Vallisneria triptera

Vallisneria triptera

General information : A very attractive plant that will be red under high light conditions. The plant is usually found in places that dry out each year and thus has a life cycle tuned into the wet dry tropics where there is no water for over six months then so much water everywhere floods.

Cultivation notes : Not a plant for the beginner, for Aquagreen it has been more difficult than Vallisneria caulescens. This plant does better in warm water and high light levels and a substrate with low organic matter. It is found growing on upland rocky creeks and shallow billabongs where the water is very soft and pH acidic to neutral. It is reproduced vegatively. Seed has been collected from captive specimens but not successfully germinated. The ponds where it is cultivated are pH 7, KH 60 ppm, GH 50 ppm, natural light shaded by 70% and pH controlled with CO2. It has to be brought into a heated aquarium during the dry season when the ponds cool to below 27 deg C.

Distribution : Endemic to Australia, NT and WA.

Selling details : Sold as a bunch of cut stems.

Reference: Cowie, Short, Osterkamp-Madsen (2000) "Floodplain Flora, a flora of the floodplain of the Northern Territory, Australia"]