Murdannia engelsii

This plant is in aquarium culture for some time as Murdannia sp. 'Red' and Murdannia sp. from Pantanal but still not well-known. It entered the aquarium trade probably in Japan first. The Brazilian botanist Marco Octávio de Oliveira Pellegrini identified it as Murdannia engelsii, based on photos of the emersed, flowering plant from Massimo Iannella (pers. comm.). This species was scientifically described in 2016 and is known from the Amazonian, the Cerrado and the Pantanal region of Brazil. It occurs on sandy riverbanks. unknown stem plant whose natural origins are still very much in the dark. What can be said is that it belongs to the Commelinaceae family, but it is even unclear whether it truly belongs in the genus Murdannia.

Under water, this plant develops strongly undulate leaves with a thin membrane and brownish red to pink coloured leaves. The lateral veins are of a slightly darker colour, which gives the leaf a marbled look.
The alternate leaves grow in two lines and have a lineal form. They grow to a length of up to 9 cm and a width of 1.2 cm.
The leaf base on the stem forms a sheath of around 5 mm in length.
The stems grow to a diameter of around 2.5 mm, are rather rigid and have a light green to reddish colour. Their growth habit is often overhanging, with a moderate ramification.

Murdannia engelsii mostly comes into trade after being cultivated emersed, thus its looks are rather inconspicuous. The emersed stems have a creeping growth habit, are of a brownish red, and their leaves are medium green, slightly undulate and rather robust-looking.

To be continued...