or plants species, no news about the world’s first breeding of another rarity, no overbalance in describing a particular range of animals preferred by the chief editor or the editorial board. The editor, Austrian Association for Vivaristic and Ecology, emphasizes discovering new aspects of commonly known species keeping and breeding and, so to speak, first-hand describing animals biotopes. The main thing is that he successfully cooperates with the Association members for it is they and not famous ichthyologists (except some of them like Prof. Dr. Helen Thaler writing regularly for the German journal “Koralle”) who travel and bring new animals and plants. Among the АТА journal regular authors there is Johann Posch, one of the oldest and most experienced Austrian aquarians, who actually brought Mr.Lamboj and me together.

The topic of our discussion was Otto Gartner’s book “Anubias” being under review. This year Mr. Gartner is past 85, 30 years of which he has devoted to the study of Anubias plants. Being more a 64 pages long booklet the book is a collection of Mr. Gartner’s articles published in different aquaria journals at different time. Each chapter is devoted to a particular Anubias species. Apart from a detailed scientific description supported by Anubias species classification of Wim Crusio, a Dutch scientist (his interview is at our blog), there are Otto Gartner’s recollections of how, being already a pensioner, he was exploring every more or less “considerable” Congolese or Angolan swamp together with Posh and other aquarians hoping to find a desired Anubias bush.

The book contains plenty of photos taken by the author himself. There are natural Anubias growing areas, inflorescence and fruit sections in the photos, and detailed pictures of leaves and blossom clusters structure. A certain chapter is devoted to creating a paludarium, a perfect “environment” for keeping Anubias at home. Mr.Gartner’s recollections of his “battle” with great botanists are of a special interest. In 1989 the Austrian brought a plant from Cameroun which he defined as Anubias gigantea. However, the family Araceae plants experts – Joseph Bogner, Christel Kasselmann and Wim Crusio – thought otherwise. According to them Otto Gartner brought the other species called Anubias hastifolia! First the scientist yielded to the authorities’ persuasion and even wrote the appropriate name on the plant pot, but later after the plant blossoming he sent inflorescence samples preserved in alcohol to the distinguished experts and – can you believe it?!- managed to persuade them his plant was a true Anubias gigantea. What could baffle the scientists? The answer is simple. Mr.Gartner brought only rhizomes (rootstocks) of the plant to Vienna. Lacking sunshine the Anubias leaves were narrow in the tropical forest, but in Vienna, where it’s sunny enough, they became strong and broad, with their central part base and side arrow-shaped leaves grown together.

To my mind the book will be of interest for both professional botanists and amateur aquarians. It can be ordered on the АТА journal website (http://www.ata.co.at). There is the book cover, the author and the double-page spread in the photos.

The author of this note: Alexander Grigorov.
Translated from Russian by Marina Bortnikova.

Anubias leaves’ vernation

2010-05-16T11:56:00.000-07:00

My article “These mysterious leaves…” was published in the German magazine “Aqua Planta” №4/2009. In this article I touched upon some observations of Anubias leaves’ vernation. There are two possible directions of the convolute vernation: with right or left Archimedean spiral. More than that every individual bush has the same direction from leaf to leaf. The inflorescence’s spatha is rolled up similar to the leaflet. And it is important to mention that the offsets which have been received by the division of the rhizome have the same direction of the vernation, as the maternal plant has. But not so long ago it becomes known that there are several exceptions to this rule. So, Vladimir Surkov from Samara found out that on his bush of Anubias barteri “Coffeifolia” the main and side growing points formed the leaves with different vernation. Also Sergey Gerasimov from Kiev marks those hybrid seedlings from the same cross breeding have different vernation

A. barteri var. nana 'Golden' has convolute vernation along left Archimedean spiral (if we look from the end of the leaf):

Different directions of the leaf formation by vegetative relatives of Anubias barteri ‘Coffeifolia’:

Hybrid seeds from one and the same parents have different direction of vernation:

The author of this note: Dmitry Loginov.

The author used info from the next Web page: http://www.tropica.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=17816

Translated from Russian by Julia Niklyaeva and Alexander Grigorov

Photos: Sergey Gerasimov and Vladimir Surkov.

Inflorescence of Anubias sp. Frazeri

2010-03-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

Not long ago one of the Anubias of the Ukrainian fancier Sergey Gerasimov - Anubias sp. Frazeri began to blossom. You can see his photos of the inflorescence in this post of our “Bulletin”.

It’s interesting to mention, that the access to the pistils of this Anubias was open only for a day. On the second day after the flowering the spatha covered the whole female part of the inflorescence. In most cases the synandria consist of 5 stamens. The thecae are situated on the edge of the synandrium.

Links:

What does Anubias sp. Frazeri hide from us? and http://www.tropica.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=22863

Translated from Russian by Julia Niklyaeva and Alexander Grigorov

Photos: Sergey Gerasimov.

Anubias’ prickles

2010-01-23T11:26:00.000-08:00

I’m sure that you heard about cactuses’ thorns or roses’ prickles, so it can’t surprise you, but such emergences among aquarian plants are very seldom. First of all we should define such words as “thorns” and “prickles”. Thorns are hard acuminate emergences of plants; they appear as the result of the stem, leaf, root or their parts’ metamorphosis. Prickles are strong, acerous emergences of the plants’ epidermis. Not long ago we noticed that some species of Anubias have small (up to 2 mm in length) mucronated emergences on the petioles. Taking into consideration their size and location we can say that in our case we deal with prickles.

For the first time we found such prickles accidentally, when we “weeded out” greenhouse with the large species among which was also Anubias heterophylla. The petioles of this Anubias were covered with small prickles; they were so edgy that you could easily scratch your hands. Then we check all adult bushes of more than 30 Anubias’ species and their varieties and found out that such emergences have Anubias afzelii, A. gilletii, A. heterophylla ‘Spathulata’, A. ‘Frazeri’ и A. barteri var.caladiifolia ‘Variegated’. We should mention once more, that only adult bushes have such prickles on the petioles (2-3 years old bushes, which were grown up in greenhouse conditions) and such unusual emergences are situated along the full length of the petioles, but there are more of them in the lower part. Young plants of the noted species have absolutely smooth petioles.

Prickles of A. heterophylla 'Spathulata':

Practically there is no information about Anubias’ prickles in the literature. Christel Kasselmann noted in her book “Aquarium Plants” that Anubias gilletii, A.hastifolia and A. pynaertii had such emergencies. Also Josef Bogner with other co-authors wrote about Anubias’ prickles in the article concerning the family Araceae from the forth volume of the encyclopedia “The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants” (2006), but without any concretization of species. And there is no information concerning the role of these prickles.

But plants’ thorns and prickles have a biological meaning; first of all it’s a defense from animals and decrease of transpiration (plants of arid region). The Anubias prickles aren’t connected with the tendency to decrease evaporating surface, perhaps it’s only the defense from herbivores. We haven’t any information whether this plant is a nutritive base for the mammals at the places of their natural growth, but many times we observed, that these Araceae become the dainty dish for usual greenflies. Indirectly it proves that the tissues of these plants don’t contain any high-toxic substances and as opposed to Aglaonema and Dieffenbachia, which belong to the same family, they can be eatable. For reasons given we make a conclusion that Anubias’ prickles can be a sign of the plants’ zoophobia.

The prickles which we observe are declinate a bit and practically similar with roses thorns. In connection with this we can single out one more function of these emergencies – clutch at support and stand in grass, it’s very important in condition of the intense competition for sunlight in thick tropical forest. This reason for the presence of the prickles is more probable.

Petioles of A. afzelii:

Anubias are one of the mysterious plants in aquarium and we are sure, that in the future they will spring many surprises on their owners.

The authors of this note: Dmitry Loginov and Sergey Gerasimov.

The note is based on the next article: D. Loginov, S. Gerasimov “Anubias prickles”, Russian Journal “Aquarium”, 2009, № 3.

Translated from Russian by Julia Niklyaeva and Alexander Grigorov

Photos: Vladislav Elbakyan, Dmitry Loginov and Sergey Gerasimov.

Back in the USSR

2010-01-12T10:47:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the hydrobotanic and one of the famous popularizer of the aquarian plants M.D. Mahlin the Anubias-plants appeared in USSR in 1960. They were Anubias afzelii, A. congensis and A. nana. In the next 30 years more than 20 varieties of these plants crossed a border of the country. The Anubias appeared on the territory of the USSR accidentally, only 1-2 bushes of each species. Then these plants were propagated vegetatively and spread among fanciers and collectors. Some bushes, especially rare species had an astronomical price. After collapse of the USSR, Asian and European farms began to supply Russian market with Anubias. As the result many old species and varieties were supplanted by new breeds and commercial names. Many species were lost and now it is very difficult to find them in free sale. But we can see some of them in different corners of our huge country. First of all, in Moscow and Saint Petersburg botanical gardens, the workers of which could save the collection of the Anubias in the difficult years of the country, when the financing was reduced. More than that there are some examples of private fanciers’ collections, which are still exist. In this note we are going to tell you about one of these collections.

Sergey Bodyagin began to take a great interest in Anubias in 1985. In spite of the fact that he was living in a small town (Ohansk, region Perm and the population is 10000), he could collect practically all species of the Anubias by that time. This collection is still the same now. Plants with “soviet” names A.spec.elliptica, A.spec.rotundifolia, A.spec.erubescens, A.spec.spathulata are successfully cultivated on the Kama’s banks. More than that Sergey Bodyagin very often uses the seed propagation of his Anubias. Particularly with the help of this method it became possible to receive very quickly a big population of each species and by means of interspecific hybridization to create new hybrid plants, which are differ from their parents by lamina form.

There are some examples of these hybrids:

A. barteri var. barteri x A. barteri var. caladiifolia
A. barteri var. nana x A. barteri var. caladiifolia
A. barteri var. caladiifolia x A. barteri var. nana
A. barteri var. nana x A. barteri var. barteri
A. barteri var. caladiifolia x A. barteri var. barteri
A. barteri var. nana x A. gilletii
A. gigantea x A. barteri var. caladifolia
A. barteri var. caladiifolia x A. gigantea
A. barteri var. caladiifolia x A. аfzelii
A. аfzelii x A. barteri var. caladiifolia
A. barteri var. nana x A. аfzelii
A. аfzelii x A. barteri var. caladiifolia
A. barteri var. nana x A. lanceolata
A. hastifolia x A. barteri var. nana
A. barteri var. nana x A. gigantea

Some of the hybrid inherited from their parents not only decorative but also some useful biological features. For example, hybrid on the basis of A. barteri var. nana can be cultivated in aquarium. Besides micton-plants have usually a more active growth and viability.

Further you can see some photos of Sergey Bodyagin’s Anubias.

A.spec.undulatus var.angustifolia:

Inflorescence of A. barteri var. caladiifolia:

Inflorescence and fruit of A.barteri var.nana:

Stems of A. gilletii:

Fruit of A. gigantea:

Young seedlings of A. gigantea:

Hybrid of A. gracilis х A. barteri var. caladiifolia:

These and many other photos you can see on the website: www.anubias.narod.ru

The author of this note: Dmitry Loginov.

The author used info from the next Web pages: http://anubias.narod.ru/new and http://www.tropica.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=23131

Translated from Russian by Julia Niklyaeva and Alexander Grigorov

Photos: Sergey Bodyagin.

How to grow Anubias at home (several advices)

2009-12-20T12:19:00.000-08:00

It’s well known that Anubias are riverside plants. But only some species can grow up well in aquarium; for example A. afzelii, A. barteri and some specimen of A. heterophylla. Though even these species grow up better in an emergent condition: they do it quickly, the leaves become larger, and more than that such plants blossom more often and so on. In the botanic garden’s greenhouses Anubias are grown up without water, meanwhile a damp peat or soil can be used as a ground. Such method also gives good results, the Anubias’ leaves grow very quickly. So as there is not so much water the leaves become firmer and harder than in aquarium. But this method is not suitable for small home greenhouses, because it’s difficult to fit out good ventilation in such a small volume and as the result the substratum can rot. That’s why it’s more suitable to keep Anubias in the emergent conditions, in such way it’s possible to avoid some undesirable anaerobic processes due to the water circulation and water changes. Besides there is an opportunity to proportion mineral fertilizers and distribute them properly. So the fancier of the aquatic fauna will like such method too, because in this way he can keep both, Anubias and aquatic animals, together.

An aquarium with a law water level can be used as a greenhouse. But it’s very difficult to maintain such aquariums. Theoretically we need some type of terrarium with side doors and leak proof bottom. In contrast to the “true” terrarium, there is no need in vent holes in such greenhouses for Anubias, as it would be very problematically to reach necessary air humidity (more than 90%).

It’s better to use luminous tube lamps with a warm white light for lighting and these lamps should be fixed on the outside of the greenhouse in order to avoid leaf scorch. The water level 5-15 cm. is enough for the growth of the most Anubias’ species. The pump is to place in water for the circulation. It’s better to keep Anubias in small plastic flower pots. The usage of the pots simplifies the attendance of the plants and their replantation etc. I often use the packing from foodstuff, for example plastic yoghurt cups. It’s necessary to make small holes in the side of the cup for water cycle. The upper edge of the cup should be under the water and only for a little it can emerge upon the surface. Common pebbles or small clay pellets can be used as a substratum. Every fancier has his own opinion concerning the question which additives (clay, ash, peat etc.) should be added to the soil. I’ve checked several variants of such mixtures and I didn’t notice any striking differences from the pure pebbles. We should follow only one rule - add the additive no more as 1/3 from total amount of the substratum, otherwise there would be asescence (rotting) of the soil or further mortality of the plant. Very often the usage of the peat, in order to soften the water and decrease its’ hardness, is unreasonably: due to the regular water changes the effect is thus null. Mineral fertilizers should be added in water for Anubias’ full nutrition. It can be done in different ways. For example you can use some fertilizers for house plants. But sometimes they aren’t well balanced, so in this way they don’t supply the needs of Anubias. And very often there is an oversupply with one element and that can lead to the plant’s disease. This problem can be solved by regular water changes. The usage of alive hydrobionts is another way to supply Anubias with necessary nutrition. It can be as snails, so as different fishes. They will consume food and excrete the waste products, which are necessary for Anubias. More than that snails are very important for aquariums, they eat obsolescent leaves or the other part of the plants. Though this method has also some disadvantages. For example, if there are any aquatic organisms, so it’s impossible to use chemical substances in order to fight with pests and diseases.

The temperature in greenhouse should be 22-26ºС. The direct sun should be avoided. Of course sometimes this natural lightening is useful for Anubias’ vital functions, but often it can lead to the air’s overheating, especially in summer. Anubias don’t like overheating (above 30 ºС) and vice versa overcooling (below 20 ºС).

That’s all. Practically there are no difficulties in growing such plants at home greenhouse. It’s not as complicated as the violet’s cultivation ( Saintpaulia ionantha ) on the window sill.

The author of this note: Dmitry Loginov.

The author used info from the next Web pages: http://www.tropica.ru/modules/ss/item

.php?itemid=138 and http://www.tropica.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=20547

Translated from Russian by Julia Niklyaeva and Alexander Grigorov

Photos: Dmitry Loginov and Valentina Romanova.

What does Anubias sp. Frazeri hide from us?

2009-12-07T12:30:00.000-08:00

For the last decades this Anubias became a customary attribute of many American pet shops. But at the same time there is a little information concerning this plant. Also it’s not clear, what place does Anubias sp. Frazeri take in the Anubias’ systematization. It’s also difficult for me to write this plant’s name correctly, whether as a breed or as a trade name. I couldn’t find any document about the registration of the breed Anubias ‘Frazeri’. So according to the diverse information I made a decision to add prefix “sp”, which means not fixed species.

There are some suppositions that this plant was named after the famous selectionist Edwin Frazer, who worked in Australia. It’s possible that Anubias sp. Frazeri is only a hybrid, which was created by Frazeri or by somebody else. I got to know about this Anubias 3 years ago. I received a parcel from one American online store and there was a little Anubias’ tiller with lanceolate leaves, reminiscent of A. barteri var. glabra or A. afzelii. In a half a year I was surprised to see, that there were small but distinct ears on the leaf at the base of lamina. Further cultivation showed that depending on conditions the laminae of this Anubias is very changeable. Even grown up plants have different leaf forms, from heart-shaped to auriculate. When at first time I saw these small ears I remembered the book by A. Engler “Das Pflanzenreich” and his A. auriculata Engler. Even now I think that Anubias sp. Frazeri can be a modern prototype of the A. auriculata.

For more assurance I needed the inflorescence of Anubias sp. Frazeri. In Internet I found only one photo, which was made by American fancier of the plants Cesar A. Castillo, but the quality of the picture wasn’t enough to scrutinize the structure of the male flower on cops. Later, my own plant made me happy with several inflorescences, which are similar with A. hastifolia according to their structure. In his revision W. Crusio had referred A. auriculata to this Anubias. The colour of the inflorescence was also changeable as the leaves. I saw the inflorescence with an outside reddish spatha, pink stigmas and stamens. Synandria consist of 4-6 adnate stamens. Thecae are situated on the edge or sometimes on one side of synandria. As the modern Anubias species’ identification criteria are quite wide and vague, so Anubias sp. Frazeri can be referred to A. hastifolia.

By semi aquatic cultivation Anubias sp. Frazeri is not a pretentious plant and it grows up quickly. The leaves are situated on the rhizome wide apart from each other and that’s why in short time this Anubias can embrace on a large area in florarium or paludarium.

The author of this note: Dmitry Loginov.

The author used info from the next Web pages: http://www.tropica.ru/modules/ss/item.php?itemid=144 and http://www.tropica.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=22863

Translated from Russian by Julia Niklyaeva and Alexander Grigorov

Photos: Dmitry Loginov and Cesar A. Castillo.

Picture: page 8. Engler A. Anubiadeae. – Das Pflanzenreich. – Leipzig, 1915.

Algae in aquarium

2009-12-01T09:28:00.000-08:00

One of the main aquarians’ problems is the plague of the lowest flora’s representatives. The fanciers of the slow-growing plants (e.g. Anubias) suffer the most. Sometimes they should wait many weeks when a new leaf will appear and study all phases of its’ development. But at the same time for several days algae can spoil the aspect of fanciers’ plants, which have been growing for years. At our forum there is a lot of information concerning the fighting with these undesirable “newcomers” and I try to sum it up.

First of all we should mention that there are a lot of types of algae. And the main cause of their appearance is the disturbance of biological balance, so it depends on thousand different factors: beginning with the composition and quantity of the aquatic animals and insects, flora, light intensity and so on. Sometimes algae can be the first sign of the aquarium’s “ripening” – drawing near to this notorious equilibrium. But generally you should look closely at appearance of the new guests and take necessary measures. I won’t stop at advices on how to create a planted tank and right away I come to the question: “What should we do if Anubias were attacked by the algae?” The representatives of the genus Compsopogon are the most dangerous for this plant. Usually people call them “black brush algae”. On the Anubias’ leaf they appear as black points or brushes and we can find them at the margin of the leaf. It’s very difficult to remove these weeds mechanically, only with leaf’s tissue or with the whole leaf, but many aquarians can’t do this. The simple way out is the usage of the biological methods. For example, you can get shrimps of the genus Caridina or snails - Theodoxus, Clithon or Neretina - and they will mop up the algae. But we can’t use them in all cases, e.g. for African Cichlids, because these shrimps and snails can be eaten by these fish. The usage of the larger “algae eaters”, e.g. Crossocheilus siamensis is less efficient. Also the rumor, that the best method is Anubias’ transfer from submerged into a semi-submerged conditions, only delude people. First of all, Compsopogon doesn’t disappear from the leaves, it only dries on their tissue and very often it grows well in a semi submerged condition due to the high humidity. So take into consideration all aforesaid, we can say that the chemical methods of fighting with algae could be used and are nowadays widespread.

In Russia the usage of cheap household chemicals, which contain sodium hypochlorite, became very popular. Short-term washing out (30-60 sec.) of the Anubias’ leaves with this water solution leads to the dying-off of the “black brush”. More than that the tissue of the leaves are protected with the well-formed cuticle, that’s why they can’t be damaged. In this connection we should avoid any contacts between hypochlorite and roots or growing points of the plant. After treatment leaves should be well washed under running water. The oxidized parts of the algae will flake from the leaves in aquarium in 2-3 days after treatment and become delicacies for many fishes, e.g. for callichthyid catfishes. In conclusion it stands to mention that you should handle all household chemicals only in accordance with safety instructions on the package.

The authors of this note: Dmitry Loginov.

The author used infos from the next Web pages:

(http://www.tropica.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=18300, http://www.tropica.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=22808)

Translated from Russian by Julia Niklyaeva and Alexander Grigorov

Photos: Eugeniy Tochenov, Alexander Grigorov and Vladislav Elbakyan.