# alternanthera reinckii 'mini'



## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

Theres a huge craze for this plant and surprisingly people are actually buying it for ~50 dollars a stem. isn't this just a short alternanthera reinckii? what's the big hype? 
care to share your two cents?


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

It's a compact growth form that Tropica sells. 

That kind of money is ridiculous, especially for a stem. Wait a bit, and the price will come down. I sure wouldn't pay that. We had it our club a while back, but I don't know what happened to it.


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## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

I sell you all you want for 25 dollar a stem They cost 5 dollar a pot over here, so looks like win-WIN to me (the capital WIN is me)


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

The A. 'Mini' from Tropica is likely identical with the Alternanthera reineckii "Rosaefolia Minor" that popped up in Europe (first in the Netherlands?) few years ago: http://aquaplantexchange.nl/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=2823


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## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

Yep, same plant. Brought to the commercial market by Tropica under a different name.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

LOL didn't realize there was a similar thread on tpt, but i guess we know where the 50 dollar notion came from now.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=280642


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

It reminds me of a bright pink Hygrophila corymbosa 'kompakt'—which I suppose isn't that shocking, since A. reineckii is often sold as "red temple plant" or "red hygro." They aren't even vaguely related (except in the sense that they're both plants), but that's common names for you...
...But I am awfully fond of H. c. 'kompakt', so I'll probably try this one too, eventually.

I'm sure it'll follow much the same pattern as Hygro pinnatifida, another plant that Tropica brought into mass cultivation. It sold for $50/stem a few years back when it came Stateside, and within months it dropped to $5/stem, then to $5/bunch. Give it a little while—unless you're trying to be the first to ID it or something, there's no point in coughing up that much dough to be the "first" to own a stem plant.


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

This came from Kasselmann as far as I know. She first ID'd it as Alternanthera reinckii var. minor and sold it to Tropica. They gave it the trade name Alternanthera reinckii sp. 'mini'.


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

AaronT said:


> This came from Kasselmann as far as I know. She first ID'd it as Alternanthera reinckii var. minor and sold it to Tropica. They gave it the trade name Alternanthera reinckii sp. 'mini'.


I can find no reference to any "var minor", and nothing by that name has been published. Looks like it's all just trade names applied to a plant that has no botanical standing.


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

Yes, AFAIK there's no ID of the plant as a scientifically described A. r. var. minor, that apparently doesn't exist. She only mentions the plant in "Aquarienpflanzen" (2010) as dwarf form of reineckii with the trade name "rosaefolia minor". Surely she got to know the plant by Belgian or Dutch hobbyists. Tropica may have acquired it also from any other source, as it spreaded in Europe in the hobby (was it originally imported from nurseries in Asia? Don't know).

Perhaps 'Mini' is better suited as cultivar name than 'rosaefolia minor' that sounds like a scientific name.

Interestingly, when I had the opportunity to grow "rosaefolia minor" (that I got from a Belgian hobbyist) emersed in the Botanical Garden Göttingen years ago, the emersed plants developed normal long internodes and looked like other reineckii variants in the emersed state. Seemingly it needs to be drowned to get short internodes. Reminds me of Staurogyne repens.
http://www.flowgrow.de/neue-und-bes...-reineckii-rosaefolia-minor-t7631.html#p72896 => Last pic shows the transition from short to long internodes.


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