Category Archives: Pond

Visitors from Talfourd Avenue go Tropical

On Saturday the 15th of March the Tropical Biodiversity Glasshouse project had the pleasure of hosting families from the Talfourd Avenue group. They kindly agreed to come test our new (and hopefully improved) glasshouse tour, which was designed and created … Continue reading

Posted in Countries, Fish, Hands-on, Interactive, Labelling, Learning and Teaching, Pond, Technology, Water Plants | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Zebra Danio (Danio rerio) GCSE Learning Resource

Welcome to the first on-line learning resource based in the tropical biodiversity glasshouse at the University of Reading. This learning resource is based on the GCSE level curriculum for biology and is designed to be used as an entire one … Continue reading

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Community Open Event May 2013

On Monday 20th May we held what might be considered the official opening of the Tropical Biodiversity Glasshouse.  The University of Reading community open event provided a means for both the Harris Garden and our greenhouse to be shown to … Continue reading

Posted in Annual Fund, Collaborators, Crops, Hands-on, Meeting, People, Staff, Students, Water Plants | Leave a comment

The Zebra Danios (Danio rerio) have produced babies

A group of six Zebra Danios (Danio rerio) have been living in the Tropical Greenhouse pond for several months.  Two weeks ago we added some new waterlilies to the pond and top dressed their pots with coarse gravel.  This seems … Continue reading

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Eichhornia crassipes – The ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ of the freshwater world.

Eichhornia crassipes (Water Hyacinth) has a relatively ambivalent place in freshwater habitats. It has become a serious invasive species in many countries, and is one of the world’s most noxious aquatic weeds (Patel, 2012), yet it has been found to … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, Americas, Asia, Neotropics, Pond, Water Plants | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

 Cyperus papyrus L., post 2 of 2, taxonomy and distribution

Cyperus papyrus is a tall and graceful plant.  It looks stunning in the Tropical Greenhouse with a tropical blue sky behind it, which, even in October, Reading obligingly provided, to prove the point.  It’s up to 5m tall, with almost globular … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, Crops, Madagascar, Pond, Species, Students, Water Plants | 1 Comment

Cyperus papyrus L., post 1 of 2, value and uses

The one thing that most people know about this plant is that it was the source of paper for  ancient Egyptians.  They started to use it for writing on circa 5000 years ago, and carried on up until the 8th or … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, Countries, Crops, Madagascar, Pond, Species, Water Plants | 4 Comments

Water Lettuce

A member of the Araceae, Water Lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) is a problem floating plant of tropical waterways.  The native origin and spread of the species is not known but it has been recorded in both the New and Old World … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, Asia, Australia, Palaeotropics, Pond, Species, Water Plants | 2 Comments

Water Hyacinth

Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) is a floating plant that can be used to clean up water by accumulation of toxic metals and by capturing free nutrients from the water. In good conditions it grows very rapidly and can clog river systems … Continue reading

Posted in Integrated Pest Management, Neotropics, Pond, Species | Tagged | Leave a comment

3000 litres of rainwater fill the pond

This gallery contains 4 photos.

Over the past week the pond has been lined and filled with around 3000 litres of rainwater.  It took two days to fill the pond by pumping water from the rainwater tank in the glasshouse next door.The pond base is … Continue reading

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