# Riparium Plant - Maranta leuconeura



## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

I saw little 3 inch pots of these at my local grocery store today, so I couldn't resist, at $3 per pot. It is commonly called Prayer Plant, and the description of it suggests it would do well in a riparium. Plus, it is included in the list of plants suitable for hydroculture at http://www.hydro-culture.net/plants.html I now have it in my 65 gallon riparium to see how it will do.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

It will be interesting to see what that one does--I have wondered about it too.

There is a really big emergent aquatic in the same family (Marantaceae) called alligator flag (_Thalia dealbata_), but I don't know about smaller related plants that might also be water-associated. It seems that there are several houseplants that don't necessarily live out in swamps in the wild that can grow pretty well in a riparium, especially if planted into a real coarse media (e.g., Hydroton) that allows lots of water diffusion around roots. However, it would be intersting to know specifics about the habitats of some of those _Maranta_ and similar plants.


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## luke20037 (Jan 24, 2010)

hoppy howd this plant do?


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

luke20037 said:


> hoppy howd this plant do?


After only 3 days it looks great. But, lots of plants look great after only 3 days, and after 3 weeks they don't look so good.


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## max chavez (Aug 7, 2009)

I just tossed a Maranta Leuconeura "red" into an extra riparium planter. How's it doing after a month or two for you Hoppy? Any tips or tricks?


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

max chavez said:


> I just tossed a Maranta Leuconeura "red" into an extra riparium planter. How's it doing after a month or two for you Hoppy? Any tips or tricks?












I just took this picture, so you can see it is growing well, slowly, which is very good, and it looks healthy. I have the planter cup a bit higher in the water than usual, with the top of it about an inch above the water. It isn't a striking plant at all, a little drab even, but it does seem very suited to a riparium.


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## jinx© (Oct 17, 2007)

I've kept these (or similar) as houseplants and found them to be somewhat slow growing myself. The ones I've kept had some red/maroon in them though, so I'm not positive it's same species.

Either way they make pretty nice plants.

I may have to try this riparium thing out myself. The more I see all the beautiful ones posted on here, the more I want to drag a tank out of storage...lol

Has anyone tried Chinese Evergreens? (Common name I know it by) I've grown them in the past in vases/bowls of water.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

http://www.evergrowing.com/tips/chineseevergreen.htm is what you refer to, apparently. I can't recall anyone here telling us they use it. I have seen it at the nursery, but didn't think it would do well, for some reason.


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## jinx© (Oct 17, 2007)

Yeah that's it Hoppy. I had one growing for years in just water. Added some nutrients once in a blue moon, but it did quite well.


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

Have you guys ever thought about Aloe? Maybe if it was out of the water almost completely with only 10% of its root structure in the water it would do well with the evaporation. I just really like aloe plants.


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