Hygrophila costata is a lovely stem plant which comes from South East Asia. It’s fast growing and gets up to 60cm in height so most suited to the background of your aquarium. Leaves stay at about 10cm in length and because of this you can plant then that distance apart from each other and over time they will fill up an area quite nicely.

In order to stop the bottom of stem plants dying off, trim regularly and heavily. After 3 weeks of planting you can then start trimming and we recommend about 50% off each time – replant the cuttings.

Note: Plants of the genus Hygrophila which are cultivated outside of water can occaisonally show small overgrowths (“pustules”) on their upper and lower leave side. These are completely harmless and not caused by pest infestation or disease. On newly sprouted underwater leaves, these spots will no longer appear.