Elatine gratioloides

Elatine gratioloides is distributed in New Zealand and Australia. This small creeping plant colonises, among other places, the margins of permanent or semi-permanent waterholes in the wild, where it grows emersed or submersed depending on the water level. The species was described from plants from New Zealand. The Australian populations of E. gratioloides differ from the New Zealand type of the species and might possibly need a new name (Albrecht 2002¹).

Australian Elatine gratioloides was introduced from Australia to Germany in the 1990s together with a number of other aquatic plants. Heinz Schöpfel presented it in the magazine "Das Aquarium"² (see also the online article³). We have no information on whether it is still in cultivation in Europe at present (2013). Aquatic plant nurseries in Australia, e.g. the company Aquagreen, apparently still have E. gratioloides in their range.

However, the plant now widespread in the aquarium hobby as Elatine triandra looks outwardly just like the E. gratioloides imported to Germany at that time. It cannot be ruled out that this "E. triandra" is identical to the Australian plant, as its original origin is not known. It appeared in aquarium culture (Singapore, "Ah Pek's Plant") and was later identified as E. triandra.

- To be continued -