Hygrophila pogonocalyx

Care at a glance

Overview

A background stem with narrow leaves that run soft green to reddish depending on light. It carries the usual Hygrophila constitution: undemanding about water, happy at 22-28 °C, growing under medium light and tightening up with more light and CO2. Like its relatives it is a heavy water column feeder and a useful nutrient sink in a new tank. Trim and replant the tops to build a bush; side shoots appear readily from the leaf axils. It arrives almost exclusively as tissue culture, so rinse the gel off before planting. Species-specific aquarium literature is thin, so treat care as genus-standard Hygrophila.

In the wild

Endemic to Taiwan, where it grows as an emergent marsh plant in low-elevation freshwater wetlands and pond margins, standing in wet soil or shallow water. Only a handful of wild populations remain, in coastal wetlands around Taichung in the west and in northeastern Taiwan, the two regions separated by the island's Central Mountain Range. Wetland destruction and herbicide use once left it critically endangered, and the surviving sites have been actively restored and monitored since 1997.

Good to know

A member of Acanthaceae, described in 1920 by Bunzo Hayata, the botanist who catalogued much of Taiwan's flora. The epithet combines the Greek pogon, a beard, with calyx, for the densely hairy flower calyx; the four-angled stems also carry conspicuously hairy nodes. Shops print the tissue-culture label as Hygrophila pogonocalyx Hayata, which tacks the describing botanist's name onto the plant name rather than naming a cultivar.

Did you know

Restoration plantings of this endangered wetland plant in Taiwan had an unplanned side effect: the chocolate pansy butterfly shifted onto it as a new host plant, a host change well documented in the conservation literature.

Related plants

• 

  Hygrophila balsamica

  Freshwater

  High lightBackground19.7 in (50 cm)

• 

  Hygrophila corymbosa

  Freshwater

  Low lightBackground19.7 in (50 cm)

• 

  Water wisteria

  Hygrophila difformis

  Freshwater

  Medium lightBackground19.7 in (50 cm)
• Hygrophila corymbosa Cherry Leaf

  Hygrophila corymbosa 'Cherry Leaf'

  Freshwater

  Medium lightBackground19.7 in (50 cm)

• 

  Hygrophila polysperma

  Freshwater

  Low lightBackground17.7 in (45 cm)

• 

  Willow hygro

  Hygrophila salicifolia

  Freshwater

  Medium lightBackground23.6 in (60 cm)