Ludwigia repens 'Mesakana'

Ludwigia repens

A form of the red ludwigia (Ludwigia repens 'Mesakana'), known in the German hobby as the 'variegated ludwigia'; the leaves are a little larger and more brightly coloured than in the ordinary species, with a more pronounced pattern and an especially rounded shape.

Light: medium
Difficulty: easy
Height: 20 – 30 cm (7.9 – 12 in)
Temperature: 4 – 30 °C (39 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red +1 green, red, bronze or brown
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: fast
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: low – high
pH: 5 – 8
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 22 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background, midground +1 background, midground, red accent
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Very similar to ordinary Ludwigia repens, but the leaves are a little larger, more brightly coloured, with a more pronounced pattern and an especially rounded shape. As a rule it is placed within the variable Ludwigia repens, but it also closely resembles the hybrid Ludwigia palustris × repens.

Keeping

It is sometimes stated to be more exacting than the ordinary form: a high need for micronutrients, over which it competes with other ludwigias; it looks better in softer water; occasionally, for no obvious reason, individual particularly strong shoots wilt, shed their leaves and rot. Easy, growth fast, light medium to strong, CO₂ 15–40 mg/l, temperature 22–26 °C.

Placement

Red accent, background and midground.

Trade names

What the cultivar name refers to is unclear; sellers spell it in different ways: 'Messacana', 'Messancana', 'Messicana' (the last of these Italian for 'Mexican'). In the German hobby it is called the 'variegated ludwigia'.

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.

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Ludwigia natans Elliott, Isnardia intermedia, Isnardia media, Isnardia natans, Isnardia repens, Isnardia repens rotundata, Jussiaea swartziana, Ludwigia clavellina, Ludwigia fluitans, Ludwigia natans, Ludwigia natans rotundata, Ludwigia natans stipitata, Ludwigia natans typica, Ludwigia repens rotundata, Ludwigia repens stipitata
Ludwigia repens: J. R. Forst.
Family: Onagraceae
Conservation status: LC