Caribbean Mint

Clinopodium brownei

Light green paired leaves on a square stem — a mint, and it smells like one when bruised. Sold for years under the wrong name, and easier to grow than most of what it is mistaken for.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: medium
Temperature: 10 – 30 °C (50 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red, pink or purple +2 green, red, pink or purple, bronze or brown, white markings
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: fast
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 5 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 14 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background, midground
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Rounded light green leaves in pairs along an upright four-sided stem. Long water roots often appear at the joints; they can be trimmed off if they bother you. Above water the plant creeps and flowers in white and lilac.

Keeping

Moderate demands and not fussy about water — it grows in very soft and in medium-hard water alike. Medium light suits it better than very strong light. What it does need is generous feeding: a shortage shows up as deformed leaves. Growth is about three centimetres a week, and once a stem passes roughly 40 cm the tip stops growing, so take cuttings before that.

Placement

The middle or back of the tank, in a group, where its light green stands against dark and red-brown plants. It also does well in a paludarium or on damp soil.

Propagation

By cuttings: cut the top and replant it before the stem gets too long.

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.

The same plant with a different look: light, water and care are shared with the species.

Other varieties: Clinopodium brownei Topf

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Clinopodium cf. brownei, Micromeria brownei (Sw.) Benth., Satureja brownei (Sw.) Briq., Apozia chamaedryoides, Apozia serpyllacea, Clinopodium stoloniferum, Clinopodium xalapense, Hedeoma gracillima, Micromeria bahamensis, Micromeria brownei, Micromeria brownei pilosiuscula, Micromeria brownii pilosiuscula, Micromeria domingensis, Micromeria pilosiuscula, Micromeria stolonifera, Micromeria xalapensis, Satureja brownei, Satureja brownei eubrownei, Satureja brownei pilosiuscula, Satureja brownii pilosiuscula, Satureja stolonifera, Satureja xalapensis, Thymus brownei, Thymus gracilis, Thymus xalapensis
Clinopodium brownei: (Sw.) Kuntze
Family: Lamiaceae

Caribbean Mint

Tank conditions

Care and keeping