Marsh Dewflower

Murdannia keisak

Narrow leaves on thin upright stems that look like young bamboo — a loose, untidy, natural look rather than a neat hedge. In Asia it grows in rice fields.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: medium
Height: 5 – 20 cm (2 – 7.9 in)
Temperature: 18 – 30 °C (64 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: fast
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 5 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 14 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: semi-emersed, background +1 semi-emersed, background, midground
Propagation: seeds, cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Light green leaves about a centimetre wide and a few long, set alternately along a slender stem 5–20 cm tall. Under strong light the growing tips turn reddish. The plant spreads at angles instead of standing in a row, which is what gives it the wild look.

Keeping

Moderate demands: good light, no carbon dioxide required, ordinary feeding. It grows fast and branches willingly when cut back, so trimming shapes it. It also grows well above water, and in an open tank it will climb out.

Placement

The middle or back of the tank in nature-style layouts and biotopes, where the untidy habit is the point. In a strictly ordered aquascape it will look out of place.

Propagation

By cuttings: replant the trimmed tops. Stems also root at the lower joints where they touch the substrate.

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: Murdannia keisak Topf

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Aneilema coreanum H. Lev. & Vaniot, Aneilema keisak Hassk., Aneilema oliganthum Franch. & Sav., Aneilema taquetii H.Lev., Aneilema coreanum, Aneilema keisak, Aneilema oliganthum, Aneilema taquetii, Phaeneilema oliganthum
Murdannia keisak: (Hassk.) Hand.-Mazz.
Family: Commelinaceae

Marsh Dewflower

Tank conditions

Care and keeping