Umbrella hairgrass

Care at a glance

Overview

A hardy grass-like plant that is easy to grow but behaves more like a tall flowing background stand than a low carpet, reaching 20 to 40 cm and folding over at the surface. It feeds mainly through its roots, so a fine nutrient-rich substrate with root tabs gives the best growth; medium to high light keeps it dense and CO2 speeds it up but is not required. It spreads readily by runners across the tank and by plantlets that form on the stem tips, both of which can be trimmed and replanted. Thin and cut it back regularly or it will take over.

In the wild

Native to the southeastern United States, from Virginia south to Texas and Florida, where it grows in pond margins, marshes, swamps and wet ditches. It is a spikerush that roots in shallow water and mud and sends up fine grass-like stems. In the aquarium those stems grow tall and then fold over near the surface, forming the arching canopy that gives it the umbrella name.

Good to know

Eleocharis vivipara is a true sedge in the family Cyperaceae, not a grass, so its round leafless stems are actually flowering culms. The species name vivipara refers to its habit of producing new plantlets directly on the tips of existing stems, a form of vegetative reproduction rather than seed. It spreads on the substrate by runners while also cloning itself in the water column via these aerial plantlets.

Did you know

Instead of dropping seeds, it grows miniature copies of itself on the tips of its own leaves, which bend down, touch the substrate and root, letting a single plant walk itself across the tank.

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