# Acmella repens flower



## manini (Mar 18, 2007)

Acmella repens. Enjoy

It is very interesting to see that the tip of the stem actually turned into the flower.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Very nice! That flower looks so foreign to what I'm used to seeing from aquatic plants. More like a garden plant, or a sun flower. Very unique! 

I wonder when that plant will make it to the US... haha.

How hard is it to keep?

Any info about where it came from/other details? We don't have its info on the plant finder yet, maybe you could write it?


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## manini (Mar 18, 2007)

Zapins said:


> Very nice! That flower looks so foreign to what I'm used to seeing from aquatic plants. More like a garden plant, or a sun flower. Very unique!
> 
> I wonder when that plant will make it to the US... haha.
> 
> ...


That was the first thing that I was thinking...'sunflowers' lol!

These are actually in the US. If anything, AaronT should write out all of the details for us. I could be wrong but he was the one that collected these and first one to sell it here on APC....and they are very easy to keep.


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

This plant is a native, but it has only recently become common in the ditches in central Mississippi.

Here is a recent thread about it.


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

It was collected accidentally by one of our GWAPA members while on the Houston Plant Fest a while back. A lot of people grow it here, and I've seen it sold by others outside our club in the sale forum.

Yes, it is in the sunflower family (Asteraceae). What you see there is really an inflorescence, not just a single flower. An older family name for Asteraceae is Compositae, which refers to the two different types of flowers in the inflorescences of most species. What look like petals are the corollas of the ray flowers, often just called rays. It's basically a tubular flower but rolled out flat. In some species those flowers are fertile, in some they are not. They function more to draw attention to the inflorescence and a few other things. The disk flowers are all the tiny ones in the middle. A pollinating insect can unwittingly pollinate many of them at once, which is a key benefit of having so many clustered together like that.

It's pretty easy to grow and can be really attractive. In good conditions, it gets red veins and stems and even a purple leaf if you really hit it with light and nutrients. OUt of water, it pretty much stays green and grows way faster. A nice plant that can be used similar to _Hyptis_.


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 19, 2008)

Very cool. I've been growing this one outside all summer, but it has yet to flower for me. It's just a weed once it gets going.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Nice! Finally we are the ones who are adding a new awesome plant to the hobby. I bet those guys in Asia are drooling over one of our native plants for once, praying it will get to their country soon


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## manini (Mar 18, 2007)

Its actually a really nice looking plant that has not been used quite often in a layout design.


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

That's what I tell people...

Looks like some _Gratiola_ to the right of it?


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