Pearlweed

Micranthemum glomeratum

Small arched leaves on thin stems, like a miniature elodea. Under strong light it trails along the bottom and works as a foreground plant; in dim light it climbs.

Light: medium
Difficulty: easy
Height: 5 – 20 cm (2 – 7.9 in)
Temperature: 5 – 30 °C (41 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: fast
CO₂ demand: medium
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 5 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 21 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: midground, nano tank +1 midground, nano tank, foreground
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Light green leaves a few millimetres long in whorls along a fine stem 5–20 cm tall. Planted densely it becomes a soft bright cushion.

Keeping

Easy and fast: medium light is enough and carbon dioxide makes it noticeably denser. Trimming is what decides its shape — cut often and it creeps sideways, leave it and it grows up. In good light it pearls with oxygen bubbles, which is where the common name comes from.

Placement

The front or middle of the tank, in a group. Fits a nano tank; it is often used to soften the base of hardscape.

Propagation

By cuttings: replant any trimmed shoot.

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.

Other varieties: Hemianthus glomeratus, Hemianthus glomeratus Topf, Hemianthus glomeratus in Vitro XL, Hemianthus glomeratus 1 2 GROW

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Micranthemum glomeratum (Chapm.) Shinners, Micranthemum nuttallii var. glomeratum Chapm., Hemianthus glomeratus, Micranthemum nuttallii glomeratum
Family: Linderniaceae

Pearlweed

Tank conditions

Care and keeping