Round-leaf Lindernia

Lindernia rotundifolia

Bright green round leaves set close along an upright stem. A quick, forgiving plant that grows in dim light and takes up nitrate as fast as it grows.

Light: low
Difficulty: easy
Height: 15 – 30 cm (5.9 – 12 in)
Temperature: 4 – 34 °C (39 – 93 °F)

Leaf colour: green, white markings
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: fast
CO₂ demand: medium
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 5 – 8
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 14 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: midground, foreground +1 midground, foreground, nano tank
Propagation: seeds, cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Rounded leaves in pairs, held out horizontally from the stem, so the plant looks dense from top to bottom. Height 15–30 cm. There is also a marbled form with cream-streaked leaves; green shoots on it should be cut out or they take over.

Keeping

Easy and fast — a good first stem plant. Dim light is enough, carbon dioxide speeds it up but is not required. Growth is quick enough to need regular trimming, and each trim thickens the group. Planted near the surface the stems will climb out of the water and keep going.

Placement

The middle or back of the tank as a bush, or a single stem in the middle ground. Fits a nano tank when trimmed.

Propagation

By cuttings: cut the top and plant it; the old stem branches below the cut.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1008 of 1249 species in the catalogue — these are the ones people look up most often.

Swordtail Guppies Cobra Guppy Blood Red Molly Butterflyfish Red Zebra Cichlid Julii Corydoras Red-finned Parotocinclus Gastromyzon monticola Egg-shaped Goldfish Flame Tetra Gardner's Killifish African Tetra Kenyi Cichlid Cuckoo Catfish Golden Swordtail Hypsolebias picturatus Common Zacco Labeo Bicolor Gambusia Flying barb Gastromyzon scitulus Albino Zebra Danio Geophagus Brokopondo Zebra Mbuna

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 Spined Loach Marbled Headstander Pellegrin's Leporinus Leporinus striatus False Black Tetra Common Metynnis Mylossoma duriventre Red Whiptail Catfish Molly sphenops Balloon Molly Lyretail Molly Marble Molly Hi-Fin Platy Hawaii Platy Blue Platy Pintail Platy Black Platy Chocolate Molly 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 Aulonocara maylandi Aulonocara multicolor Aulonocara Orchid Geophagus altifrons Geophagus winemilleri Pearlscale Cichlid Pearl Cichlid Redbelly Cichlid Red-spotted Cichlid Chuco godmanni 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: Lindernia rotundifolia 'Variegated', Lindernia rotundifolia Variegated, Lindernia rotundifolia Variegated Topf

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Gratiola rotundifolia L., Bonnaya rotundifolia, Gratiola rotundifolia, Ilysanthes hypericifolia, Ilysanthes madagascariensis, Ilysanthes oblongifolia, Ilysanthes rotundifolia, Ilysanthes rotundifolia elongata, Lindernia microcalyx, Lindernia oblongifolia, Lindernia rotundifolia, Morgania rotundifolia, Torenia rotundifolia, Virchowia cubensis
Lindernia rotundifolia: (L.) Alston
Family: Linderniaceae
Conservation status: LC

Round-leaf Lindernia

Tank conditions

Care and keeping