Jungle Vallisneria on the Surface:

Jungle Vallisneria (Vallisneria americana) is a rooted aquatic plant native to the lakes, rivers, and near-stagnant streams of eastern North America. It spreads via runners across the substrate and sends up long, ribbon-shaped leaves that can reach up to three feet. In the Botanical Method Aquarium, it grows up through the leaf litter and provides cover and grazing surfaces for shrimp and fish along the back of larger aquariums. Our favorite way to use them is with a dense leaf litter bed to help replicate a slow-moving stream, allowing Jungle Vallisneria to spread throughout.

Essential Details

• Care Level: Easy
• Growth Habit: Rooted, spreads via runners
• Light: Low to Medium
• CO2: Not Necessary
• Propagation: Runners
• Tint Tolerance: Low to High
• Habitat Location: Eastern North America
• Optimal For: Betta fish, shrimp, rasboras, and small tetras
• Use with Caution: Rinse before introducing; may carry beneficial hitchhiking snails, snail eggs, or duckweed from the grow-out ponds
• Size Range: 1 to 3 feet at maturity
• Quantities: 2 V. americana plants per pot

Jungle Vallisneria for Planted Aquariums & Blackwater Biotopes

Jungle Vallisneria absorbs most of its micro- and macronutrients through its roots, so it grows well in either a dirted aquarium or an inert sand substrate. We plant it between the leaf litter and let the runners creep among the botanicals, where new plantlets root into this perpetual substrate.

The darker the tint in your aquarium, the less light that will reach your plants, and light dictates how quickly Vallisneria will grow. Jungle Vallisneria tolerates murky, detritus-rich water in the wild, and its leaves reach toward the surface to find light in a heavily tinted aquarium. We like to use root tabs in an inert sand substrate to keep nutrients available at the roots. Aquasoils absorb tannins from the water column, so an inert substrate keeps the tint your botanicals release.

Runners extend from the base of the mother plant and root new plantlets as they creep, and the leaves can grow up to three feet long. We choose it for larger aquariums and trim leaves with scissors if we want them to stop short of the surface. To keep open swimming space for bettas, rasboras, and small tetras, we thin plantlets by slowly lifting them out of the substrate, which keeps clouds of dirt out of the water column. Biofilm encrusts the leaves, which provides shrimp a grazing surface. Excess plants go to the compost, and we never release aquarium plants into local waterways.

Beneath the Leaves: Vallisneria americana in the Wild

Vallisneria americana grows in lakes, rivers, springs, and slow streams across eastern North America, in fresh water and in the slightly brackish reaches of tidal rivers. Its runners root into the sediment, and its leaves grow in clusters from a white base. Turtles, manatees, fish, insects, and snails graze on it. Waterfowl rely on its buds and roots during their winter migration, and the canvasback duck (Aythya valisineria) even carries the plant's genus in its name.

Where a botanical contributes as it breaks down, an aquatic plant is living and contributes as it grows. So let them grow. Mother Nature leads the way.

Sustainability Note:

Please select a heat/cold pack if necessary. Check your local weather before ordering to avoid any shipment holds or cancellations. All Plants may contain snails or snail eggs. We keep them in all of our aquariums for the benefits they provide. Our blackwater aquarium plants are provided in cooperation with PNW Bettas in adherence to their Shipping and DOA Policies. Your curated selection will arrive in their packaging separate from your botanical, wood & merch orders.