Water Wisteria

Hygrophila difformis

A fast green stem plant with leaves cut into lobes like a fern's. It asks for nothing in particular, grows from the first week and quickly makes a new tank look planted rather than empty.

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

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: fast
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 6 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 21 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Upright stems 20–30 cm tall. Under water the light-green leaves are deeply cut, almost lacy; grown above water the same plant makes plain oval leaves, which is why a freshly bought bunch often looks nothing like the photo until it settles in.

Keeping

One of the easiest stem plants: moderate light is enough and carbon dioxide is not needed. Pale, washed-out leaves are its way of asking for fertiliser — usually the only complaint it ever makes. It grows fast and needs cutting back every few weeks.

Placement

The back of the tank, in a group of several stems. In a large aquarium a dense stand of the lobed leaves looks striking on its own, and while the tank is young the plant takes up the nutrients that algae would otherwise get.

Propagation

Cut off the top ten centimetres of a stem, strip the lowest leaves and plant that end. Roots follow within days, and the cut stem branches into two new shoots.

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 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 difformis 'Weiß

Other varieties: Hygrophila difformis 'Weiß-Grün', Synnema triflorum, Hygrophila triflora, Hygrophila Difformis Pink

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Cardanthera triflora (Roxb.) Buch.-Ham. ex Voigt, Hygrophila triflora (Roxb.) Fosberg & Sachet, Ruellia difformis L. f., Ruellia triflora Roxb., Synnema triflorum Kuntze, Adenosma triflora, Adenosma uliginosa, Cardanthera difformis, Cardanthera glutinosa, Cardanthera triflora, Cardanthera uliginosa, Cardanthera uliginosa birbhumensis, Hygrophila difformis, Hygrophila heinei, Hygrophila heinei birbhumensis, Hygrophila helodes, Hygrophila pseudopolysperma, Hygrophila triflora, Ruellia difformis, Ruellia obovata, Ruellia tanacetifolia, Ruellia triflora, Ruellia uliginosa, Synnema triflorum, Synnema uliginosum
Hygrophila difformis: (L. f.) Blume
Family: Acanthaceae
Conservation status: LC

Water Wisteria

Tank conditions

Care and keeping