Plants in a Leo Home

After spending a lot of time playing with slate to get the temperatures right my next mission is to find suitable plants to put into their home, and not the plastic ones !!!!

Has anybody had any experience with growing plants with their Leos ?

I know of a few problems to start off with but there must be a way around them as Leos exist in the wild with plants around them !!

The plants, unless the air type, would need something to grow in (problems with impaction then spring to mind). They must be Leo freindly plants so cacti may not be a good idea due to possibility of injury. And they would need water and food themselves.

Any help or suggestions greatly received......

Actually leos come from scrub grass regions so the only plants they really experience are tumbleweeds and brush grass. Maybe the occasionally twiggy plant. There really isn't a way to grow a plant in the viv with out risking your leo's well being because you would need a UV source plus dirt unless it was an air plant so that is why most leo owners either opt for plastic plants or noneat all. You can get some pretty realistic looking silk plants out there but it really isn't natural to leos to live with foliage.

As plants are my field of speciality- Most plants wont require special uv lighting as long as they have enough natural light to help them photosynthesise, I agree with kel that leo's dont come in to contact with plants with fleshy foliage ect but if you really wanted to add plant's you could add lithops which are a cheap/nice looking succulent. Air plants would be good to use as kel mentioned as they dont require a growing medium and they can be glued on to most things ( you have to use a special air plant glue- the only thing with air plant is that they require misting as they still need water and as they dont uptake it through their roots misting is needed which would raise the humidity in your leos tank. And Sanseveria's would work but you would need to grow them in a pot

What I would like is greenary but if some colour was possible then that would be great.

Found this site in the UK that sell different Tillandsia

http://www.justairplants.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=55&Itemid=79

The ones I like are; bergeri, bulbosa, stricta Hard Leaf, hondurensis and stricta Green Leaf. Not too sure if size might be an issue either so any advice you would give would be good.

Tillandsia (air plants) would work you can mount them to things like drift/bog wood. If you get any I would rinse them in clean water before to make sure they dont have any residue fertilizers on them all of the variety's you stated would work its down to personal preference really.

James,

Thanks again for the advice. I have read up on Tillandsia and it will probaly pay me to dunk water them outside of the viv and shake before returning them so that the humidity is not changing too much, tho it will help around shedding time....... I need to post some pictures of my setup so far too as what I have found out about temperature my also help others.

For those reading this and wondering 'why?' I will answer 'why not?'

I am trying to make my Leo's a home that will give them a natural environment and not doing this cos it will look good !!! It is also very interesting as I have found out so far, and I will hopefully give others an insight to what can be done. If I wanted something that looked good after all I would be using sand and soil, which I know is not good for the Leo's. I will also not be breeding them so they will have to have something else to while away those long dark nights

I will keep you informed via a 'show my viv' thread soon ........

Paul