Brookweed

Samolus valerandi

stem plant midground nano tank foreground Conservation status: LC

Other scientific names:Samolus floribundus Kunth, Samolus parviflorus Raf., Anagallis aquatica, Samolus americanus, Samolus aquaticus, Samolus beccabungae-facie

A small rosette of pale green spoon-shaped leaves. It grows on wet ground and in shallow water almost worldwide, in fresh water and in brackish, and it takes hard water without complaint.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: medium
Height: 10 – 15 cm
Temperature: 4 – 35 °C

Leaf colourgreen, white markings

Plant typestem plant

Growth rateslow

Tolerates lightmedium – high

pH6 – 9

Carbonate hardness7 – 30 °dKH

General hardness0 – 30 °dGH

Placementmidground, nano tank +1

Propagationseeds, division +1

Grows emersedyes

Appearance

Light green leaves, rounded at the tip and tapering into the stalk, in a spreading rosette up to 15 cm across. Above water it sends up a tall stalk of small white flowers.

Keeping

Moderate demands and slow growth. It wants medium to strong light and tolerates hard, alkaline water better than most aquarium plants — one of the few worth trying where the tap water is very hard. It also grows in slightly brackish water.

Placement

The front or middle of the tank, singly or in a small group. Its size suits a nano tank.

Propagation

By dividing an established rosette, and from the seed it sets when grown above water.

Water conditions match

The water suits 990 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

The same plant with a different look: light, water and care are shared with the species.

Other varieties: Samolus valerandi Topf