Alternanthera reineckii 'Lilacina'

Alternanthera reineckii

The classic red cultivar of Alternanthera reineckii: the leaf is light to deep red above and intensely purple below. In the trade since the 1960s, also known as 'Lila' and 'Purple'.

Light: medium
Difficulty: medium
Height: 5 – 60 cm (2 – 24 in)
Temperature: 4 – 30 °C (39 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red, pink or purple +1 green, red, pink or purple, bronze or brown
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: medium
CO₂ demand: medium
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 5 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 14 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background, midground +4 background, midground, Dutch street, nano tank, foreground, red accent
Propagation: cuttings, division +1 cuttings, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

An upright stem 20–60 cm tall, plant width 10–18 cm. Underwater leaves up to 9.5 cm long and 3.1 cm wide, with a smooth leaf edge — unlike 'Rosaefolia', where it is wavy. Underwater it grows more compact than the emersed form and forms water roots at every node of the stem.

Keeping

Light medium to strong, CO₂ 10–40 mg/l, temperature 17–25 °C. It grows both above and under water; above water it flowers with whitish, stalkless spikes in the leaf axils, the flowers small and inconspicuous.

Placement

A red accent for the background and midground, and also for a street in a Dutch-style layout.

Trade names

In the trade since the 1960s, first under the name 'Telanthera lilacina', later assigned to Alternanthera reineckii. It is now also found under the names 'Lila' and 'Purple'. The origin of the form is unknown.

Water conditions match

The water suits 841 of 1249 species in the catalogue — these are the ones people look up most often.

Butterflyfish Julii Corydoras Red-finned Parotocinclus Gastromyzon monticola Egg-shaped Goldfish Flame Tetra Gardner's Killifish African Tetra Hypsolebias picturatus Common Zacco Labeo Bicolor Gambusia Flying barb Gastromyzon scitulus Albino Zebra Danio Geophagus Brokopondo Homaloptera bilineata Red-tailed Rasbora Boraras naevus Lampeye Killifish Spotted Raphael Catfish Corydoras melanotaenia Festivum cichlid Pseudomugil paskai

Will eat this plant

These species damage plants, especially when their diet is short of vegetable food.

Bengal Loach Zebra Loach Burmese Border Loach Emperor Botia Marbled Headstander Pellegrin's Leporinus Leporinus striatus False Black Tetra Common Metynnis Mylossoma duriventre Red Whiptail Catfish Moonlight Gourami Melanotaenia parva

Will uproot it

These species dig through the substrate and pull rooted plants out.

Marble Loach Peacock Eel Forktail Loach Guntea Loach Long-nosed Loach Horseface Loach Pearlscale Black Moor Goldfish Shubunkin Painted Pleco Featherfin Synodontis Reddish Mystus Catfish Blue Acara Geophagus altifrons Geophagus winemilleri Pearl Cichlid Red-spotted Cichlid Haplochromis philander Red Chromide Jack Dempsey cichlid

Matching water does not mean the fish will leave the plant alone.

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Achyranthes reineckii, Alternanthera pilosa petiolata, Alternanthera pilosa microphylla
Alternanthera reineckii: Briq.
Family: Amaranthaceae