Rotala Coin Leaf

Care at a glance

Overview

An easy, fast stem for the midground or lower background, planted as individual stems a couple of centimeters apart. It grows in plain low-tech setups, but stronger light plus CO2 and iron push the tops from green toward pink and orange-red. Trim at the desired height and replant the tops to build a dense bush, since untrimmed stems shade out their own lower leaves. Keep parameters steady; like most Rotala it responds to sudden swings by stalling or shedding lower foliage.

In the wild

Coin Leaf is a trade selection of Rotala, not a documented wild population, and shops attribute it to India. Its parent stock belongs to the Rotala rotundifolia group, which grows across South and Southeast Asia in rice paddies, ditches and marshy ground, emersed for much of the year and submersed when the water rises. Collection details for this particular form have never been published.

Good to know

A stem plant in the loosestrife family, Lythraceae. Coin Leaf is a commercial name with no formal description; most shops treat it as a form of Rotala rotundifolia and some print it that way. The name comes from the distinctly round, coin-shaped emersed leaves; once submersed the foliage relaxes into longer, softer leaves that take on pink to orange tones under strong light.

Did you know

The coins that give this form its name belong to its emersed growth. Underwater the leaves stretch longer and softer and pick up pink and orange tones, so the plant shows its namesake shape only where it grows above the waterline.

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