Cardamine Lyrata

Cardamine Lyrata Profile

• Difficulty: Easy
• Family: Brassicaceae
• Gender: Cardamine
• From: East Asia
• Lighting design: Average
• Temperature: 4º 27º
• Growth: Quick
• PH: 5.0 to 8.0
• Hardness: 0 to 30
• Co2: Optional

Cardamine Lyrata Characteristics

Cardamine lyrata is a swamp plant originally distributed in East Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Russian Far East) where it is found in wet places and streams. It is a great plant for cold water aquariums and tropical aquariums, which makes it an aquarium plant very popular and easy to obtain.

It is a creeping stem plant of fast growing and easy to grow. Under insufficient light the stems become very thin and the leaves remain significantly smaller. C. lyrata grows well even without the addition of CO2, however carbon dioxide fertilization improves growth. Leaf size appears to depend on temperature. Water cooler around 20°C encourages larger leaves to form, while temperatures around 24°C and above result in smaller leaves.

C. lyrata grows as a climbing plant among all its neighboring plants. At the nodes it produces roots, which are often barely visible due to their dense growth. Propagation is very easy: just cut off a part of the stem or a lateral shoot and replant it in the soil. This cutting sheds new roots very quickly and begins to grow.

C. lyrata is well suited for creating visual contrast in an aquarium or as an eye-catcher. Specially in natural aquariums, its climbing growth produces wonderful effects, since you can let it grow on wood or other decorative materials. It is also possible to grow C. lyrata as a bush in the middle, however in that case it needs to be cut often to maintain its shape.

Adult C. lyrata cultivated in emerged form looks totally different from submerged creeping shoots and closely resembles cardamine species that live in Central Europe. It forms upright stems 3–7 cm long and pinnate leaves with 2–5 pairs of lateral leaflets and a larger terminal leaflet. At the tip of the shoot an inflorescence with white flowers is formed. After the flowers fade, flat, elongated seed pods form.