Where would I find hornwort or other submerged plants in the wild? I had a place for hornwort but someone turned it into a river, and I did something that was probably dumb and added duckweed, which is good for cover but I’ve read needs submerged plants to keep it in check. So where would I find said submerged plants?
Do you mean in like, a home aquarium setting, because nothing will stop duckweed from growing but lots of flow and moving water, scooping it out with a net is just something you’ve gotta put up with lol
No in a small pond
Enter the species and have a look on the map where the observations are? I wouldn’t introduce duckweed into a natural site–it spreads aggressively and can be invasive. Also I’m not sure about the relationship between duckweed and submersed plants; floating plants can choke off light–
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You need to find a natural body of still water, like a swamp, lake or natural pond. Look for natural parks in your area and see if they have such habitats. If not you can buy it from a water plant nursery, they often offer online services.
You don’t necessarily need hornwort to reduce duckweed in your pond by the way, any aquatic plant, whether it’s submerged or emergent will compete for nutrients with duckweed if you allow it to expand. Sedges for example are very good for removing nutrients from the water with their strong and expansive root systems.
Just make sure you don’t introduce something that’s even more infestant than duckweed. Hornwort itself grows very rapidly, and cattails can easily cover a small backyard pond in its entirety.
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Please be very careful with aquatic plants if you’re in the wild. Since aquatic plants don’t have any competition for water they compete in other ways, often competing for light. The way duckweed competes for light is to takes over the surface. It often can’t uptake all the nutrients but it will take over light and that condition is likely to increase algae while suppressing submerged plants like hornwort. Ecosystems can be fairly fragile and introducing plants, especially aquatic plants, can have a lot of unexpected and unintended effects, please be very careful with them.
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Hello Steven, welcome here.
I totally agree that introduced water plants may become invasive on a shockingly large scale. A case in point is the water Hyacinth Eichhornia crassipes which was introduced to Egypt in the late 1800’s and from there it invaded the whole stretch of the River Nile, and till this day it has a negative impact on the river.
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I dug a hole and put water in it
There isn’t any ecosystem yet
I also introduced it from a pond under a half-mile away from me
Duckweed is everywhere where I live
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