Microcarpaea minima

Care at a glance

Overview

A fine-textured creeping stem for foregrounds and nano tanks. Under high light it hugs the substrate and knits into dense, flat, fresh green cushions; under less light it loosens and grows more upright, which is usually not what you bought it for. Keep it warm, above 20 °C, and give it CO2 if you want a tight cushion at reasonable speed. Trim the cushions level and replant the clippings to widen the patch. Its main failure mode is simply insufficient light, when it thins out and crawls upward instead of across.

In the wild

Grows in shallow, warm, periodically flooded waters across Southeast and East Asia to northern Australia: rice paddies, pond margins and river banks that wet and dry with the seasons. It is amphibious, creeping over mud when the water drops and producing small pale purple flowers in its emersed form. Submersed plants stay tiny, with leaves only about 2 mm wide.

Good to know

The only species in the genus Microcarpaea, in the family Phrymaceae. The name is a size joke played straight: Microcarpaea refers to the tiny fruit and minima to the plant's smallness overall. Tissue culture cups are often labelled Microcarpaea minima Merrill, which is the describing botanist's abbreviation (Merr.) printed as if it were a cultivar name.

Did you know

Microcarpaea is a genus with exactly one species, so this little rice paddy plant has no siblings anywhere in the plant kingdom.

Related plants

• 

  Glosso

  Glossostigma elatinoides

  Freshwater

  High lightForeground1.6 in (4 cm)
• Platinum glosso

  Glossostigma elatinoides 'Platinum'

  Freshwater

  High lightForeground1.6 in (4 cm)

• 

  Alternanthera reineckii mini

  Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini'

  Freshwater

  Medium lightForeground3.9 in (10 cm)
• Hygrophila Chai

  Hygrophila lancea 'Chai'

  Freshwater

  High lightForeground3.9 in (10 cm)
• Lobelia cardinalis Mini

  Lobelia cardinalis 'Mini'

  Freshwater

  Medium lightForeground5.9 in (15 cm)

• 

  Gratiola

  Gratiola viscidula

  Freshwater

  Medium lightMidground5.9 in (15 cm)