Description of floating and common arrowhead
Arrowhead flower is a perennial plant from the Chastukhova family. It is also called swampweed or sagittaria. Habitats: rivers, ponds and swamps.
Description of the arrow leaf
Arrow leaf is a plant that grows in fresh water bodies, in stagnant water, and provides shelter for some fish.
Source: Depositphotos
Arrowhead provides shelter for fish
The roots are cord-like processes on which there are rounded tubers. They are located close to the soil surface. The plant can be fully or partially immersed in water. The stems range in length from 25 to 100 cm.
In mid-summer, small inflorescences appear on the flower and remain until August. The foliage of the plant differs in shape depending on its location:
- underwater - narrow and long;
- surface ones - large, similar to a triangle.
A pollinated plant produces fruits - these are round and hard achenes containing a large number of seeds. In the future, they will spread to other territories where new flowers will grow.
The rhizome and tubers can be eaten. They are baked or boiled. The taste of the boiled plant resembles nuts, and the baked one resembles potatoes.
Common types of arrowhead and its cultivation
There are more than 30 species of this plant, but the most common are the common arrowhead and the floating one.
The common one has bright green growth, consisting of above-water arrow-shaped and underwater thread-like leaves. Their size ranges from 5 to 15 cm. It blooms with white flowers.
Floating arrowhead grows on the river bank and in shallow water. The stem is long. The aerial leaves are oval-shaped, those under water are elongated. The latter are distinguished by their translucency. Their length can reach 25 cm.
Plants reproduce in two ways:
- seeds;
- dividing the bush.
In nature, seeds are sown independently. If you want to plant a plant in an artificial pond, this can be done by dividing the bush. The best period for planting is summer. You can also root daughter rosettes. For good growth, a mixture of silt and sand is taken. An important nuance is the presence of water. As the flowers grow, its level must be raised.
In numerous photos, the arrowhead plant can be recognized by its arrow-shaped leaves and flowers, which are located throughout the peduncle. This flower can decorate any coastal area and make it exotic.
To grow arrowhead, you don’t have to have your own pond. It is important to maintain the necessary soil moisture and then you can admire the plant even in the garden.
Arrow leaf, sagittaria (lat. Sagittaria subulata) is a perennial plant of the Alismataceae family. The natural habitat of many arrowheads is America, where approximately thirty of its species can be found. In our country, only three varieties of the plant are found; they grow on the shores of freshwater bodies of water, in shallow water and in ponds with a muddy bottom. They all have different external characteristics and require different care. In home aquariums you can most often find the awl-shaped form of this species.
External characteristics
All plants of the Chastukhov family are characterized by the following qualities:
- They have a well-developed root system, it is short, spherical or nodular, white;
- Underwater varieties of sagittarium have braid-like or petiolate leaves that float on the surface of the water in the form of a heart-shaped or oval plate;
- Amphibian species are characterized by leaves of 3 shapes: under water, leaf blades have the shape of a braid without petioles, surface leaves are floating, have petioles and a blade ovate, heart-shaped or arrow-shaped, above-water leaves are distinguished by strong petioles of arrow-shaped or spear-shaped;
- All leaf blades are bright green in color, have characteristic veins, with a fleshy structure;
- The blooms are racemes on stalks that rise above the surface of the water, they have white petals and green sepals.
Look at the arrowhead aquarium.
European naturalists brought the arrowhead from North America in the 18th century. It immediately spread to local waters due to similar climate conditions. The plant was first described by C. Linnaeus in 1753, and was assigned to the genus Saggitaria by the botanist and phytogeographer Franz Buchenau.
Sagittaria subulate is an amphibious plant with a stem height of 15 cm. It has a rosette with leaves and a root system in the shape of an onion, therefore it is firmly rooted in the soil substrate. The color of the leaf blades is bright green, the shape of the leaves is not sharp, they have three veins that are located lengthwise. The plant may have small “airy” oval-shaped leaves; they are on long petioles. In an aquarium, it is better to place the subulate arrowhead at the front or back wall of the glass.
In captivity it can bloom - the inflorescences have three flowers, the peduncle is long and thin. This type of sagittaria can have different leaf heights depending on the shape:
- Subulata comes in two forms – Natans (leaves 30 cm long and 6 mm wide), and Pusilla (leaves 10-12 cm long);
- Gracillima – leaf width 3-5 mm, length 30-90 cm;
- Kurtziana – leaf width 7-14 mm, length – 30-90 cm.
Look how the arrowhead blooms.
How to maintain sagittaria at home
For optimal keeping in an aquarium, sagittaria should live in water with a temperature of 20-26 o C, but can tolerate a decrease in temperature, as well as its increase. Shoots develop well in conditions of soft and hard water, in pH-neutral water. Be sure to filter the water as arrowheads are sensitive to algae and oxidation.
Keep the tank brightly lit - allow it to be in direct sunlight for 3 hours a day. The amount of daylight is 12 hours. It is not advisable to illuminate the sagittaria from the side; only the top lighting should be used. Coarse sand or fine pebbles are suitable as soil. To plant a plant, you need to put peat or clay extract under the roots. A large amount of silt in the soil can cause rotting of the root system and death of the seedling.
During the period of getting used to a new aquarium, sagittaria may periodically shed leaves, but after a while new ones will appear. It can reproduce year-round by forming lateral shoots on which daughter plants develop. If 4 leaves and rhizomes form on young shoots, they can be separated from the mother plant and replanted. The bush must be planted carefully so that its necks do not go deep into the sandy bottom. Periodically, the plant can be fed mineral fertilizer, approximately 1.5 grams per 100 liters of water.
The arrowhead genus (Sagittaria) belongs to the Chastukhov family (Alismataceae) and is very close to the genus Echinodorus, which is very popular among aquarists. There are about 25 species of arrowheads, most of them native to North and Central America. Three species - common arrowhead (S.sagitifolia), floating arrowhead (S.natans) and trefoil arrowhead (S.trifolia) are widespread in Eurasia and are found in Russia. The latter has already been mentioned as an agricultural crop; in our country it grows mainly in Primorye, as well as in the Lower Volga and Lower Don. In North-West Russia, the first two species can often be found along the banks of reservoirs. They are quite similar both in appearance and in biology.
The common arrowhead is more common and better known, so we will describe it. The leaves are collected in a basal rosette. Floating and above-water - with an arrow-shaped, spear-shaped or (less often) with an oblong-oval plate; the petioles of floating leaves sometimes reach 70-100 cm or more (which indicates the depth of growth). The underwater leaves are sessile, ribbon-shaped, 10-20 mm wide and up to 100 cm or more long (Rychin, 1948). By the end of summer, long white, cord-like underground shoots form oblong tuberous overwintering buds (what I called above nodules).
The common arrowhead sometimes grows at a considerable depth (up to 5 meters) and in this case it reproduces only vegetatively - with the help of the same buds that overwinter in the silt.
Arrowhead leaves are curved, wide and pointed at the ends. Sagittaria has a highly developed root system. The leaves are juicy, fleshy, green.
Soil - sand or silt. The plant is not particularly demanding on water parameters. In good conditions, arrowhead can bloom with white flowers.
The plant in the aquarium is propagated vegetatively. The mother plant throws out tendrils on which daughter plants form.
The awl-shaped arrowhead is a small plant: in normal lighting it barely reaches 5-10 cm in height, which predetermined its use for decorating the foreground of an aquarium. S.subulata actively produces layering and develops quite quickly. Although, again, it cannot be compared with the rate of growth and spread of Echinodorus tenellus. But this is probably a good thing - you will have to thin out the plantings less often. The only bad thing is that with a lack of lighting, this sagittarium becomes very elongated (up to 20-30 cm) and looks out of place in the foreground. Therefore, in a dimly lit container it is better to place it closer to the middle ground or even against the back wall.
The grass-like arrowhead is very similar to the previous species, only it is quite long in good lighting - 30-40 cm. This plant is easily confused with narrow-leaved Vallisneria. It differs in the venation pattern and the characteristic expansion of the leaf blade, which is formed if the leaf reaches the surface of the water. It is better to plant grass-like arrowhead in the background and middle ground.
Sagittaria cannot be called particularly bright and catchy plants. But they are very unpretentious and bring a special flavor, their modest charm to the picture of a water garden, be it a pond or an aquarium.
All of the above is just the fruit of observing this type of aquarium plant and collecting various information from owners and breeders. We would like to share with visitors not only information, but also with live emotions, allowing you to penetrate the world of aquariums more fully and subtly. Register on, participate in discussions on the forum, create profile topics where you will talk about your aquatic organisms in the first person and first-hand, describe their content features, share with us your successes and joys, share your experience and learn from the experience of others. We are interested in every bit of your experience, every second of your joy, every awareness of a mistake, which makes it possible for your comrades to avoid the same mistake. The more of us there are, the more pure and transparent drops of goodness there are in the life and everyday life of our seven billion society.
Sagittaria - arrowhead video review
Arrowhead is a natural decoration of our reservoirs. It grows along shores in standing water. The arrowhead serves as a shelter for fish of the carp family.
Arrowhead is a perennial (sometimes annual) aquatic plant, completely or partially submerged in water. The leaves of the plant are large and resemble an arrowhead. About 20 species of this plant are found in nature, but the common arrowhead is ubiquitous in Russia.
Where does the arrowhead live?
Habitats include bodies of water with standing water, but can grow in low currents. It grows, like elodea, along the shores in shallow water, but the plant can grow at a depth of up to five meters.
Arrowhead - description.
Depending on the living conditions, arrowhead leaves can be underwater, floating, or aerial. Floating leaves have an elongated shape, underwater leaves resemble a ribbon and are pale green in color. Plants with underwater leaves do not bloom. A characteristic feature is that leaves of all three types do not grow on one plant at the same time. The rhizome is short with lateral shoots. In autumn, the ends of the shoots turn into tubers.
Arrow leaf and its nutritional value.
The tubers and rhizomes can be eaten. They can be baked in the coals of a fire or boiled. The tubers taste like nuts. Baked arrowhead tubers are very similar to ordinary potatoes. In America, arrowhead is called the Indian white potato. If you have free time, the tubers and rhizomes can be dried by first cutting them into slices. Dried tubers contain about 60 percent starch and 6 percent sugar. Tubers can only be collected in early spring or late autumn. At the end of autumn, the stem and leaves die off, leaving only the tuber in the soil. In early spring, new shoots appear from the tubers. This plant blooms in June and July. The flowers are large and white. Pollination occurs with the help of various insects. Fruiting in late summer. The fruits have the ability to float on the surface of the water for months, moving over considerable distances.
Arrowhead and fish.
During the flowering period, the peduncles of the arrowhead contain a white milky sap. Fishermen believe that this juice attracts fish, and in the fall the fish feed on the side shoots of this plant. Fish of the carp family usually live in thickets of arrowhead, and pike is not a rare guest in such places. Fishing lovers need to know this wonderful plant in water bodies.
Family: Chastochaidae (Alismataceae).
Motherland
In nature, arrowhead is distributed in temperate and tropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere, in Europe, Asia and America.
Form: perennial herbaceous plant.
Description
Arrowhead is a perennial (less often annual), partially or completely submerged aquatic plant. The leaves of the plants are arrow-shaped, large, pointed (floating leaves are ribbon-shaped). Arrowhead flowers are large, white, less often pinkish, collected in racemes. Tubers form on plant shoots.
(S. sagittifolia, natans). Plants up to 80 cm high. On an ordinary arrowhead, depending on living conditions, three types of leaves can develop - underwater (linear), floating (long-petioled) and aerial (erect, long-petioled, triangular, pointed). The common arrowhead, growing at great depths, has yellow-green, almost transparent, narrow leaves. Peduncles of common arrowhead are from 20 to 100 cm tall. Blooms in June-August.
(S. subulata). Plant from 5 to 40 cm tall. The leaves of arrowhead subulate are mainly only submerged ribbon-shaped; the floating leaves are pale green. The subulate arrowhead must be removed from the reservoir for the winter; the plant is not highly winter-hardy. Arrowhead also grows in brackish water.
Arrowhead grass-like, or arrowhead cereal (S. graminea). Annual or perennial plant. The stems of grass-like arrowhead are from 5 to 120 cm long. Blooms in late summer. Not winter-proof.
Broadleaf arrowhead (S. latifolia). Plant stems are from 15 to 140 cm tall. The leaves of the broadleaf arrowhead are arrow-shaped and lobed, ranging from narrow, pointed to wide. Winter-hardy.
Spear-leaved arrowhead (S. lancifolia). Plant stems are from 40 to 210 cm tall. Spear-shaped arrowhead blooms at the end of summer.
Growing conditions
Arrowhead is photophilous and prefers well-lit areas. Grows in standing or slow-moving water. Arrowhead can be planted in the ground (without immersion in water), but the soil must be well moistened. The optimal planting depth for arrowhead is from 10 to 30 cm. Arrowhead can grow at a sufficient depth (up to 5 m), but in this case it does not bloom. The winter hardiness of plants varies depending on the species.
Application
Arrowhead is a plant suitable for decorating the coastal zone of country ponds and streams. Arrowhead goes well with others and can be planted in various coastal areas. However, plants also adapt to terrestrial life and grow on well-moistened substrates. The arrowhead tubers that form at the ends of the shoots (only in early spring and late autumn) are edible. Arrowheads feed on fish, waterfowl and other aquatic animals.
Care
Arrowhead is unpretentious and does not require special care. If you plant arrowhead not near water, but in the ground in the garden, then the plants need abundant watering. For better growth, plants can be fed.
Reproduction
Arrowhead is propagated by seeds and vegetatively (by dividing the bush and tubers formed at the ends of the shoots).
Diseases and pests
Arrowhead is a resistant plant, rarely affected by diseases and pests.
Popular varieties
Varieties of broadleaf arrowhead:
'Flore pleno'(with double, corrugated flowers);
'Rubescens'(with pubescent leaves);
‘Brevifolia’(with very narrow, sharp leaves);
'Leopard Spot'(the leaves of the variety are rounded, with brownish-purple spots).
Common arrowhead variety 'Flore Pleno'. Arrowhead with large leaves and double flowers. Peduncles up to 0.5 m high.