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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PLANTS

Micranthemum umbrosum (Micranthemum shady)


Family Scrophulariaceae (Noricorne).
Distribution of the USA (from Virginia to Texas).
A gentle marsh plant with creeping, branched, in the nodes forming roots, 10 - 20 cm long with shoots. The stem is about 0.5 mm thick, bare. The leaf is opposite, the leaves are sessile. The leaf blade is round, 4-7 mm in size, light green.
Flowers single, axillary, small, on short peduncle. The calyx is 4-membered, 1.5 - 2.0 mm long. Corolla two-lipped, white; Upper lip very short, lower 3-lobed, with large middle lobe. 2 stamens; Stamen filament short. 1 pestle; Stigma bilobate. The capsule is spherical, approximately 1 mm.
For good development, this elegant aquarium plant needs intensive lighting first, weakly acidic water from soft to medium hardness and not too high a temperature of up to about 24 degrees Celsius. It is recommended to saturate the water with CO2. Since the species is really demanding, its culture, unfortunately, we rarely see, but in the well-lit Dutch plant aquariums, it is often admired as a foreground plant. Under optimal conditions, the content grows relatively quickly and must be transplanted regularly. Reproduction by lateral shoots. Surface culture, in which from time to time appear small discreet flowers, with high humidity and good light exposure does not cause complications.
It inhabits marshy areas.