Alternantera Sedentary

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

Alternanthera sedentary (Latin Alternanthera sessilis) Is an aquatic plant belonging to the Amaranth family.

Description

The sedentary alternantera is a long-stemmed annual, the height of which can vary from twenty centimeters to half a meter. With elongated and erect rooting stems and quirky creeping rhizomes, this aquatic beauty forms a luxurious decorative carpet.

The narrow, opposite leaves of the plant are both purple-red and pinkish-greenish, and the flowers of the sessile alternantera are formed in the small leaf axils of the above-water shoots.

Where grows

Alternantera sedentary grows with equal success both in deep aquariums and in humid picturesque greenhouses. However, it also takes root very well in paludariums with terrariums.

The specimens growing under water can boast of uniform growth throughout all seasons.

Usage

The sedentary alternantera has gained truly unprecedented popularity because of its stunningly beautiful and very unusual shades of leaves, and therefore it is actively used for decorative purposes.

Growing and caring

Best of all, the sedentary alternantera will develop at temperatures from twenty-two to twenty-eight degrees. But in colder water, its growth can slow down. As for the acidity of water, it, like hardness, does not play a decisive role. And, nevertheless, it does not hurt to give preference to soft water with a slightly acidic reaction. About three to four times a month, the water in the aquariums should be changed (about 1/5 of the total volume of the tank used).

The quality of the soil for the sedentary alternantera as a whole is not important, because its root system is rather weak. Ideally, this plant is planted in coarse sand, but the sedentary will also perceive any other options for the soil of the Alternantera quite well. At the same time, the siltation of the soil can be both weak and moderate, and there are no requirements for its thickness at all - even a couple of centimeters of sand will be quite enough.

Lighting for the full development of the plant should be sufficient, since the color of the sedentary alternantera directly depends on its intensity: the brighter the light, the more saturated red shades of the leaves it can boast. In this case, it does not matter at all whether the lighting will be natural or artificial. In the case of artificial lighting, it is best to combine standard incandescent lamps with fluorescent ones. True, fluorescent lamps of the type LD will not work - the spectrum emitted by them is perceived by this plant extremely unimportantly.

The sedentary alternant reproduces, as a rule, by cuttings, and, fortunately, its reproduction does not cause absolutely any difficulties. The stems that have reached the water layers should be periodically shortened, and the tops of such stems can be immediately placed in the ground (whorls of the lower leaves should be hidden in the ground). In a few days, new copies of the sedentary alternantera will delight with miniature roots. The stalks, which differ in a very solid length, are also allowed to be divided into several segments, while each of them should have three or four leaves. By the way, the sedentary alternant must be planted immediately in the ground - this is due to the too long development of the root system in floating plants.

You can propagate this water beauty by seeds - the seeds are sown in the spring and germinated at a temperature of about twenty degrees.