Rotala rotundifolia 'Green'

Rotala rotundifolia

A form of Rotala rotundifolia with a plain green colour of the stem and leaves underwater, without the reddish tinge of related forms; shoots first grow straight, then curve downward in an arc.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: medium
Height: 20 – 80 cm (7.9 – 31 in)
Temperature: 4 – 32 °C (39 – 90 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: fast
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 4 – 8
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 21 °dKH
General hardness: 2 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background, midground +1 background, midground, red accent
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Underwater the colour is plain green — both the leaves and the stem — without a reddish tinge. It grows 'trailing': shoots go straight at first, then curve downward in an arc. Always two leaves at a node, never three or more. Branches well and trims into a bush. Height 20–80 cm, plant width 2–5 cm.

Keeping

Medium difficulty: light medium to bright, CO₂ 20–40 mg/l, temperature 22–28 °C.

Trade names

Introduced as Rotala sp. 'Green'. Other greenish forms of the species are sold under the same name, in which the stem underwater is at least weakly reddish and growth is only upward, without the arching, trailing habit characteristic of the true 'Green'.

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: Rotala sp., Ameletia rotundifolia, Ameletia subspicata, Ammannia rotundifolia, Ammannia subspicata, Mirkooa rotundifolia, Rotala rotundifolia
Rotala rotundifolia: (Buch.-Ham. ex Roxb.) Koehne
Family: Lythraceae
Conservation status: LC