Mexican Oak - Beautiful Water

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Mexican oak is a true aquatic beauty native to Central and South America. The name of this wonderful plant is due to the similarity of the shape of its leaves with oak leaves. By the way, the Mexican oak also has a second name - changeable trichocoronis. In Korea, it is one of the most popular plants for wonderful aqua designs. And this is not surprising - the Mexican oak is very unpretentious, and in conditions that make it possible to speed up its growth and color, it creates elements of amazing beauty that serve as a magnificent decor for the background of aquariums. Unfortunately, it is not very common among our aquarists

Getting to know the plant

In the internodes of Mexican oak stalks there are oval light green leaves about three and a half centimeters wide. And in length, the leaves in the upper parts of the stems grow up to five to six centimeters, and in the lower parts - no more than one centimeter. All leaflets are opposite and are characterized by the absence of leaf petioles.

In the event that the Mexican oak reaches the water surface, it blooms with beautiful white flowers. Pedicels always move away from its tops, and flowers bloom right above the water surface. Inflorescences, located close enough to each other on bifurcated peduncles, resemble baskets in appearance. And the bizarre flowers vaguely resemble dandelions.

In general, this representative of the Astrov family grows quite quickly, and therefore, in order to avoid excessive formation of sprouts on this aquatic beauty, it is often pruned. As a rule, in aquariums, its height does not exceed twenty centimeters.

How to grow

The best water parameters for the comfort of Mexican oak are considered to be temperatures in the range from twenty to twenty-eight degrees, acidity in the range of 7 - 8 and hardness in the range of ten to twenty degrees. Mexican oak, like a number of other long-stemmed fast-growing plants, will be glad to be fed with good mineral fertilizers. A systematic water change will not interfere with him - it is quite enough to do this once a week by about 1/3 of the total volume. And if you provide the Mexican oak tree with a regular supply of carbon dioxide, its leaves will begin to acquire a pleasant reddish tint, thanks to which it will become more elegant and unusual.

For better rooting, the Mexican oak requires fine-grained soil (fine gravel or coarse river sand are ideal), always with a mineral layer. The soil is usually laid with a thickness of three to five centimeters. Since this handsome man is planted mainly in groups, his need for good root fertilizers also increases significantly. They are either brought directly under the roots, or simply dissolved in water. Also, when planting a wonderful plant, it is useful to add a small piece of peat or clay under its roots.

In terms of lighting, the Mexican oak is very unpretentious - its narrow and small lower leaves always receive a sufficient amount of light, even though the upper leaves cover them. This green pet grows equally well in open areas and being shaded by other plants. With a twelve-hour daylight hours, this water beauty is quite enough light with a power of 0.5 - 0.7 W / l.

The Mexican oak reproduces vegetatively. Reproduction can occur both by lateral shoots from leaf buds and by cuttings. As a rule, first its stems are divided, and then the separated upper parts of the plants are transplanted into new areas. When cleaning aquariums, the stalks of the Mexican oak often break - if they are not thrown away, then in the near future they will certainly give new specimens.