Myriophyllum Mattogrossense

For about twenty years the plant sold as Myriophyllum mattogrossense was not this plant at all. It was the red milfoil M. tuberculatum, until A. E. Orchard sorted the two names out in 1994. The true species is green throughout. The aquarium population goes back to a 1990 import by Christel Kasselmann from near Coca in Ecuador, and the species itself runs across Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia.

It is undemanding by milfoil standards. Medium light can support cultivation without injected CO₂. Stronger light and an added CO₂ supply can produce faster growth and larger leaves when nutrients are available. Nutrients are simple. A little nitrate and phosphate is enough, stems grow thicker and more robust at around 10 mg/l nitrate and 1 to 2 mg/l phosphate, and white shoot tips mean the iron and trace elements have run out.

Keep it at 23 to 25 °C and pH 5 to 7.5. Growth is fast enough that trimming is the main job, and the plant takes it well: cut the top shoot and replant it, or throw it away and let the stem grow back. Lateral shoots provide additional cuttings once the group is growing well. It is rated medium difficulty yet recommended to beginners; successful keeping still requires adequate light, nutrition and space for regular maintenance.