# True Alternanthera reineckii 'Variegated'



## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

I keep seeing many forms of alternanthera reineckii variegated, is there any true variegated species that's stable and not due to low light/nutrient conditions?

for instance here's manini's alternanthera sp. variegated but who knows if it's reineckii??? 









and here's the same plant growing in wabisabi's tank









I got a alternanthera reineckii 'variegated' from John (sfbaaps member) and when i bought it i was expecting the same variegation as picture above but what I got looked like regular reineckii. So after talking to John turns out this one has faint pale veins and after growing it out... obviously it is variegated/speckled with pale splotches and the tops of the leaf are more red then the usual reineckii which is brown/green




























any thoughts/input?


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## TEXAS (Jun 5, 2013)

I have this plant and its by far the best red plant and i would even say its the holy grail or reds. They are picky in growing conditions because they need a lot of light and good co2.


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## TEXAS (Jun 5, 2013)

Those look like two different plants i have the red one on top i grow submerged and emersed when grown emerced they loose most of the red color and changes to a medium green color but still have the same shape the second picture looks like a thin leaf vs wide like the one u posted above. I don't think those plants are the same


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## TexasCichlid (Mar 25, 2013)

Here is the my alternanthera reineckii variegated I got from TEXAS. His was grown outdoors. He indicated they were originally from Manini The growth was green with pink veins and a pinkish stem with white flowers at leaf nodes.

The new growth has been a nice red with pinkish veins like wabisabi's. This is under a Finnex Fugeray.










Now this is one of those same stems in my emersed setup. The new growth is even redder than my submerged stems, the leaves are developing a 'crinkle' like manini's and they are growing very compact and leaves are pointing almost straight up. This is under a 24watt T5HO 6500k bulb, but very close to the plant.










Based on this, maybe the different growth patterns are probably a result of light intensity, and not the result of one being true and one not?


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

Tropica has an Alternanthera 'Rosanervig': http://www.tropica.com/en/plants/plantdescription.aspx?pid=023D
Identical with the 'Variegated' from manini?


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

I'm pretty sure both the Tropica plant and Manini's are the same thing as the A. reineckii 'Mini', just infected with the same "rosanervig" virus that causes the "variegation" in a number of other species.

Neil's plant looks to be truly variegated, though—note that the paler blotches don't follow the veins. (Any chance you've got a spare cutting of that, Neil?)


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

asukawashere said:


> I'm pretty sure both the Tropica plant and Manini's are the same thing as the A. reineckii 'Mini', just infected with the same "rosanervig" virus that causes the "variegation" in a number of other species.


Thx; Tropica writes that the A. "Rosanervig" has a compact growth form, that's also in line with the 'Mini'. However maybe the Rosanervig/Variegated grows under water more compact than emersed, I've observed that years ago in A. reineckii "Rosaefolia Minor" that's the same as the 'Mini' (AFAIK).


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

It's pretty compact emersed, too—I received a specimen that was sold to me as regular 'Mini', put it into emersed culture, and right away it began to display fairly intense rosanervig-style variegation. It still maintains a much smaller form with much shorter internodes than the A. r. 'rosaefolia' that I keep in the same tub.


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