Aciotis acuminifolia

Care at a glance

Overview

A demanding soft-water stem for the midground of a high-tech tank. It wants high light, injected CO2 in the 20-40 mg/l range and soft, acidic water with a steady supply of macro and micro nutrients; in hard water or a lean tank it stunts and loses its colour. Growth is slow for a stem plant, so keep the leaves clean of algae and do not crowd it. Propagate by cuttings, and let the readily produced side shoots thicken the group.

In the wild

Aciotis acuminifolia is widespread in tropical South America, growing as a marsh herb on wet, shaded ground along streams and riverbanks. The plants in the hobby are thought to trace back to the Rio Sao Francisco region of eastern Brazil. In the wild it lives mostly emersed and only spends part of the year underwater, which is typical for the swampy melastomes.

Good to know

A member of Melastomataceae, a huge tropical family that is almost absent from the aquarium hobby. It circulated for years under the placeholder name Melastomataceae sp. 'Sao Francisco' before being identified, and Spennera acuminifolia is an older synonym. The four-angled stems and opposite leaves with the family's characteristic arching parallel veins give it away, and the leaf undersides flush red under strong light.

Did you know

Melastomataceae has thousands of species on land but almost no true aquatics, so this is one of the very few chances to keep a melastome underwater. It sold for years under a bare family name before anyone pinned down what it actually was.

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