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Re: Micranthemoides



I made the original post.  I believe it is the first  plant you 
described, Hemianthus micranthemoides.  I identified it out of 
Barron's Aquatic Plants Manual where it is listed as Micranthemum.

Cathy Hartland

> 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