Marsilea hirsuta

Care at a glance

Overview

One of the best low-tech carpeting plants, slower than hairgrass but very forgiving. Split the in-vitro pot into small portions and plant the rhizomes shallowly across the foreground; it feeds through its roots, so a nutrient substrate or root tabs matter most. It grows fine without CO2, though injection and medium light keep it tighter and shorter and speed the fill-in. In low light it stretches taller and the four-leaf form opens up. Slow growth is the trade-off and the appeal: once established it needs little trimming.

In the wild

Native to Australia, where it grows in seasonally wet areas, pond and creek margins, and damp ground that floods and dries. It is amphibious and changes form with conditions, growing low and simple-leaved underwater and raising clover-like leaves when emersed. Tolerant of soft to moderately hard water.

Good to know

An aquatic fern in the family Marsileaceae, distributed by Tropica from Australian stock. Submersed it is famous for its shape-shifting: it can put up single leaves resembling a large Glossostigma, or develop two-, three-, and four-lobed clover leaves on the same plant. Like all Marsilea it reproduces by spores from sporocarps rather than by seed.

Did you know

Did you know a single Marsilea hirsuta plant can display one-, two-, three-, and four-lobed leaves at the same time, so the lucky four-leaf clover shape is just one of several forms it cycles through underwater.

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