Thursday, April 03, 2014

Red pondweed

Another forgotten photo, this one of an unidentified* pondweed for sale last August in our local nursery.

The large green leaf is an average waterlily, about a hand's breadth across. The pondweed leaflets are a bit larger than those of the wild pondweed we find in ditches around here.

*Update: it's Azola caroliniana, native to the east coast, all the way from Ontario to Argentina.
(Thanks, Bronwen!)

And I'm going to have to take another short break; I'm having some minor surgery on Friday. Nothing to worry about, but I'll be out of commission for a couple of days. I'll be back Monday.

2 comments:

  1. you'd think in BC they'd sell the native species, which is a Species at Risk -

    the Azolla song:

    We had to get to Edmonton before the end of day,
    Ramming our way up the valley,
    But as we came to Little Fort
    As plain as you could see
    Was a brown woolly mat of Azolla.

    (If you want your floating Ferns,
    This lesson you must learn:
    come to BCKCDB for Azolla).

    Back in '81, when the Mimp was but a mite,
    We saw the same effect in Rockport.
    The fleuve St. Laurent
    was discovered long ago,
    But we saw it crimson with Azolla.

    Ducks may come and go, some with ferns stuck on their toe
    As taught by the great Professor Clausen.
    But when you see a northern bay
    That’s blanketed that way
    You know you've found Canadian Azolla.

    So in the year 2000, eh, September twenty-sixth,
    We slid down into the Thompson oxbow.
    The furry velvet braids of leaves,
    Megaspores like Mustard seed:
    It's Canadian Mexican Azolla.

    (If you want your floating Ferns,
    This lesson you must learn:
    come to BCKCDB for Azolla).

    ReplyDelete
  2. It looks like lace on the water. So pretty. Get better quick. - Margy

    ReplyDelete

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