Help identifying a plant

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I have a plant that was transferred from my old pond last year. If memory serves me, this was a dwarf cattail that changed and grew dramatically after putting it in the new pond. My problem is, I'm starting to question my memory... From what I can recall, this plant started out with thin round leaves, but once it actually started growing well in the new pond, the leaves opened up into these more V-shaped stems which grow about a foot tall, then split into about 6 separate leaves.

There have been no cattails nor any other flowers on this plant, so I cannot identify it that way. Because of the way the leaves split near the top, it reminds me more of the umbrella plants - however some quick research shows that those will not survive below zones 7-8, so I wouldn't have even tried growing it (this plant survived the past Winter and started growing fast while it was still cold). The other thing is that I was babying along my one known cattail, and I'm about 95% certain that this is where I placed it so it would have good growing conditions... Even so, I am hoping to get some verification?

Here's a link to the full-sized image, cropped so the plant in question is front and bottom-center (ignore the iris leaves poking up right in front of the plant)... http://www.sourpuss....6/img_6156x.jpg

img_6156x.jpg
 

sissy

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leaves look similar to a weed we get here but it does not split like that .Maybe your umbrella plant went a little wild .
 

addy1

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My cat tails don't look like that at all, skinny leaves. That looks more like a ornamental grass.
 

HARO

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Last year I came across a plant new to me, sold under the name "Dwarf King Tut papyrus" I believe it grows to about 2' or so, and looks more like a grass than most of the papyrus varieties. I think you might have one of these!
John
 

HARO

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Tried to edit the previous post, but couldn't. I can't find the variety anywhere on the internet, just the shorter version of Egyptian papyrus, which has the same roughly triangular stem, but the one we had was more like a grass, eventually branching near the ends. It was grown by our wholesale department, so the next time I'm in there I'll see if they have a scientific name for it.
John
 
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It just really bugs me that I cannot even remember *getting* this plant, let alone remember what it was. On the other hand, if this is not a cattail, then it had to have been added last year, which means this thing has spread quite a bit in only a single year. That's great for me because I would love to have this filling in my gravel area. I know it's not really a bog, but it should have some bog-like attributes as the plants fill in, and provide an extra boost to cleaning the water. The little dragonfly nymphs sure seem to like swimming around this area!
 

addy1

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Laughing, join the crowd, I keep a list of what I have bought, then need to marry the name to the plant in the bog. Most of the time just say pretty plant, like pretty fish lol
 
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Ah ha! That's what it took, finding my receipt for the plants I ordered online last year...

The plant is called a 'Hardy Umbrella Plant', also known as 'Sweet Galingale' (Cyperus longus). So it was a type of umbrella plant, just not one that I was able to find again while trying to identify it.

"This native can be invasive..." That would be an understatement. I was really upset with this particular online order because for the price, I expected small clumps of plants. What I received was one single stem of each grass. Out of $60 worth of plants, this and the bog bean are the only two that survived. Take a good look at the size of that clump of plants from the first post, and remember that all of that grew out of a single stem in a little over 4 months last year. I'm very happy with the growth rate, because it means that it will only take a few years to fill in where I want this plant, and I bet I can cut off some small clumps and spread it out to other areas of the pond with no trouble.

I'm also finding quite a range of info about the plant. One site says it grows in 6" of water, another site claims it can be planted up to about 20" deep. I may have to try growing some of this in the deeper waters as I have been somewhat limited on what plants I can grow past the 6" mark. This should be very interesting...
 

j.w

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Glad your brain can rest now that you figured out what it is. I know what it's like tho as I wrack my brain forever if I can't figure something out like that!
 

addy1

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Well it looks neat. Let us know how it grows.
 
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addy - apparently it grows "very well"... :LOL:

Due to data loss last year, I lost a lot of pictures of the pond as the plants grew in through the Summer, so I will be taking more pictures this year. It would probably be a good idea to get some close-up shots of individual types of plants and label them so I can figure out what I have again next year!
 

addy1

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lmao, good idea! I have plants everywhere, just started saving the plant tags so I can look at the pictures and marry up the color to the plant lol
 

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