S-KGray

This plant was collected from Kamo'oali'i stream in Kaneohe, HI. It was growing emersed along the edge of the stream. Any help to ID it would be much appreciated.

catwat

Looks like a form of Alternanthera reineckii.

HeyPK

I believe catwat is correct. I don't think Alternanthera is native to Hawaii.

miremonster

Looks like that what I know as Alternanthera sessilis. According to some sites A. sessilis is an invasive alien species in Hawaii. The plants in the pics here are green though: http://www.hear.org/pier/imagepages/...a_sessilis.htm

Cavan Allen

I concur.

S-KGray

Thanks all!

HeyPK

It is odd that A. sessilis are shown as totally green with no trace of red. In my experience with the species, it was very dark red, much redder than the plant that S&KGray shows. My plant was unable to produce normal leaves underwater, just little scale-like structures, but as soon as the slow-growing stem broke the surface it produced normal aerial leaves. The leaves were purple-red, and the stem was so dark as to seem nearly black.

miremonster

I wonder as well. But also other sources dealing with wild growing A. sessilis show mostly green plants, e.g. here: http://ecoport.org/ep?Plant=382&enti...ry=Photographs
It seems that the dark red one is only a particular form (cultivar?) of the species, here it's called A. sessilis 'Red': http://florafaunaweb.nparks.gov.sg/S...l.aspx?id=3433
A. sessilis as Sri Lankan vegetable: http://foodcontessa.blogspot.com/

HeyPK

We would much appreciate it if you can find out if your plant can grow under water, S&KGray.

S-KGray

Okay, right now I have some floating in a 55g plastic drum, 20g (both outdoors), and a 10g (indoors with T8 fluorescent). I will plant a stem or two so that it is completely submerged and report back.