Part 1 of 2

Introduction

There are several varieties of this plant. The variety grown by Tropica is said to come from Malaysia. You can see more details about this plant, on the net such as AquaticPlantCentral, PlantedTank etc. Interesting to know that Limnophila aromatica or its common name is Rice Paddy Herb used fresh in Vietnam to garnish and flavor soups & curries.

Emersed Form



More picture of emersed L. Aromatica can be found here.

Submersed Form



The best picture of submersed L. Aromatica, IMO, found here.


Buying L. Aromatica from LFS



Normally, when you buy any plant from any LFS here, the plant will be in the emersed form. But some LFS do sell plants in submersed form. In my case, I bought mine in both form of L. Aromatica, the submersed form (left picture) from 88Marine some time ago, and the emersed form(right) from East Aqua, both pictures are not mine though, but by the looks of it, it is indeed the same.

continued...

Part 2 of 2

Growing L. Aromatica In My Tank


This is L. Aromatica growing from emersed form in my tank.


This is L. Aromatica growing from submersed form in the same tank.


After a while, the stems reached the surface, and the cuttings from both emersed and submersed growth, all planted together. No noticeable differences. Due to my heavy NO3 dosing and lack of FE dosing, I do gets variable coloration of the plant, from light green, yellow to orange with some red on tops of the the stems which are near to the water surface.

My Take On L. Aromatica

L. Aromatica is indeed a beautiful plant. A different coloration of this plant much depends on the conditions of which you grew this plant in. In My Humble Opinion, it is not important whether you are growing it from emersed or submersed form, as long as you provides the optimum conditions, the plant will show its true potential with amazing coloration, red particularly. After all, once you grew this plant from emersed form, it will become submersed form, and with replanting of the cuttings from this submersed form, you will still able to get that amazing coloration, provided all necessary conditions. This is the same for all red plants, Ludwigia Repens, Rotala Rotundifolia, to name a few (I have indeed grew them) IMHO.

Since the variety of L. Aromatica grown by Tropica is from Malaysia, anyone have any idea where exactly this plant can be found?

Best Regards

Hi,

Lately I get the feeling that I am being accused of being supportive of this product or that product. In order to clarify that, let me say it just once.

If that particular product works for me, hell why not? That product can be imported from Timbuktu, as if I care, but as long as it works for me, I will surely support it and recommend it to everybody else. Unless something better comes along, I will try and use it as well, if it works for me. Nothing is wrong with that. Outrageous, IMO, to use one particular product (locally made or imported) for just being supportive if it does not works well for me.

This is not only true on any particular product, same as any website which I used as reference, which have a huge and reliable information about aquatic plants, such as Tropica etc, I will always refer to it.

At least, until some local product or local website have some better things to offer, make it widely available, easy access and with reasonable cost comes along. No point of bitching about that sand actually from Sarawak or that substrate actually comes from Malaysia, or that plant comes from Malaysia if you don’t do one single thing to do R & D about it, to make it viable to use, to market and promote it so that it become widely available. How many of us have the time and means to do that, anyway? One thing I could do though, is to learn more about those plants (or substrate or sand), said to come from Malaysia, so that maybe on my next outing, I could pick up a few stems or cuttings or bags and grow or use it in my own tank.

So guys, take this with open-mind. Lets talk about plants instead.

So, where exactly this L. Aromatica in the wild can be found in Malaysia? Anyone knows?

Best Regards

Hi Nas,

Don't bother too much about some criticism. I really appreciate you sharing this. Many of us started out by being laughed at or teased but eventually we learn, still I don't think one should become too cocky. It doesn't help yourself.

Back to your topic, I personally think L. Aromatica is a nice plant too. Best of all, they smell nice when you are trimming them. If you keep this plant, it's very easy to understand why it was named L. Aromatica. The smell is really refreshing, didn't know they use it as garnishing on food and it grows somewhere in the wild in Msia.

Thanks for sharing.

Rgds,
Isaac

__________________
Isaac Goh©

Moss: Singapore, Taiwan, Weeping, Spiky, Erect, Xmas.

Pellia: Coral pellia, Normal pellia, Medium pellia?, Wild mini pellia.

Hi,

Thank you Isaac for the words of encouragement.
Will give it try, to smell those crushing L. Aromatica.

Best Regards

Hi Nas,

No worries in supporting a product you believe in but some people just wonder about your motives.
Just let them continue wondering.
IMO if we try to analyze other people's heads we will end up with a very crippling disease I call 'defensiveness'.

On another note, nice article. L Aromatica's smell is unmistakable when you trim. Haven't used it for cooking though.

Regards

Stan

__________________
So many aquascapes, so little time...http://www.my-mac.net/forum/

Hhahaha...you don't have to put your nose close to it to smell it. Even 2-3 feet away, you can tell, it's a refreshing smell and yet not too overwhelming, something that you can consider as pourtpouri.

if someone makes it into that I'll buy it because I do not fancy those flower smells...Hahhahhaa...

__________________
Isaac Goh©

Moss: Singapore, Taiwan, Weeping, Spiky, Erect, Xmas.

Pellia: Coral pellia, Normal pellia, Medium pellia?, Wild mini pellia.

Hi,

No other motives except for sharing and learning. Thank you for reminding me, standoyo. Sometimes, "rambut sama hitam, hati lain-lain".

I will buy plants imported from 'Tropica' just because they have labelled them correctly. But so far their products hard to get around here, and I never bought any..err..so far...

Best Regards