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Vallisneria americana
Also called Wild Celery, Eelgrass, Water Celery, Eel Grass, Flumine Mississippi, Tape Grass, Tapegrass
Vallisneria americana is a submerged freshwater grass-like plant from eastern North America, grown mainly as a background plant in aquariums and pond margins. It grows fully underwater with long, ribbon-like leaves and spreads by runners.
Vallisneria americana, commonly called wild celery, water-celery, tape grass, or eelgrass, is a plant in the family Hydrocharitaceae, the "tape-grasses". It is native to the Americas, especially eastern North America.
V. americana is a fresh water species that can tolerate salt, living in salinities varying from fresh water (0 parts per thousand) to 18 parts per thousand, although the limit to the salt tolerance is unclear and is generally dependent on the duration and intensity of the plants' exposure to the saline water. V. americana grows under water and is consumed by various animals, including the canvasback.
It is native to Canada, the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Venezuela. It is found primarily in eastern North America, occurring west from Nova Scotia to South Dakota and South to the Gulf of Mexico. It has also been reported in the western states of Washington, Nebraska, New Mexico and Arizona. It has also recently been reported in Oregon.
V. americana is cultivated for the aquarium trade, where it is a sold as a background plant.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Vallisneria americana by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
