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. Flowgrow asks for at least medium light, about 0.5 watts per litre, and says the species suits medium-lit tanks with no CO2 injection; stronger light and injected gas make it grow faster with larger leaves rather than being the price of admission. 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. Cuttings are never scarce, because the stems throw lateral shoots constantly. Flowgrow rates the species medium difficulty even though its own text recommends it to beginners, so read the rating as a note about the light and the trimming rather than about a delicate plant.