# Gratiola differences?



## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

How do you distinguish between gratiola species? I have two species, aurea and gratiola but I can't figure out which one is which. Amanda noted that gratiola usually has serrated edges while aurea doesn't, is this a reliable way to tell? or is serrated edges variable depending on conditions?


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

_G. aurea_ can have a few TINY teeth and has flowers with a yellow corolla. Do you mean _G. brevifolia_ as the other one? That always has dentate teeth (pointing directly outwards with both sides of the tooth equal length) , not serrate (teeh point forward, as on a saw blade) and has flowers with a corolla that is mostly white.

_G. visidula_ does not usually have teeth while submerged, but definitely does while out of water, and also has white flowers.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

oh yeah sorry i meant brevifolia 
the two i have growing, one is more dark green and thinner leaved while the other is more of a light green with broader leaves and some teeth spikes. ill try to take pictures. thanks for the help!


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

The smaller, skinnier-leaved plant is almost certainly the G. aurea. Mine never has visible teeth (I'm sure, if you put it under a microscope, you could find some tiny ones like Cavan indicated, but for basic ID purposes I'm calling it smooth-edged). G. brevifolia's leaves are two to four times as large and noticeably toothed. The intense yellow flowers on aurea are what really separate it from the rest of the hobby's Gratiola species, though. Photos of both inflorescences can be found in my flower thread if you need a reference... there may be some visuals of foliage as well.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

here's the aurea









and heres the brevifolia









sorry for the bad iphone pictures but the difference is pretty obvious? can we agree that the former is aurea?


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

Those are really small shoots, so it's hard to say for certain, but I don't think either is G. brevifolia. Does the bottom one have any teeth at all? I just squinted at my G. brevifolia, and even the smaller/lower leaves display prominently toothed edges. 

Any possibility of a 3rd species involved? I know that's a very humid setup, so I could maybe see one of them being G. viscidula or something (it looks very similar to G. aurea with submersed leaves).


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

It's very doubtful there's a third species since I've only gotten two species before, the brevifolia from zachary/azfishkid (http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=135231)
and gratiola aurea from you.
I'll let the stuff grow out and maybe the teething will become more prominent. The aurea grows so fast ._. I found huge systems of it in my 46 gallon when I was throwing out the dirt.


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