[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Micranthemoides



Someone mentioned using Micranthemoides as a carpet plant the other day.
I want to take a moment a try to figure out which plant we're talking
about.  There is a small plant from SE USA and Cuba with whorls of 3-4
pointed ovate leaves which looks a bit like a star from a distance.
This is identified as Hemianthus micranthemoides in Baensch Atlas vol.
1, Kasselmann's book and Pablo Tepoot's new book.  Baensch lists a
common name of "Pearlweed."  It does indeed cover the gravel quickly and
will grow both horizontally and vertically.  It is a robust and lovely
little plant with many uses. I have used it as ground cover and also let
it grow to 20 inches in height!  Amano's books appear to routinely
"misidentify" this plant as Micranthemum micranthemoides.  I had a hard
time noticing this, perhaps because I didn't realize how small this
plant really is in the pictures of Amano's tanks.

There is another plant named Micranthemum umbrosum, also from the SE
USA, with opposite roundish paired leaves which are not pointed.  I have
no experience with this plant, but it looks (from the pictures) like it
grows quite similarly to H. micranthemoides.  I gather that these two
plants were at one time regarded as member of the same genus, but no
longer.

Have I got this right?  Perhaps the original poster will tell us which
plant s/he was referring to.

Regards, Steve Dixon in San Francisco