• Deeply red low-growing stem plant
• One of the very few red foreground plants
• Sets a strong colour accent

Alteranthera has oval-shaped stalkless leaves which are decussate (each next pair of leaves is perpendicular to the previous one). The leaves are 2.5-3.5 cm long and 0.5-1.5 cm wide. Their upper side is green and the downside is pink or red. In summer small stalkless green-yellow or pinkish flowers appear in the leaf sinuses.

The plant has a fibrous root system that grows prolifically. The roots are thin and long, they have filamentary structures.

Underwater the Alteranthera stem grows vertically and if a tank isn’t deep, the plant quickly gets out of the water. These emergent shoots are used to adapt the plant for growing on the ground. If you put them underwater again, they will shed their leaves.

This plant also has a dwarf form called Alternanthera reineckii ‘Mini’, which has brown tinted colour and grows not more than 20 cm high. When describing Alteranthera we should mention its unusual phyllotaxy. The distance between the leaves is very small, which makes them look fluffy.