# Not Myriophyllum simulans



## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

I received a new plant. It was labeled Myriophyllum simulans but I'm quite sure this is not a Myriophyllum. The photos are from the emersed plants. Submersed it looks like it is growing even thinner leaves but it is only in my aquarium for a few days. There are always 5 leaves/needles on every whorl and the stem kindof looks like a Pogostemon erectus but with way thinner leaves. Regular P. erectus, P. erectus 'narrow' or a different plant (a Rotala perhaps)?


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

Wait a while, it will produce pinnate submerged leaves! That's the plant that was introduced by van der Vlugt as "Myriophyllum propinquum" from Australia, later determined as M. simulans.
I know it from emersed culture (botanical garden Göttingen). Still in the trade as M. propinquum, "M. propinum", even "M. proprium". 
The drawing of M. simulans here http://www.utas.edu.au/dicotkey/dicotkey/Halorag/gMyriophyllum.htm shows also a plant with non-pinnate leaves.
Here you can see the transition from needle-like emersed to fine pinnate submerged leaves:
http://aquascaping.flowgrow.de/imag...umbnails/thumb_MyriophyllSimulans2_resize.jpg


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## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

Umzz... The drawing and the pictures in the link look nothing like my plant to be honest. The last picture you show look a lot like it however. Perhaps I need to wait a week to see how it turns out...


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

Further pictures of the emersed plant, here outdoors: http://www.heimbiotop.de/myriophyllum.html#simulans
If you've got the Kasselmann book, there's a photo of submerged Myriophyllum simulans, and her description of the emersed habit matches your plant, too: leaves needle-shaped to linear, stiff, ca. 1 mm wide, to 35 mm long.
The photos of the Australian site show other related species (variifolium, integrifolium), the drawing depicts M. simulans.

On the other hand, there may be indeed an issue with the identity of the M. simulans (van der Vlugt's "propinquum") in the hobby. Several somewhat different Australian Myriophyllum populations were called M. simulans since that species was described by Orchard in 1986.
The new species _Myriophyllum jacobsii_ was described in 2011: http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/109282/Tel131-2277Moo.pdf 
It seems to me that the description of the M. jacobsii leaves fits the emersed leaves of the M. simulans in the hobby. However, M. jacobsii is known from SE Queensland, but the cultivated simulans was collected by P. J. van der Vlugt in New South Wales near Wallacia.


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## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

You were right, it converted to Myriophyllum leaves!


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