Plant Profile Hygrophila pinnatifida

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Hygrophila pinnatifida

Hygrophila pinnatifida originates from India. It obtains brown, patched leaves on the surface with a distinctive burgundy colour underneath. It creates horizontal side shoots and the top shoots should be pinched out in order to maintain compact and attractive growth. The horizontal side shoots easily attach to both wood and rocks. Growth is moderate, stems 15-40 cm tall and 10-20 cm wide, and the colour is attractive when planted in small groups with a plain background. Intense lighting ensures compact growth due to the plant's slow to medium growth rate.


Plant information obtained from: Tropica Aquarium Plants - www.tropica.com

Read more about this Plantbase item here...

 

[Smells Fishy]

Any idea how this plant would fair with no co2 but with high light? Obviously the plant will get co2 from the fish but I'm not sure if that would be classed as medium.

 

[micheljq]

Any idea how this plant would fair with no co2 but with high light? Obviously the plant will get co2 from the fish but I'm not sure if that would be classed as medium.

Without co2 injection most of the time, it's only 2-3 ppm, very low co2 in the tank. The plant might grow anyway, i never tried it myself though.

Michel.

 

[zozo]

It likes a light well aerated and matured substrate.. It's a shallow and difficult rooting plant. I had it low tech on Akadama and it did actualy very good.. Not fast but stayed healthy. Moved it over to another low tech on imature lava rock based soil and refused to go throught the transplant shock and never recovered. I guess the soil was to hard and rocky and not aged enough.

So i have a hunch it was substrated related.. And it was a submersed form already, i got from a mate. To make it go through transition from emersed to submersed in a low tech also didn't work for me.

 

[Tim Harrison]

@Smells Fishy I think low-energy and high light are mutually exclusive...unless like Darrel (@dw1305) you have an enormous plant biomass including floaters.

I tired it with soil substrate, moderately planted jungle type scape - no additional carbon - and it worked for about 3 months but the fight against algae was constant; in the end it became a loosing battle.

I'd give it a go but in low to medium light and see how it does, you probably won't get very compact growth tho'.

 

[Smells Fishy]

I'm definitely going to try this plant especially since it can be attached to rocks and wood.

 

[zozo]

I'm definitely going to try this plant especially since it can be attached to rocks and wood.

In a non co2 tank, than very close to the surface the plant definitively would profit.. More light while the substrate still could be in the lower range, slightly more co2, maybe even partialy a crown emersed..

 

[Oldguy]

Had difficulty getting this plant to grow. Obtained a specimen that was rooted and growing submerged. Good lighting and CO2 and it is growing. Also showing signs of growth is the remains of an earlier attempt to grow this plant. Both in the same tank. I've found it does not like being over shaded by other plants. I am thinking about getting another rooted plant from the same grower and gluing it onto a stick so that it will be closer to the surface of the tank. Without CO2 try as Zozo suggests and have the crown of the plant out of the water. I think in nature it grows in 'flashy' rivers so that it is growing under water for short periods of time, then as a marginal, then under water again. Nice plant with good colours.

 

[Polly]

I bought this plant, a month ago. It was grown emersed and isn't transitioning well at all. I'm tempted to rip what remains out as it's made no new growth, and has shed all the lower leaves, now in the process of the upper leaves beginning to melt. It's been in the brightest part of the tank, in full flow. No CO2, but liquid Carbon and ferts daily.

 

[rebel]

I find it's very susceptible to holes in leaves either due to K or perhaps CO2 deficiency. It's displays all or nothing sort of growth habit in my hands.

 

[alto]

Give it time - this plant seems to respond well to patience

I’m pretty careless when it comes to tank maintenance and routine ... and have brought this plant to almost nonexistance
At recent rescape, I decided to just stuff the bits into rocks and odd places - 6 weeks later, every last piece has revived with a couple growing massive shoots (hacked off now): conditions ranged from good light, good flow to deep shade, low flow

Tank 60 x 45 x 53cm (tall)
Kessil A160WE
Eheim Pro 3 250 filter (so not a lot of flow)
CO2 1-2 bps with Tropica AIO diffuser & Tropica fertilizers

I’ve been trying to be more consistent with photoperiod beginning 12-1 rather than 4-5pm, everyone planty seems much happier though I miss the late evening lights

I find this plant much more consistent from 1-2-Grow rather than the much bigger pot version ... which seems prone to melt depending upon shipping conditions??? or ???
It can do fine initially, then gradually decline or can disintegrate within a couple days of arrival, other times it seems impervious to all and just grows like mad (while still at the shop)

 

[alto]

liquid Carbon

I always recommend diluting this before adding to the tank, so no livestock or plants get a concentrated dose (which definitely kills aquatic life and melts plant leafs)

 

[tiger15]

I attached a nursery grown plant high in rock in my medium light high tech tank. The emerged grown leaves were first to melt which I fully anticipated. The submerged grown leaves hanged on for a few months, no new growth, always covered with bba, and eventually withered away. I don’t know if it will fair better if I planted it in substrate. It did not work for me trying to grow it as an epiphyte.

 

[Polly]

Alto,

I put liquid ferts and Liquid Co2 into the top of the Jewel filter, the part containing the Heater. It gets well mixed before being pumped out of the filter outflow
I may simply stash the naked stalks somewhere after I've bought some Limnophila (hippuridoides/aromatica) to fill in an enormous gap. Hopefully it will recover, but I find that plants grown emersed never seem to take off like the immersed ones we used to get. They either take forever to adapt, or melt away, whereas I never used to have a problem growing anything even before liquid Co2.

 

[Rafael]

Hi. Does anybody have experience with this plant in shady areas?

 

[Tim Harrison]

Hello Rafael and welcome to UKAPS. I don't think it'd be particularly happy. IME it's a plant that has a fairly high light compensation point, and one that doesn't really like being submerged that much relatively speaking. It might do okay if your CO2 is dialled in well; high CO2 can lower the light compensation point of some plants.

 

[Fujiija]

I bought a tissue culture cup from ADA called Hygrophila pinnatidifda "UK". Anybody know what the "UK" version is? I am from the US and have never seen a pinnatifida called that.