ECOLOGY

The Banana Water Lily Ecology

WHAT OTHER NUTRIENTS ARE FOUND IN BANANA WATER LILY THAT WATERFOWL EAT????
INVERTEBRATES BY THE THOUSANDS!!

They eat the fruit. They eat the seeds. They eat the starchy banana-like clusters . They eat entire young plants. They eat craw fish. They eat shrimp. They eat dragonfly nymphs. They eat blood worms. They eat snails. They eat rotifers. They eat tiny clams.

Banana water lily is more than just a prized waterfowl food, it is the foundation for a huge complex of living organisms, both plant and animal thrive on an enormous food base that the banana water lily provides. The banana water lily is a prolific producer of waterfowl food with the seeds, seed fruiting body, the banana tuber hibernaculas, and the entire plants themselves making an enormous amount of quality waterfowl food. Banana water lilies are the foundation of this abundant food complex. For example, a banana water lily tuber weighing a mere 4 ounces in march will turn into 5 or 6 pounds of vegetative tubers, seeds and banana tuber hibernaculas in a single season. This cornucopia of vegetation in a fresh or brackish environment is home to a tremendous and varied number of invertebrates that provide a huge additional food source for waterfowl. In a typical banana water lily pond you can find a number of invertebrates such as dragonfly larvae, nymphs, freshwater and marine shrimp, daphnia, rotifers, cladocerans, whirlygig beetles and larvae, isopods, copepods, aquatic spiders, honeybees, wasps, hundreds of fly species, snails, leeches, many different aquatic beetles and their larvae, freshwater and marine clams, and on and on there are a myriad of species that exist in the
banana water lily eco-complex.

The tonnage of vegetation that is produced is truly unbelievable, approaching 20,000 pounds wet weight per acre in a good year. On top of this you have a year round supply of tons of invertebrates that abound in this rich banana water lily eco-plex. What uprooted plants the waterfowl do not eat is recycled by the invertebrates to provide year round food for your waterfowl. If no seed, prized tubers of banana clusters, or plants were eaten by the waterfowl it would still attract waterfowl because of the abundance of the invertebrates.

Banana water lily is truly one of the finest waterfowl foods that exists for a totally flooded ecosystem. Banana water lily provides the foundation for a very large support system for wildlife of all types: beavers, otters, alligators, turtles, mink, aquatic rodents, fish, amphibians of many species, waterfowl and invertebrates.