Juncus repens

Care at a glance

Overview

An easy, undemanding grass-like plant for the midground, or the foreground if you keep it trimmed. Under moderate light it stays fresh green; under strong light with a good micronutrient supply it takes on a bronze to brown-red hue. CO2 is not necessary but tightens up growth. Trim regularly and replant the tops, since cuttings root readily even without roots attached, and note that the long-lived leaves can pick up green spot algae if left too long. It also does fine in unheated setups.

In the wild

Common across the southeastern United States, reaching Mexico and Cuba, where it grows on pond margins, in ditches and along slow blackwater streams. It lives both emersed on wet ground and fully submersed, and wild populations shrug off winters far colder than any aquarium.

Good to know

A true rush in the family Juncaceae, described by Andre Michaux, and one of very few of the roughly 300 Juncus species that thrives permanently underwater. It does not fit the usual categories: flattish stems are interrupted by tufts of numerous narrow, pointed leaves, so it reads as a cross between a stem plant and a rosette.

Did you know

It is a genuine rush, a relative of the plants of wet meadows and pond banks, yet it is nearly alone in its large genus in being happy to live its whole life underwater, and it tolerates water down to 4 degrees, so it works in cold water tanks that defeat most tropical plants.

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