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Eustralis
At the risk of being chastised again by some of our correspondents who seems
to feel that such things really don't matter.... I've noticed another group
of questions concerning the care of some plants commonly identified within
the hobby as being "Eustralis".
I leave the care instructions to others, but if you are looking to properly
ID the plants, it might help to be aware of the fact that the generic name
"Eustralis" is pretty much considered obsolete and I've really only seen it
reported in aquarium hobby related material. What we think of as
"Eusteralis" are in fact now considered botanically to belong to the genus
Pogostemon (along with plants formerly called Dysophylla). Together with
around 250 other genera (around 3500 separate species) they are members of
the family Labiatae (Juss.) [the family is also sometimes known as Lamiaceae
(Lindl.)].
Does it make any difference as to how to care for them? Probably not, but if
you are wanting to know anything other than 2nd hand information about them,
it might help to use the most up to date scientific name. Then at least you
can plug the name into a search engine and hope to get some more accurate
information.
Many times, care and husbandry guidelines can be inferred from that given
for other plants which are closely related. At least, its a place to start
looking.
James Purchase
Toronto