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Saururus cernuus (Lizard's Tail)

Contents:

  1. Lizard's Tail
    by DAWB.DSKPO33B-at-DSKBGW1.ITG.ti.com (David Webb) (Fri, 07 Jul 1995)
  2. foreground plants - saurus cernus
    by "Joe Anderson" <the_submariner/hotmail.com> (Mon, 29 Oct 2001)
  3. Foreground plants
    by Thomas Barr <tcbiii/earthlink.net> (Tue, 30 Oct 2001)

Saururus cernuus, underwater patch
(left, along with Heteranthera zosterifolia, right)


rooting stem
. Easy way to propagate them: I cut up some adult plants and floated them in a tank until they each sprouted a root and leaves.

photos by Erik Olson

Lizard's Tail

by DAWB.DSKPO33B-at-DSKBGW1.ITG.ti.com (David Webb)
Date: Fri, 07 Jul 1995

>>Most likely he is referring to Saururus cernuus, aka Lizard's tail, aka
the "Leiden" plant.  This is a bog plant native to the southeast US, often
sold as a pond plant now, and regionally sold as an aquarium plant.  It
used to be a staple in every Dutch tank, even though it's not really that
happy growing underwater.  Look for it in those neat terraced arrangements
where it slopes from really tall to really short in the front.  I tried
this in my tank last year, and got it real nice for about 4 months, after
which it started to deteriorate, so I gave it up. <<

I've personally found Lizard's tail to be an attractive, long lasting plant in 
the aquarium...

....I just have to keep the water in the tank low enough so the lizard's tail 
grows out.  :-)  It's great for that extra "experimental" tank, but I've also 
found that it doesn't last long if it's kept submerged.  I currently have all 
of my lizard's tail in my 5.5 gallon micro plant tank.  It only has 3" of 
water,
 and the lizard's tail loves it.

David W. Webb
Enterprise Computing Provisioning
Texas Instruments Inc.
(214) 575-3443 (voice)          MSGID:          DAWB
(214) 575-4853 (fax)                    Internet:       dwebb-at-ti.com
(214) 581-2380 (pager)          Text Pager:     pgr-at-msg.ti.com Subj:PAGE:David 
Webb


foreground plants - saurus cernus

by "Joe Anderson" <the_submariner/hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001

While we're all speaking of foreground plants, ie. potomagen (sp?)
has anyone tried lizard's tail (S.cernus)?
I've read that it will produce smaller leaves under water, adn seen pics of 
it with small leaves covering a foreground area.

I've had some in a tank for about 3 months now and it finally is producing 
smaller leaves, so I added another emersed grown stem to transition.  They 
are in a lower lit tank, so the growth rates ar not optimal, but I didn't 
want to put them in the display tank until they had starting getting 
smaller.
any experiences with this one?
Joe

Oklahoma City Aquarium Association
www.okcaa.aquariumsociety.com


_________________________________________________________________


Foreground plants

by Thomas Barr <tcbiii/earthlink.net>
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001

 
> While we're all speaking of foreground plants, ie. potomagen (sp?)
> has anyone tried lizard's tail (S.cernus)?
> I've read that it will produce smaller leaves under water, adn seen pics of
> it with small leaves covering a foreground area.

It gets big. Baby plantlets can be used but I sure would not call it a
foreground plant. They get big and can become quite prolific. They also send
off runners and these can be smaller. Also depends on how you prune them at
the nodes and how far up you prune them. Use shape scissors, no fingers.
If they are smaller than 4-6 inches then your stunting them. In which case
you can have about any plant for the foreground.
But I use it close to the front with something like pearl grass under it or
gloss etc or in a row going towards the back of the tank vertically upwards
like a staircase.
 You should try Lobelia "dwarf" form. Slower growing and some of the
plantlets are tiny off of these. But leaving the stem still in the gravel
after topping, You get lots of tiny plantlets, much like Anubias stems with
mini plants all over it. This plant is slower growing and stays reasonably
short. Certainly a long term favorite. Perhaps a nicer choice for most
folks. Lizard tail gets big pretty fast. Not a bad thing if you want lots of
it. Makes a nice replacement for the sword plant or when you need a larger
leaf for contrast. Great plant when used with bushy small leafed plants. I
don't see many folks working with it here. Seems to be a Dutch tank plant
namely still. Perhaps folks will use it here more.
Neither plant is hard to grow and has a number of good uses for gardening.
Another one is Hottonia but is seems to get taller in many tanks and a bit
unruly. But it tends to stay small and looks something like H. difformis
except tiny. It likes NO3's so make sure there's some in there. Folks with
NO3 at 0 will not do well with this one at all. I tried to see.
Regards, 
Tom Barr 
> 
> I've had some in a tank for about 3 months now and it finally is producing
> smaller leaves, so I added another emersed grown stem to transition.  They
> are in a lower lit tank, so the growth rates ar not optimal, but I didn't
> want to put them in the display tank until they had starting getting
> smaller.
> any experiences with this one?
> Joe
> 
> Oklahoma City Aquarium Association


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