Cuphea anagalloidea

Care at a glance

Overview

A small, demanding stem plant grown for its intense red, best planted in dense groups in the foreground to midground of a nano tank or a Dutch-style street. It needs soft, acidic water, strong light and steady CO2 around 20 to 40 mg/l; with anything less it turns green and leggy or simply stalls. Feed the water column consistently and keep nitrate modest to push the red. Growth is medium-paced, and regular topping and replanting keeps a group compact and even. This is not a plant for a low-tech setup.

In the wild

Cuphea anagalloidea is endemic to Brazil, scattered across the north, east and southeast of the country in states from Para to Minas Gerais, with the aquarium stock most likely originating from the Rio Araguaia. It grows amphibiously along river margins, submersed at high water and emersed as levels fall, in soft, acidic water.

Good to know

A member of the family Lythraceae in the genus Cuphea, which holds around 260 species across the American tropics and subtropics, only a handful of them aquatic. The plant circulated in the hobby as Rotala sp. 'Araguaia' until it was correctly identified as a Cuphea in 2010. Submersed shoots are only 1.5 to 2 cm wide, and under strong light the upper leaf surfaces turn bright red to orange-red.

Did you know

For years hobbyists grew this plant as Rotala sp. 'Araguaia'. It took until 2010 for it to be identified as a Cuphea, a genus better known for garden bedding plants than for aquariums.

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