Rotala indica leaf arrangement

[eric at alchemy_cchem.berkeley.edu (Eric Tulsky)]

OK, I was doing some pruning last night of my Rotala indica and noticed
that there are two different types of stem in my tank.

Some stems have two leaves at each leaf node, 180 degrees apart, with
successive leaf nodes rotated 90 degrees away. Other stems have three
leaves at each leaf node, 120 degrees apart, with successive leaf nodes
rotated 60 degrees away. I didn't find any plants with both kinds of
stems.

So what gives? Is this common? What decides which leaf type it'll have?
Can one stem type turn into the other type part way up?

For what it's worth, I started with a few stems and all of the plants I
have now have come from cuttings, if that's relevant.

Eric Tulsky

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