Japanese Clover

Hydrocotyle tripartita

Tiny clover-shaped leaves on creeping stems that quickly close into a low green cushion. It grows without carbon dioxide and is the least fussy of the carpet plants — the fastest way to a green floor.

Light: medium
Difficulty: easy
Height: 5 cm (2 in)
Temperature: 10 – 30 °C (50 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: very fast
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, cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Round bright-green leaves cut into three or four lobes, like a small clover, sit on thin upright stems about 5 cm tall. The plant creeps sideways and layers over itself, so a dense stand looks like a cushion rather than a lawn.

Keeping

Easy: moderate light is enough and carbon dioxide is not needed, though both make the cushion denser. The catch is speed — left alone it climbs over its neighbours within weeks, so it wants trimming with scissors as often as a lawn wants mowing.

Placement

Front and middle of the tank, and a whole nano tank can be floored with it. Press the mat down with your hand after trimming: it answers by creeping sideways instead of upwards.

Propagation

By itself: the creeping stems root at every joint. Cut off a piece with roots and push it into the substrate somewhere else.

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: Hydrocotyle cf. tripartita, Hydrocotyle tripartita Mini, Hydrocotyle Tripartita Mini Variegated, Hydrocotyle sp. ''Australia'', Hydrocotyle sp. ''Japan''

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Hydrocotyle tripartita, Hydrocotyle tripartita typica
Family: Araliaceae

Japanese Clover

Tank conditions

Care and keeping