Vallisneria Americana
By Patrick Miller
Newsletter #45 2010
The scientific name of this plant is Vallisneria americana and the common name is giant val. According to Christel Kasselmann in her book Aquarium Plants this plant also has many synonyms such as V. gigantean, V. natans, V. neotropicalis and others. This is a rosette type plant which will produce runners. Unlike Vallisneria spiralis which has leaves up to 1 centimeter wide and grows to 3 feet long; Vallisneria americana produces leaves up to 3 centimeters wide and grows to over 6 feet long.
I purchased the plant, like so many of the plants that I buy, at one of our club’s auctions. There was only one plant in the bag when I purchased it. I put it into my 90 gallon tank where the leaves easily reached the water surface.
The substrate in the tank is 2” of dirt with 2” of sand on top it. The lighting for the tank
consists of two 55watt florescent lights with reflectors about 10” above the water surface. The water temperature fluctuates between the low 60’s and the mid 70’s. The tank is filtered with a Fluval 404 canister filter. Other plants in the tank have included; V. spiralis, Elodea canadensis, water lettuce, A. madagascarienses, Java fern and many others. The fish in the tank have included mostly livebearers and native fish.
The plant seemed to take a little longer than V. spiralis to adjust to the tank. After about 1 month I noticed a runner and some new leaves. A few weeks later I noticed another new runner. After about 5 weeks I figured I had enough growth on the first couple of runners to bring them in to a meeting for my HAP point.
I turned V. americana in for HAP back in 2005. I still have this plant. I almost got rid of it but decided that it would make the new tank set up when I stripped its tank down and rebuilt it in 2008. During this move the plant sat in a bucket in my basement for about 2 weeks as I resealed the tank and moved it to a different location. The adjustment time when it was put in the new tank was much quicker than when I originally purchased the plant and it put out new runners very quickly.
I am glad that I have kept this plant because in just 6 months it has taken over about one half of the 90 gallon tank it is in with leaves reaching over the entire surface. I have had to thin it once already and will thin it again at the end of this April. The plants are currently flowering and I have counted 5 flowers each from a different plant.
If you have a big tank I would recommend this plant as it seems to be hardy plant that will flower.