The genus Ranunculus has many various members , some of them are
truly amphibious plants:
Water Crowfoot (ranonculus fluitans) is a very rapid grower with white
bowl-shaped flowers with yellow centers during mid summer.
Water Crowfoot gives shelter for newts, snails, insect larvae and nymphs
and tadpoles. These watercreatures find shelter between the entangeled roots and
submerged leaves.
Slightly acid water is optimal for a rapid growth of Crowfoot.
Flowering only occurs if there's direct sunlight.
Aquarium with Ranunculus fluitans. As the plant is a rapid grower it quickly exspands
outside the aquarium, but keeps on extracting nitrogen and fosfates from the water. In this
way it biological cleans the water without the use of a electrical pomp
Water crowfoot cleaning the aquarium
Ranonculus fluitans combines some interresting biological facts:
- it can grow in very polluted and acid water.
- its a fast grower.
- its grows in an amfibious way.
- its quit resistent against damage.
- gives shelter for a lot of watercreatures
For this reasons , I use the water crowfoot for cleaning my aquarium , as
shown on the picture. In this way I don't have to use electical pumps, that
filter out the microlive.
There is just one problem: the seeds of ranonkel fluitans are poison for childern
This ranunculus gots its nutrients out of the freshwater aquarium.
Take a look at the ecology page for
more information about this subject.
More reading
The website (with links) for cleaning water in a biological way is dr Todds:
living Technologies
