I used to have Azolla as the floating plant in a live plant tank used as an indoor water garden. It was sold to me in Tennessee as "snowflake plant". I loved it, and no one could tell me what its scientific name was...each looked like a snowflake, and turned beautiful red colors in winter. It had an irridescent look under lighting. I recently called the shop I'd purchased it from years ago to find some, and they still carry it. And now they know the name...so I finally know what the snowflake plants were...Azolla. I looked online to identify the specific kind I had, and it appears to be Azolla pinnata.
A few thoughts on Azolla. I adore it...it's unique, truely a tiny beauty, and fun. Back when I had some, my hatchet fish loved hanging in the tiny gray forest of roots beneath the little plants. I placed them on one end of the tank to block the lighting...so I could grow some low light species I liked beneath them. I used under gravel filtration...so they stayed where I put them--no current to push them around. My tank was a water garden. The few fish were only there to balance the ecosystem.
Most importantly, when I was searching recently to identify the snowflake plant I had long ago, and hoping to find some more, I discovered that different varieties are considered to be a non-native
, invasive species subject to federal and state governmental regulation, quarantine, and are banned from sale, trade, possession or transport in many states.
I would suggest you do your homework on the variety you are interested in. It is often sold illegally. I would suggest you watch what you purchase, where you purchase it, whether it's ok to have it in your state, and whether you are making an illegal purchase that could get you in trouble elsewhere if shopping online.
Other thoughts on Azolla:
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s1ren (S1ren) wrote on Thursday, January 08, 2004 - 19:11 :</font>
"Update: The Azolla died weeks ago. "<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>
Mine were beautiful irridescent green, then red, and then, they all appeared to turn brown and brittle, fragment into pieces and die. I didn't manage to get all the pieces out of the tank, and each piece turned into a new plantlet! It turns out that fragmentation is one way they reproduce/propagate, rather profusely, I might add. Your plants may not have died after all. (They also reproduce with spores.)
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Nate (Nate) wrote on Monday, November 24, 2003 - 18:44 :</font>
"It's very nice, but doesn't seem to like deep water."<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>
Mine was in 1 & 1/2 feet of water, and did beautifully. I thought mine didn't seem to like strong current or poor light. They "improved" with good lighting and did great in calmer water...so I'm not sure which of those two changes, if at all, was the cause of the "improvement"...or if I thought their "illness" was actually them starting to turn brown and fragment. Maybe they were fine!
As far as temperature, I'd purchased mine in the Tennessee winter from outdoor reservoir tanks. They were sold for outdoor ponds, but I used them in my aquarium garden indoors. So they did well in the cold outdoors in bright full sunlight and in my warm aquarium with less light.
On a separate note: I think I've identified the variety I'd had by looking online. It looked exactly like the Azolla pinnata at
http://www.hear.org/pier/species/azolla_pinnata.htm
There's an interesting article that describes the irridescent quality I noticed, and the cause, a symbiotic relationship with "microscopic filamentous blue-green alga or cyanobacterium (Anabaena azollae)"...at
http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:3GDvB_A5544J:waynesword.palomar.edu/plnov98.htm+azolla&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
I bet they would look really cool under black light!
One site says there are six species in the eastern US and West Indies:
http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:EFD9uJ-xqHkJ:www.tripplebrookfarm.com/iplants/Azolla.html+azolla&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
~Moi~