Needle Spikerush

Eleocharis acicularis

A grass-like sedge that spreads by underground runners into a fine lawn. It grows wild across most of the northern hemisphere, which is why it tolerates cool water that would stop a tropical carpet plant.

Light: low
Difficulty: easy
Height: 10 – 15 cm (3.9 – 5.9 in)
Temperature: 4 – 27 °C (39 – 81 °F)

Plant type: rhizome
Growth rate: medium
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 5 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 14 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: midground, nano tank +2 midground, nano tank, foreground, carpet
Propagation: runners, division +1 runners, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Hair-thin stems 10 to 15 cm long stand in dense tufts and bend with the current. From a distance the effect is a meadow rather than individual plants.

Keeping

Easy and adaptable, but it wants an open spot: shaded by taller plants it thins out and the carpet goes patchy. If the lawn grows taller than you want, it can be trimmed with scissors like grass.

Placement

Foreground and midground carpets, and the sloped foreground of a nature layout. Plant small tufts a few centimetres apart rather than one big clump — they fill in faster.

Propagation

Runners appear within weeks of planting and root as they go. Lift a section with tweezers, divide it into tufts and replant.

Water conditions match

The water suits 816 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 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: Baeothryon trichodes, Chaetocyperus acicularis, Chaetocyperus trichoides, Clavula acicularis, Cyperus acicularis, Eleocharis acicularis, Eleocharis acicularis acicularis, Eleocharis acicularis bella, Eleocharis acicularis elongata, Eleocharis acicularis filiformis, Eleocharis acicularis fluitans, Eleocharis acicularis gracilescens, Eleocharis acicularis inundata, Eleocharis acicularis lilliputiana, Eleocharis acicularis lindheimeri, Eleocharis acicularis longiseta, Eleocharis acicularis minima, Eleocharis acicularis occidentalis, Eleocharis acicularis porcata, Eleocharis acicularis triangularis, Eleocharis acicularis typica, Eleocharis trichodes, Heleocharis acicularis, Heleocharis triangularis, Heliocharis acicularis, Isolepis acicularis, Limnochloa acicularis, Mariscus acicularis, Scirpidium aciculare, Scirpus acicularis, Scirpus trichodes, Trichophyllum aciculare
Eleocharis acicularis: (L.) Roem. & Schult.
Family: Cyperaceae
Conservation status: LC