Hygrophila corymbosa 'Siamensis'

Hygrophila corymbosa

The 'Thai', or 'Siamese', hygrophila (Hygrophila corymbosa 'Siamensis') is a tough form long known in the hobby: modest requirements for light and nutrients, and a wide range of tolerable water hardness and temperature.

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

With good nutrition and bright light it turns slightly bronze. It grows very fast and needs regular trimming; it looks attractive in terraces of shoots of different lengths.

Keeping

Very easy, growth fast, light medium to strong, CO₂ 10–40 mg/l, temperature 24–28 °C. In bright light with an iron shortage, chlorosis is possible — green veins on a yellowish leaf; a shortage of macronutrients can bring growth to a sudden stop, so it needs fertilising like any other plant.

Placement

Midground and background; grown above water it adapts readily, and with luck it flowers with lilac flowers. It suits Asian biotopes alongside cryptocorynes and schooling rasboras.

Trade names

Long known in the hobby as the 'Thai' or 'Siamese' hygrophila.

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: 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