# Ludwigia Cuba emersed



## Captivate05 (Feb 23, 2010)

Does this plant look wildly different in it's emmersed form than it does from it's aquatic form? The plant I received that was labeled "ludwigia cuba" is clearly in an emmersed state, with delicate broad green leaves and a pink stem. I'd compare it to a pepper plant with fat stems.

Here it is shortly after I got it. The stems have since unfurled.


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## Captivate05 (Feb 23, 2010)

Ah, never mind. Found some good pictures, and what I have is indeed L cuba. I'll just play with it for a while until it grows some nice crowns and then toss the emersed stem.


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## gordonrichards (Jun 20, 2009)

That is not L. Cuba. Trust me. The leaves are never like pine needles, emerged the leaves get fatter. How do I know? I had it in my tanks.

That to me looks like a *Red Myriophyllum*.


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## Hobbes1911 (Mar 2, 2009)

mate, the red one isn't cuba and neither is the green one. I would agree with the myriophyllum for the red plant and the green one looks like L. repens. 
Sorry.


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## Lance Uppercut (Aug 22, 2009)

Looks like cuba, kinda tough picture though


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## laxcoach18 (Nov 11, 2010)

I have plenty of L. Cuba and the leaves look nothing like it. They are not thick enough.


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## Captivate05 (Feb 23, 2010)

Not the foxtail, the one next to it. The one with the arrow pointing it.

I'm not happy with the foxtail; I had ordered rotala wallichi and they sent me this thing labeled as wallichi.

This was a picture I found of emersed L cuba. The plant looks just like it.









I showed a picture of my plant to the planted tank specialist at my LFS and asked him to id it for me. He said it was L Cuba, they get it and it looks like that too. He told me to give it a couple weeks, it'll develop the typical needle leaves of it's submerged state. I didn't tell him I had ordered L Cuba, so he wasn't just telling me what I wanted to here.

If it's not L Cuba, I'll be livid. Time will really tell on it.


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## Lance Uppercut (Aug 22, 2009)

They sold you Myriophyllum tuberculatum as Rotala wallichii? :/
Was this an individual or a store? (sorry for OT)


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## Hobbes1911 (Mar 2, 2009)

http://www.guitarfish.org/2007/06 This looks more like an emersed form of the cuba.

Which store did you talk to?


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## Lance Uppercut (Aug 22, 2009)

Don't have a good camera on me, but here's a crummy cell phone pic of cuba that is just starting to produce submersed growth (about 1 week in the tank)


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## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

Yeah, sorry... but that doesn't look like any form of L. Cuba to me.


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## Captivate05 (Feb 23, 2010)

I ordered them off of an online store. Turns out my LFS has the wallichi. So I bought it there :icon_mrgr I feel cheated though, I'm fighting with myself about informing them. I have no proof, it didn't occur to me that it was the wrong plant until I dumped it in my tank.

They look just like Lance Uppercuts. Same thing. What gets me is the stems. The stems themselves look most definitely like cuba, but the leaves are misplaced. 

Hmm... Whatever it is, it'll show its true aquatic form in a few weeks. I'll report back on what it turns out to be.


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## Hobbes1911 (Mar 2, 2009)

sounds good ... which store in MI did you talk to?

And I really hope for you that it turns out to be cuba. One never knows. good look with the plants


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## Captivate05 (Feb 23, 2010)

Preuss is the store I go to. I trust them, but with a grain of salt. They've told me false things before, but not often. 

I hope it's cuba too. It's one of the plants I really wanted ever since looking at planted tanks a year ago. Now I finally feel confident about growing it, and I could have ended up with the wrong one.

I learned my lesson. I'm sticking with Preuss and the SnS.


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## Hobbes1911 (Mar 2, 2009)

Hmmm, yea we'll see. Preuss is usually good. They've sometimes misinformed me, but very few times.


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## Captivate05 (Feb 23, 2010)

I said I would report back with what it turns out to be, and this is it.

Looks like Cuba to me.


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## rwong2k (Dec 24, 2004)

nice photos, 
yeha same thing at my lfs, they brought in some emersed form ones and it looked like the one it your original photo, once it adapted and was in the submerged form it was just like your last photo above,

i found the emersed form looks like the inclinata's submerged form


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## RukoTheWonderDog (Nov 11, 2011)

I know this is an old thread, but I figured I would add some input.

I purchased a plant at my LFS that was labelled as "Ludwigia Cuba Red". It looked similar to Ludwigia palustris. This particular store is notorious for mislabeling plants; it looked nothing like L. Cuba so I assumed it was something else. I talked the store into throwing a few of the ratty stems for free with the other plants purchased. 

Within a few days I saw new growth, but the color was lime green instead of the darker green seen on the existing leaves. The new growth was twisted and curled; I suspected a deficiency at first but failed to see issues with any other plants. Each new leaf came in thinner than the last. The stems lost the red color and the existing leaves also eventually turned lime green.

The newest growth looks like L. Cuba.

I can only assume that it was grown emersed. The first picture is an emersed leaf; the second is the newest growth. You can see some of the older leaves are still in the transitional phase.


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

did not know that plant would transform into that, wasn't expecting that.


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## Noahma (Oct 18, 2009)

Yep, cuba is a strange plant. here is my thread from quite a while on it too.

looks absolutely nothing like its submerged form. 

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/plants/138879-welcome-another-episode-name-plant.html


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## RukoTheWonderDog (Nov 11, 2011)

Noahma said:


> Yep, cuba is a strange plant. here is my thread from quite a while on it too.


Wish I had seen that thread earlier.....I've spent many hours trying to figure this one out.


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## Eldachleich (Jul 9, 2011)

Lol.. emersed plant amuse me. I buy most of my plants from pond stores. They are all grown emersed and sold as marginal pond plants. It makes it really hard to figure out what the heck I'm actually buying or what the heck its gonna look like.
That change is pretty wild though. Reminds me of my rotala.. It had big round leaves that turned into little tiny ovals lol..

Is that ludwigia demanding? It is very pretty.


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

Eldachleich said:


> Lol.. emersed plant amuse me. I buy most of my plants from pond stores. They are all grown emersed and sold as marginal pond plants. It makes it really hard to figure out what the heck I'm actually buying or what the heck its gonna look like.
> That change is pretty wild though. Reminds me of my rotala.. It had big round leaves that turned into little tiny ovals lol..
> 
> Is that ludwigia demanding? It is very pretty.


its very easy to grow, grows like weed once settle down in your tank.


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## RukoTheWonderDog (Nov 11, 2011)

Eldachleich said:


> That change is pretty wild though. Reminds me of my rotala.. It had big round leaves that turned into little tiny ovals lol..
> 
> Is that ludwigia demanding? It is very pretty.


I think some of the lower stems of my rotala rotundifolia still have the larger round leaves.

The l. cuba seems to grow pretty quickly, but I haven't had it growing for a long amount of time.


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## Eldachleich (Jul 9, 2011)

Interesting. I think I'll have to remember this plant...
Thank you!


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## peyton (Apr 17, 2007)

Nice. I remember my LFS getting in a ton of a plant that looks just like the emersed pics there but I couldn't ID it. Never would have thought it was ludwigia cuba. Now if someone would share the secret on how to get it to convert from submersed to emersed lol.


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## RukoTheWonderDog (Nov 11, 2011)

peyton said:


> Now if someone would share the secret on how to get it to convert from submersed to emersed lol.


I just planted the emersed stems in the substrate and let it do its thing. I just recently trimmed the tops and replanted. 

I think all of the stems have adjusted or are in the process.


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## peyton (Apr 17, 2007)

I've tried to grow it emersed several times. It just rots away once it's in potting soil. I've had little problems converting any other plant I've grown.


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## DogChristopher (May 4, 2013)

I know this is an old thread but how long did it take to start looking like the submersed plant? Also, did the whole plant just turn or did the new shoots grow from the old leaf shoots? I just got some L. cuba and it looks like the emersed and it also does not like staying put in my substrate, I had to put weights on it (which I hate doing).


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## rwong2k (Dec 24, 2004)

in my high light co2 aquarium it took about a week to adapt then it grows about 1-2 inches per day



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