Hyptis lorentziana

Care at a glance

Overview

A dark violet-red accent stem for midground groups and Dutch-style streets. Colour and pace depend on the full package: high light, CO2 in the 20-40 mg/l range, and complete macro and micro dosing, with nitrate kept at 10 mg/l or above rather than starved. Under weak light it turns plain and leggy. Take cuttings 8-10 cm above a leaf pair with sharp scissors and replant; lateral shoots then break from the axils below the cut. Growth is quick once settled, though slower submersed than the mint family reputation suggests.

In the wild

Widely distributed in South America from Venezuela down to Uruguay and Argentina, growing along pond edges and in regularly flooded wet ground rather than permanently underwater. Emersed plants can reach around two metres in these seasonally inundated habitats. The stock in the hobby traces back to collections from the Manaus area in Brazil and adapts to submersed growth, where it stays far more compact and grows noticeably slower than above water.

Good to know

One of very few aquarium plants from Lamiaceae, the mint family. It circulated for years under the invented labels Hemigraphis traian and Hemigraphis sp. from Manaus before being correctly identified as Hyptis lorentziana in 2009. The paired, stalked leaves have a strongly bullate, puckered surface, and the newest leaves flush purplish red under strong light. The epithet commemorates the 19th-century botanist Paul Günther Lorentz, who collected extensively in Argentina.

Did you know

For years it sold under the made-up name Hemigraphis traian. True Hemigraphis are not lasting aquatics, so the 2009 identification as a Hyptis explained why this supposed Hemigraphis kept thriving underwater.

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