Potamogeton gayi
Also known as Gay's pondweed
Care at a glance
- Light
- Medium light
- CO2
- CO₂ beneficial
- Growth rate
- Fast
- Placement
- Background
- Type
- Stem
- Temperature
- 64–82°F (18–28°C)
- pH
- 6.0–8.0
- Hardness
- 0–30 dGH
- Max height
- 23.6 in (60 cm)
- Nutrient uptake
- Root + water column
- Growth region
- Submersed
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Origin
- Southern South America (southern Brazil, Argentina)
- Family
- Potamogetonaceae
Overview
A robust, undemanding background plant that quickly forms a dense stand, so it also suits breeding tanks and low-tech setups. It grows in soft or hard water, needs no CO2 though injection speeds it up, and colours toward orange-brown under stronger light. Because it spreads by underground runners it will wander, so keep it a hand's width away from slow carpets and pull stray shoots when thinning; trim tall stems and replant the tops. Coming from a cool subtropical climate, it is one of the few common aquarium plants that is completely happy in unheated tanks.
In the wild
Native to still and flowing waters of subtropical southern South America, in southern Brazil and Argentina, regions with distinctly cool winters. It is a fully aquatic pondweed with no emersed form: thin rhizomes creep through the bottom and send up vertical leafy stems that can reach a metre in nature.
Good to know
A pondweed in the family Potamogetonaceae, named for Claude Gay, the French botanist who documented the flora of Chile. The soft, translucent, lineal leaves are 4-12 cm long but only a few millimetres wide, arranged in two alternate rows along the stem, and range from green to orange-brown depending on light.
Did you know
Unlike almost every other aquarium regular, this pondweed cannot grow above water at all, and its cool southern origin means it overwinters happily in unheated tanks that would kill most tropical stems.
Appears in
Background plants · Stem plants · Beginner plants · Fast growers
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