Bacopa monnieri from Florida

September 12th, 2007

In June, when I went down to Florida with a few other GWAPA members, Bacopa monnieri was one of the plants that seemed to be everywhere, from the rest area drainage ditch when we entered the state, to the canals of Miami down south. Most of the time, we found it emersed and flowering like this picture below.

Bacopa monnieri Flowering

Despite its abundance, I honestly didn’t know I grabbed any until after I got my plants home, and found a single stem in among some of the other things I brought back. I decided to plant it, and see how it would turn out. A few months later, it bushed up very nicely, and is one of the few plants that I collected that I think I’ll try to incorporate into my next scape. It provides a really bright green color to the tank, which I like. Below is an isolated picture of a stem or two. I believe that Bacopa monnieri is quite common in hobby, but if you haven’t tried it yet, give it a whirl. It doesn’t seem to be a demanding plant, so it should do well in most planted tanks.