Myriophyllum ussuriense

Care at a glance

Overview

One of the least demanding milfoils, a fine-leaved green stem for the background of unheated or moderately heated tanks. Plant stems in groups, give it medium light, and it grows quickly without CO2, though CO2 and fertilizer produce denser whorls. It handles cool water better than almost any other milfoil, which makes it a good pick for coldwater setups. Trim the tops and replant them; the lower halves shade out if left uncut, as with any fast stem. It is scarce in shops mainly because it propagates poorly in the emersed nursery systems the trade relies on, not because it is hard to keep.

In the wild

Native to East Asia, from northeast China and the Russian Far East through Korea and Japan, in ponds, paddies and lake margins. It grows submersed with flowering shoots that break the surface, and it has established as an introduced plant in parts of the Pacific Northwest of North America. It tolerates a wide seasonal temperature swing in the wild, from near freezing to warm summer shallows.

Good to know

A water milfoil in the family Haloragaceae, named for the Ussuri river region on the Chinese-Russian border. It resembles Myriophyllum verticillatum but carries four leaves per whorl instead of five, and it was long treated as a variety of that species. In the hobby it has also circulated under the trade name Myriophyllum sp. Japan.

Did you know

Flowgrow rates its tolerance from 4 to 32 degrees C, which makes this one of the most temperature-tolerant stem plants in the hobby, equally at home in a garden pond summer and an unheated indoor tank.

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