Temple Plant

Hygrophila corymbosa

A large stem plant with broad bright-green leaves, sold in many forms from narrow-leaved to red. It grows fast, so the pruning shears come out often — that is the price of a full back wall in a month.

Light: low
Difficulty: very easy
Height: 20 – 30 cm (7.9 – 12 in)
Temperature: 18 – 30 °C (64 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: fast
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 5 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 18 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: semi-emersed, background +3 semi-emersed, background, midground, Dutch street, foreground
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Sturdy upright stems 20–30 cm tall with long broad leaves in pairs. Forms differ a great deal: some have narrow leaves, some reddish ones, and above water the leaves are firmer and darker.

Keeping

Moderate light suffices and carbon dioxide is not required, but it grows quickly and demands attention: without regular cutting the tops reach the surface, shade everything below and the lower leaves fall. Poor light produces bare stems with a tuft on top.

Placement

The back wall, in a group. In an open tank it readily grows out of the water and goes on above the surface.

Propagation

Cut a stem into pieces about ten centimetres long, strip the lowest leaves and plant them; roots form quickly. New shoots break from the cut stem and make the group bushier.

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.

Hygrophila corymbosa ''Angustifolia''

Hygrophila corymbosa 'Kompakt'

Hygrophila corymbosa 'Siamensis'

Other varieties: Hygrophila corymbosa ''Aroma'', Hygrophila corymbosa ''Red'', Hygrophila corymbosa 'Stricta', Nomaphila corymbosa, Nomaphila siamensis, Nomaphila stricta, Hygrophila corymbosa 'Compact', Hygrophila corymbosa 'Siamensis 53B', Hygrophila corymbosa Thailand, Hygrophila corymbosa Stricta Angustifolia Rubra, Hygrophila corymbosa Stricta Green, Hygrophila ''Dwarf''

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Hygrophila stricta (Nees) Lindau, Nomaphila siamensis C. B. Clarke, Cryptophragmium axillare, Echinacanthus brugmansianus, Echinacanthus javanicus, Gymnostachyum axillare, Hygrophila stricta, Justicia roxburghiana, Justicia stricta, Nomaphila corymbosa, Nomaphila minor, Nomaphila siamensis, Nomaphila stricta, Nomaphila stricta hirtisepala, Nomaphila stricta tomentosa, Ruellia paniculata
Hygrophila corymbosa: (Blume) Lindau
Family: Acanthaceae

Temple Plant

Tank conditions

Care and keeping