The Banana Plant,

Native fish enthusiasts, here's another plant for your tank or pond that has a more interesting life history than many aquarists have ever realized.Most of you know this one by its aquarium hobby venacular: the "Banana Plant"!  So named because of the cluster of little green tubers from which the crown of the plant origionates, that resemble a bunch of green bananas. Few in the aquarium hobby ever imagine the potential of this plant. More often than not, it is short lived in the tank. But when planted outside in a pot of soil it undergoes a miraculous transformation into something that is both bizzare and somewhat beautiful.

For the humble "Banana Plant" of the aquarium trade is really the juvinile form of the Large Floating Heart - Nymphiodes aquatica - a water lily-like plant with floating pads that are lightly textured and green above and rough textured and deep purplish red on the underside. The plant is really small (at least in the case of specimens grown in the northern part of the range), the pads are only 4 inches at the most ; about the size of the "minor" form of our native white pond lily - Nymphea odorata! The native range is mostly coastal - from S. New Jersey to Florida , the Gulf States and lower Mississippi Valley.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this plant in its mature form are the strange ways it reproduces itself. Clusters of five petaled white flowers are borne from a swelling just below the base of the leaf in summer. A really good photo illustration of this habit is in the Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers: Eastern Region. This reference brings to mind another bit of trivia concerning the plant. Taxonomists place the genus Nymphoides in the Gentian Family - far distant from the more similar in appearence and name Nympheacae - or Water lilies!

But there is more. Aside from the conventional sexual mode of reproduction involving pollination of flowers and seed production, there is also asexual budding which produces a cluster of the typical banana like tubers from the same part of the stem where the flowers arise! These grow and form a small plantlet that drifts away at the end of the season when the portion of the stem below disintegrates while the leaf above remains intact and like a tiny ship it sets sail, driven by the wind and currents across its native pond or lake- hopefully to establish itself when the mother leaf dies and the tubers sink to the bottom.

So now you know where baby banana plants come from! If you just so happen to suceed with one of these babies in a tank, it is likely that the plant will eventually outgrow its place and loose the attractive look when it shifts away from underwater growth infavor of floating leaves, you have two choices. You can fight Nature by pruning the floating leaves off and hopefully encourage it to behave itself or else replace it with a younger plant. But rather than throwing the old plant away , why not give it a new lease on life by planting it in a pot of soil and setting it out in a garden pond. Even if you cannot afford such a luxury, there is also the option of growing in a half-barrel or tub set out on a deck or patio! Floating heart because of its small size makes for an ideal substitute for water lilies in tub "ponds".

My source, you guessed it: a plant from a local pet shop which has grown and even multiplied a bit when planted out in a small plastic flower pot circa 1984! A carryover from a previous pond project where it was grown in a mix of sand and clay topped with corse sand directly on the bottom. I have since switched to culture in mesh pots of the same mixture and a topping of aquarium gravel to keep the fish from stirring up the soil and roiling the waters. The really nice thing about mesh pots, aside from being easier to move plants around or to take them out of the pond for division or other maintenance, that the plants can also put out feeder roots thru the sides which help to filter the water!

In cultivation outdoors, this plant is probably hardy to USDA Zone 6. It has proven winter hardy for me here in SW Pennsylvania , but the plants are a bit short lived. To keep it going, new plantlets should be restarted every few years.

Good luck and good growing all!

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