Ditch Stonecrop

Penthorum sedoides

Light green toothed leaves on dense compact stems. An undemanding North American plant that changes shape with the light: upright in the shade, creeping in the bright.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: easy
Temperature: 4 – 28 °C (39 – 82 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: slow
Tolerates light: medium – high
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 14 °dKH
Placement: background, midground
Propagation: seeds, cuttings, division +1 seeds, cuttings, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Slightly serrated leaves alternating along a sturdy stem. Under strong light the stems stay short and start creeping; in dim light they stand up with wider gaps between the leaves.

Keeping

Easy and slow. It adapts to dim light, needs no carbon dioxide and tolerates cool water. The slow pace means little trimming — useful in a tank that is not tended weekly.

Placement

The middle or back of the tank, in a group. Its dense growth makes a solid green block without overrunning neighbours.

Propagation

By cuttings, and by side shoots that root where they touch the substrate.

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: Penthorum circinale, Penthorum sedoides leucosperma, Sedum penthorum
Penthorum sedoides: L.
Family: Penthoraceae
Conservation status: LC