Bacopa lanigera

Care at a glance

Overview

A less common background stem that stays a fresh light green underwater and takes on warmer tones under strong light. It does best with bright lighting, and while it will grow without CO2, injection plus regular macro and micro dosing gives faster, denser growth. Trim and replant the tops to encourage branching into a fuller group, and give it a nutrient-rich substrate to root well.

In the wild

A Bacopa from Brazil that grows in the wet, boggy ground and shallow water of tropical South American wetlands. Like other Bacopa it is amphibious, spending much of the year emersed on damp soil and going underwater when the ground floods. It closely resembles the far more common Bacopa caroliniana in habit and habitat.

Good to know

The species epithet lanigera means 'wool bearing', a reference to the dense white hair-like fibres that cover its emersed stems. It sits in Plantaginaceae, the same family that now holds Bacopa, Hygrophila and many other aquarium stems after the old Scrophulariaceae was broken up. It can be told apart from B. caroliniana by its slightly rounder leaves and that hairy stem.

Did you know

Above the waterline its stems are cloaked in fine white wool, which is where the name lanigera comes from, yet that fuzzy coat vanishes on the smooth submersed shoots that grow once the plant is underwater.

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