Cutleaf Watermilfoil

Myriophyllum pinnatum

A North American watermilfoil with feathery green leaves on a stem that turns red. It has been in the hobby for decades, usually under someone else's name.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: medium
Temperature: 4 – 27 °C (39 – 81 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: fast
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 6 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 4 – 15 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background, midground
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Finely divided green leaves along a stem that runs from green to red. Unlike the parrot's feathers, the leaves are not confined to the upper part of the stem, so the whole plant looks even.

Keeping

Moderate demands: medium to strong light, ordinary feeding, no carbon dioxide required. Growth is fast, so trimming is routine. In nature it grows in shallow water and on the muddy banks of lakes and swamp woods, and it takes cool water without trouble.

Placement

The middle or back of the tank, in a group — several stems together read as one soft mass.

Propagation

By cuttings: replant the trimmed tops.

Water conditions match

The water suits 794 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 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: Myriophyllum scabratum, Myriophyllum pinnatum in Vitro

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Myriophyllum scabratum Michaux, Myriophyllum eggelingii, Myriophyllum nitschei, Myriophyllum scabratum, Myriophyllum verticillatum cheneyi, Potamogeton pinnatum
Myriophyllum pinnatum: (Walter) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.
Family: Haloragaceae
Conservation status: LC

Cutleaf Watermilfoil

Tank conditions

Care and keeping