[Tiger15]

I just bought a “Rotala Vietnam“ from a LFS which is emerged grown with green oval leaves. I was researching the plant database and found rotala rotundifolia H’Ra from Vietnam. Are they one and the same species? If so, it’s hard to believe the submerged grown leaves are so different, fine and delicate. Mine is going through transformation sending out red new leaves but the stems are arching downward.

 

[MissCris]

A species can have a lot of variation, especially in captivity. Look at any domestic fruit: peaches and nectarines are the same species, but color of blooms, double or single blooms, color of fruits, shape of fruit, shape of leaves, fuzzy or smooth (and amount of fuzz), and tree size vary wildly between cultivars.

As I understand it, there are only a handful of rotala species in aquarium cultivation (rotala rotundifolia, rotala wallichii, rotala indica, and to a lesser extent rotala ramosior), but tons of artificially and naturally occurring varieties have been developed and propagated within the trade.

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

Rotala Vietnam is supposed to be similar to wallici, very fine, fluffy, needle like leaves. H’ra is like the usual rotala’s (green, colorata, etc) and is just another variation of red. But I have seen H’ra sold as Vietnam so it gets confusing.