Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Sleeping Beauty - Rotala wallichii

This plant, Rotala wallichii...is a Sleeping Beauty :D....okay, this is not the only aquatic plant that obviously display the circadian rhythm (biological clock), there's many more. But this is the only one that I have in my tank now :D

The Rotalla walichii is quite an interesting plant, it will fold it's leaves, mostly towards the tip during the night, and will bloom with it's leaves wide open during the day...very interesting to observe :D

Having this plant in a tank, is like having 2 different scape, though it doesn't alter the scape, but the folding and unfolding of the leaves makes the tank looks different :D

This was taken at night...

...And this is during the day

Here's some behavior of the plant in my tank...it starts to bloom in the morning, and sleep at around 2 hours after sunset. They are pretty fast grower, trimming about every 2 weeks, but sometime I will let it grow longer to form an overhanging red canopy. Given enough light, the tip of the plant will turn red, otherwise it will not exhibit it's potential colour in poor lighting. I will say it's a moderate to high lighting plant. And yes, this is more suitable as a background plant.

So I guess that's a bout it, for what I have to say about this plant :D....The Sleeping Beauty, Rotala wallichi :D

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