So-called floating plants not only have a decorative effect in the garden pond, but also have an intensive water-clarifying effect. So you benefit from the floating sympaths in two ways.
The frogbit is a beautiful native floating plant
The special thing about floating plants
Floating plants are aquatic plants that have adapted to what is actually a very precarious niche in the water environment: they thrive, so to speak, between the surface and the bottom of the water, i.e. right in the middle. Their leaves and flowers float on or just below the water surface, but their roots are not anchored to the bottom of the water like water lilies. So they really swim and can therefore only live in perfectly still waters.
In addition, the water must be rich in nutrients. Floating plants only get their food directly from the water due to the lack of ground anchoring. For this reason, floating plants are very interesting for garden ponds. The condition of standing water is completely fulfilled, so that frog bites and co. can be used to your heart's content for pond design.
At the same time, there is a win-win situation between floating plants and garden pond owners when it comes to nutrient regulation: While the former are grateful for the nutrient content in the water, which is usually difficult to keep low anyway, the latter are happy about its free use.
So what makes floating plants so attractive to you:
- Beautiful, natural jewelry value
- Are optimally adapted to the conditions of the garden pond
- They are only too happy to utilize excess nutrients directly from the water
Floating plants with different properties
The particularly attractive floating plants that like to clear up include, for example:
- Frog's Bite - a very pretty, native floating plant with small, water lily-like floating leaves and tiny white flowers. It absorbs a lot of nutrients through its fine root hairs
- Algae fern - originating from the tropics and therefore not hardy - but blessed with extremely pretty, flat-scaly leaves that turn deep red in autumn
- Duckweed - native floating plant that forms a dense, fresh green carpet of small clusters of lenticular leaves. Because of its shadowing effect, however, it has to be regularly thinned out. It has an extremely clarifying effect.
- Shell Flower - very decorative, shell-shaped hollowed leaf rosettes on the water surface. Intensive nutrient utilization, but not hardy
- Water Hyacinth - Can bloom very nicely, but only in warm, humid conditions. In addition, the tropical plants must be overwintered indoors
- Star Liverwort - a very attractive, hardy, submerged structural plant with distinctive forked branching. However, it can easily be pushed out by vigorous neighbors such as the duckweed