The Krib Plants Plants!	[E-mail]

E. stellata, Nesea/Eleocharis

by ac554/freenet.carleton.ca (David Whittaker)
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998
To: APD

Erik Olson writes...

>Hi guys, no sooner have I gotten off e-mail from Olga telling me the
>Vancouverites are raising Eusteralis stellata (B2,D,G), than I get a phone
>call saying there's some in my favorite LFS (well, one of my *two*
>favorite LFS, Andrew).  They also had Nesaea sp. "Red leaved" (B2).
>Both of these seem to be really high light.  Any experiences or tips
>on these very unusual plants?

I've had them growing for about a year in three tanks, all with good
lighting. The eusteralis seems to require as little as three watts
fluorescent per gallon. The nesaea has only been grown under metal
halide. It survived in the pet shop for ten weeks under minimal
lighting, during which time it remained green before they allowed me
to purchase it. I thought it was ammannia gracilis until last week.
It tends to lose many of its lower leaves and doesn't really do very
well until it reaches the surface at which point the stem snakes about
producing beautiful large red foliage.

A couple of weeks ago when I asked if anyone had had any luck with
ammannia gracilis it was this plant to which I was referring.

I'm aware of only one person who grows nesaea. He juxtaposes it and
eusteralis as centerpieces in his show tank. Maybe Kris would like to
comment if he still subscribes to the list. I intend to try this.
I been told that a very fertile substrate is beneficial to nesaea,
but I grow both species in medium or fine gravel. The water contains
very little calcium and KH<3. They get PMDD, CO2, no substrate
fertilizer, but some water circulation. The more light they get,
the better they look.

By the way, the aphids like them too.


- --
Dave Whittaker

stellata

by Olga Betts <sae/arts.ubc.ca>
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998

>Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 09:16:53 -0800 (PST)
>From: Erik Olson <(e-mail)>
>Subject: E. stellata, Nesea, LFS and Clubs, Loricarids
>
>Hi guys, no sooner have I gotten off e-mail from Olga telling me the
>Vancouverites are raising Eusteralis stellata (B2,D,G), than I get a phone
>call saying there's some in my favorite LFS (well, one of my *two*
>favorite LFS, Andrew).  They also had Nesaea sp. "Red leaved" (B2).
>Both of these seem to be really high light.  Any experiences or tips
>on these very unusual plants?

Hi Erik,

Interesting that Seattle now has it too. I bought a couple of pots of it
for $9.50 each. I kept one and sold the other one to members of the group.
It was loosing a few leaves and looking kind of frightened so I decided to
just push the pot into the substrate and see how it did. It did well. After
2 weeks I took the pot up and it had big roots already. Then I had to get
the roots out of all that wool stuff. I separated all the stems, about 6
and replanted them. All of them have branched from the top and have about
4-5 branches each. I've given away one branching stem already because I had
too much for the corner it is in.

I think it will do well for you. It supposedly likes soft water, high light
and lots of nutrients including CO2. I'm sure you have all those. It's a
very pretty plant. Enjoy.

BTW my azurea is doing well too. Soon I can trade you for some of that
Nesaea sp. "Red leaved". :)

Olga
in Vancouver

Aquatic Plants Digest V3 #317

by "Bruce Hansen" <bhansen/ozemail.com.au>
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998

Concerning the "other species " of Eusteralis

I have tried to find the current accepted name for this genus and am still
confused.
In aquarium circles Eusteralis is in general use but when searching the
"more botanical" information available (which is in short supply) it
appears that Dysophila or perhaps more recently Pogostemon are more
accepted as the correct generic allocations.

According to Cook (Aquatic Plant Book, 1990) there are 25 species from warm
regions of Asia and Australia. Local native aquatic plant enthusiasts over
here in Australia are cultivating 3 distinct forms of Pogostemon at present
(fine, standard, and wide-leaved) and all require good light and CO2
supplementation to do well. 

Regards,
Bruce.

Bruce Hansen, ANGFA, caring for our aquatic ecosystems.

Eusteralis

by Roxanne Bittman <RBITTMAN/hq.dfg.ca.gov>
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998

This has more or less been answered, but someone
asked what was the story on Eusteralis yatabeana in
T. Amano's books.

There are certainly many species of Eusteralis; I don't
have the correct references at work to give an exact
number.

Eusteralis stellata is the only species I have seen for
sale on lists in the U.S.  I actually finally scored some
recently and it is a very nice plant!

Eusteralis yatabeana and that other one Amano
commonly uses in his aquaria are certainly different
species from E. stellata - you can tell from the way
they grow.  The plant lists in Amano's books actually
more or less list the plants in the order they appear in
the photo - at least I've convinced myself of that. 
Anyway, I think you can basically learn some plants
this way if you stare at the pictures long enough.

Eusteralis, as is the case with many genera, has
been called by other names, including Dysophila
(sp?).  It is referred as such in "The Natural Aquarium"
by Kobayashi and ?.

Eusteralis stellata

by "Dixon, Steven T. (BEn)" <stdixon/ben.bechtel.com>
Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2000

Speaking of getting back to plants, remember last year when we picked a
species or two and surveyed the group asking about growing conditions?  I
think we worked on Lilliaeopsis first, if memory serves.  I thought it was
great fun and yielded very interesting and useful information.  When you
think about it, you couldn't get this kind of base-case information any
other way (or it would be very difficult/expensive to obtain).  The Internet
is great Saba.

How about Eusteralis stellata, one of my favorite plants?  What conditions
are you growing it in?  What seems to make the plant thrive?  And
particularly for this plant, what conditions lead to the striking red color
seen occasionally in photographs?

Let me start off.  I grow ES in soft water (GH 2-3; KH 3-5), in a brightly
lit (~3 watts per gallon fluorescent/cf lighting), CO2 supplemented (20 ppm
target) tank.  Fertilizer is TMG (Tropica Master Grow; 25-30 ml per week in
a 125 gallon tank) with a dash of Seachem Flourish iron (squirt here; squirt
there :-)); and about ¼-½ tsp. of KNO3 per week.  The substrate is quartz
gravel with laterite.  The substrate is mature (over one year old).
Significant water changes weekly or bi-weekly.  Moderate fish load with
fairly heavy feeding (flake and frozen live foods) once a day.

The plant has not always thrived for me under these conditions.  Growth of a
stem can seem to stunt for no particular reason and get kind of bushy at the
top with short leaves and then 3 or 4 new stems emerge from the top.  These
new stems sometimes grow well and sometimes seem to lead to the plant
becoming not hardy in general.  A patch can begin to die off in this manner
of spindly tops shooting out weak stems.

My recent experience has been much better.  Strong growth from replanted
tops begins almost immediately following topping and replanting, and strong
new stems emerge from the top as it reaches for the light or as it lays over
at the top of the tank.  The key to this strong growth appears to be very
small phosphate supplements.  On the order of 1/10th gram of KH2PO4 per week
or at water changes in my 125 gallon tank.  As for color, my ES has always
been quite green.  Initially I even doubted reports by Karen and others that
the plant often is a deep rich red color.  However, with the addition of
PO4, my ES is twice as red as it has ever been for me, but not actually very
red when compared to Rotala macranda which grows next to the ES.  The RM is
also quite a bit redder with the PO4 additions.

Neil Frank, on the other hand, took a couple of my ES stems and placed them
in one of his soil substrate tanks, if memory serves, and those stems
immediately grew in a very striking red color according to Neil.  We have
mulled this over via email and don't really know why the plant has grown in
so red for Neil.  It would not appear to be iron per se, at least not iron
in the water column, because I have tried that with no significant effect in
my tank.  Recently Neil has reported that his ES does not always thrive
either and we have been speculating about PO4 and other things.

So tell us, how does your ES grow?  :-)

Regards, Steve Dixon in San Francisco where we are having a beautiful sunny
day!

My Eusteralis Stellata

by csferrell/mindspring.com
Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2000

I got some ES from Jon Wilson a few months ago.  I had good luck with the stuff in a 55 gallon tank with ~3 w/g.  I did notice that when I would trim the plant back the replanted tops would stop growing and new sprouts would take off.  This made for a very bushy plant.  I added KNO3 and K2SO4 at about 1/4 tsp per weekly water change.  I also added MgSO4, Flourish and Seachem KH buffer.  GH and KH are each between 4 and 6.  The pH is between 6.0 and 6.8 with pressurized CO2.  Flourite substrate.

I have a few ideas that I need to try to get the plant going well again, as it has stalled over the past weeks.  These include: Phosphate additions, TMG, softer water, etc.

I did notice that the plant was a good indicator of Fe in the water.  When you have a decent amount, the new growth is red.  When there isn't enough Fe, the new growth is green.

Chris

Eusteralis Morph!

by "Dixon, Steven T. (BEn)" <stdixon/ben.bechtel.com>
Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2000

I'm currently growing out Eusteralis stellata (ES) tops for a new tank I
will be setting up over the next month or so and saw something that really
surprised me.  First of all, as you know, ES leaves grow in whorls at stem
nodes which are half inch or longer apart based on growing conditions and
how close the plant is to the light, etc.  The whorls are a single ring of
leaves around the stem and there is always a break of some distance to the
next whorl.  In other words, one whorl is never mixed up with another whorl.

I noticed that one stem out of about 30 that I was replanting this evening
grew leaves continuously in a spiral!  If one could have unwrapped the
leaves from around the stem one would have had a single unbroken string of
leaves 7 or 8 inches long.  Sort of like a fan.  Also quite interesting was
the fact that the stem itself was twisted in a corkscrew shape for an inch
or so before it straightened out with the single spiral of leaves.

Anyone ever observed anything like that or have any thoughts on what causes
such a thing.  

I have, of course, kept this stem and will watch it closely and see what it
does.

Regards, Steve Dixon

Eusteralis s.

by ROlesen104/aol.com
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001

OK,

Several people have mentioned a dearth of and all around lack of availability 
concerning the rather fussy plant known as Eusteralis stellata. I've never 
seen it available commercially (except in Oriental's catalogue) and a lot of 
people apparently have trouble with it. Tom Barr mentioned to me that he felt 
this could be one of the few true "soft water plants".

It is a pretty thing, especially under high light and CO2 where mine develop 
yellowish orange leaves shaded with violet and pink. In lower light, non-CO2 
tanks they are rather more subdued and green.

I got mine originally from Chuck Gadd a year or so ago, when he sent me about 
8 stems which arrived in pretty bad shape.  I have a strong feeling that this 
is a plant which doesn't ship well - with a tendency to defoliate and the 
stems to turn mushy rather easily.

I planted the ones Chuck sent me in a 75 gal with 220 watts of CF, Fluorite 
substrate and DH3, GH 8, pH 6.5 - 7.0 tank water. Once they recovered a bit 
and began to put out new leaves I put Jobe's Palm and Fern spikes under them 
and once they grabbed hold of those they became a weed. Took over half the 
tank.

I am experimenting with emerged growth on this plant but it's too soon to 
tell anything at this point. I hope to propagate it faster this way 
vegitativly and to eventually flower it and get some seeds to plant. I also 
wish to know how easily it goes back to emerged conditions. 

I have also started leaving the mid stem sections (that I normally discard 
when replanting the tops) in the tank to float in an attempt to get some 
roots going. I assume if the stems have a root system developed that they 
will ship, transplant and recover much easier. Maybe they'll side shoot like 
up like Hygro but again, too soon to tell on this one.

In order to get a steady supply of Eusteralis s. going, I'm going to try 
cooking up a big tank of it outside, in the sun, injected with CO2, where 
hopefully the growth will be the fastest (along with green water and algae). 
Love them UV sterilizes!

Once I get a mess of them going, I'll pass them out...

Bob Olesen
West Palm Beach

Eusteralis stellata

by john wheeler <jcwheel76/yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2001

Hey all,

<<<<I am thinking about adding Eusteralis stellata in
to it. Does
anyone here have any experience with this plant? Any
tips on growing
this plant would be greatly appreciated.>>>>>

This one gave me trouble in alot of areas. First was
actually finding the plant for sale. Then you have to
grow it.....

When I got mine, it was emerse groth and pretty ratty.
It was 3 stems with an iron band padded with guaze
that cost $4.99. Ouch. I bought 4 just so I could pick
and choose the healthiest stems. 

After every nutrient deficiency possible, I finally
have them looking like something. It is the *ultimate*
indicator plant. Interestingly enough, when it is not
getting what it needs it will appear to die at the
tip. Upon addition of the nutrient it will send out
3-5 branches from the dead tip! So, nutrient
deficiency makes this one *very* bushy. hehe.

Purportedly, this is a soft water plant. My tap has 0
GH/KH so I use garden lime/baking soda to add enough
Ca/Mg to bring it up to 2-3 GH/KH. I don't have any
problems with my plants at that level. Lots of K, and
traces (TMG), and 2x55 watt pc's, 2 bubbles/second
eheim diffuser CO2, Flourite/peat substrate, pH 6.6,
81 degrees farenheit. Oh yeah...29 gallon tank.
Biggest challenge, for me, is keeping up with Ca/Mg.

Not sure about the accuracy of my NO3/PO4 test kits
but they read *something* in my tap water so I don't
fret about it.  My tap water has very little dissolved
salts so I have to add chemical soup at water changes
which I do weekly......big ones. 

E.stellata is very unforgiving. You'll want to put it
in the center of your tank right below the lights. And
make sure that you have something bushy in front of it
because it will not hold its lower leaves. When you
prune, and it grows fast, just use the tops. The
branches from the lower stems are pretty wimpy. If you
want to propagate it. Let it branch at the top of your
water line. You *must* keep up on your fert regimen. 

Best of luck, and lots of light,
John Wheeler

 

Green Eusteralis

by "Dixon, Steven T. (BEn)" <stdixon/ben.bechtel.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2001

Cavan wrote:  "What about stem thickness and leggyness?  I've seen pictures
of Eusteralis where it has thick stems like Ammania almost and very dense
growth.  As I said, mine isn't bad, but it could be better.  Check out the
Eusteralis in the best of show AGA contest.  Assuming low phosphates make it
red, how low would it have to be (for the sake of curiousity)? 3?"

ES can have very thick stems, actually thicker than Ammannia IME.  In my 175
gallon bowfront which is 29 inches tall the stems will be a quarter inch or
more at the bottom as the tips reach the top of the tank.  With bright light
and good nutrition I don't think ES growth will be leggy.  Taking Detlef
Hupfeld's 21 gallon AGA Best of Show tank as an example, you see the leaf
whorls are quite close together actually, and even more so towards the
growing tips.  A 20 gallon tank is not that tall and so I imagine the stems
are less than a quarter inch thick when they are cut and the tops replanted.


A fun technique that I have been playing with recently takes advantage of
the tendency of ES growing tips to stop growing occasionally and sprout new
stems from a head that forms.  Instead of cutting and replanting the new
stems when they are big enough, I have been cutting the mother stem about
two inches from the head with the new stems and replanting the whole thing.
This has allowed very dense luxurious plantings which have been attractive
to my eye.  

Re the phosphate levels, notice that Detlef doses PO4 once or twice a week
(I can't quite tell which from his entry).  The level of redness shown in
the pictures of his tank is about half of what is possible in my estimation.
You will not need to restrict PO4 levels to the point where you are risking
algae outbreaks in order to bring out the redness in ES.  Tiny pulses of
phosphate are sufficient for good plant growth.  Try reducing the PO4 level
to half of your current level and see what happens.  You will notice the
color change in a few days.  If this doesn't do the trick, reduce the PO4
level by half again.

Re the micronutrients in your 30 gallon tank, I would be comfortable
doubling or even tripling the dosing levels of Flourish and Flourish Iron
that you mentioned.  I would just raise the levels gradually until all the
new growth is vibrant and healthy.  There is virtually no algae risk in
doing this if you keep the macros in the ranges mentioned in your previous
note.

Regards, Steve Dixon
San Francisco

PS  I agree with all the good comments about the AGA conference this year.
It was a wonderful event and we just had a ton of fun watching Amano-san
joke with and tease the audience as he put together a 50 gallon aquascape.
At one point he asked an audience member to suggest the placement of the
all-important SECOND rock in a rockscape design.  After the gentleman placed
the rock, Amano leaned back and slapped his hand on his forehead indicating
that the location selected was quite obviously a disaster-which brought the
house down.  

And Charlene just did a wonderful job this year with the entire event.

stellata

by Lazarus Miskowski <lazmiskowski/yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002

>>I have been growing Es for a couple of months and
would agree that it is easy.  Your comment about being
stressed has me curious.  What were the
symptoms?  Did it change color, wilt, or what?<<

The leaves were turning both white and pink, from the
normal green.  Others on the list have said this is
due to phosphate deficiency, primarily.  For a while I
was dosing phospate, then I quit.  It's still green (I
never have measured phosphate).

 >>Finally, how do people typically prune this plant? 
What kind of height can
be achieved with acceptable growth?  How tall is your
tank <<

1. Pruning.  I just use sharp scissors.  Cut to the
point where I think I can still get new growth from
the stump.  Replant the top.

2.  I am not sure what you mean by your height
question.  Mine is growing practically out of tank
(bending along the surface, with the very top above
water).  So the total length of the stem is probably
beyond 20 inches.  It doesn't look great that way,
because you can't see the more luxuriant growth.

3.  It's in a 135gal, what's that 18-20 inches tall?

If  your stuff looks faded, I would try adding a bit
of phosphate.  Or maybe you have too much light
(doubtful).  There are others here with a lot more
experience than me with dosing/nutrients for this
plant.

Arthur
http://www.awaqua.com

Differents types of Eustralis Stellata

by "Wayne Wah " <tswah/mbox3.singnet.com.sg>
Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2002

Hello Chee Ming, 

This is Wayne from Singapore too. I agree with you there are two types of
Eustralis Stellata. 

The "authentic" one which all of us are trying to grow well grows upwards.
Its leaves grow around the stem in a horizontal plane. When seen from the
top, it looks like a spock of a wheel. 

The "fake" eustralis stellata has an aroma. It grows slightly slanting.
Even in moderate lighting, the leave nodes are close to one another and it
will still produce lots of leaves. When viewed from the top, it seems more
angular and less round than the "real" Eustralis.S.

I want to share with everyone some new aquatic plants available in trade. 
There are 3 types of Riccia. Big , medium and mini ones. 
The medium one is Crystalwort or Riccia fluitans which all of us has. 
The mini one( Riccia sp.) is a smaller version. 
The big one( Riccia sp.) is much larger and is much fleshy and darker
green.I got the name of the larger version from Aquarium World Magazine
from Taiwan. 

There is also another very interesting kind of Nymphae sp. The usual kind
of Tiger lily has green leaves with red splashes on it. This one has red
leaves and green spots on it! 
It propagates by adventitious plant growing from the centre of a mature
leaf.( Much like nymphoides sp.) 

Wayne Wah from Singapore recovering from surgery. 

Differents types of Eustralis Stellata

by Neil Frank <aquarian.subjects/mindspring.com>
Date: Fri, 01 Feb 2002

I have found that the Limnophila aromatica (or Gratiola sp.) - which is
apparently incorrectly called Eusterallis stellata - is much easier to grow
than Es. I have not yet experience the Es problems where it stops growing
and then branches. However, it exhibits some of the same Es color
variations as illustrated by Eriks nice pictures on
http://www.e-aquaria.com. I personally like it when they both get reddish
orange. If you want a green plant, there enough other choices.

PS. Wayne, see if you and your other plant buddies can help discourage the
use of "fake Eustrallis" in Singapore. Let me know if it is coming from one
of the larger nurseries. Apparently, this plant is being sold as Es in the
US. I suspect that it is much easier to ship and is trying to satisfy pent
up demand for the real Es.

PSS. I will have to smell mine. 

>On Fri, 1 Feb 2002 "Wayne Wah" <tswah@mbox3.singnet.com.sg> wrote:
>Subject: Re: Differents types of Eustralis Stellata
>
>Hello Chee Ming,
>
>This is Wayne from Singapore too. I agree with you there are two types of 
>Eustralis Stellata.
>
>The "authentic" one which all of us are trying to grow well grows upwards. 
>Its leaves grow around the stem in a horizontal plane. When seen from the 
>top, it looks like a spock of a wheel.
>
>The "fake" eustralis stellata has an aroma. It grows slightly slanting.
>Even in moderate lighting, the leave nodes are close to one another and it 
>will still produce lots of leaves. When viewed from the top, it seems more 
>angular and less round than the "real" Eustralis.S. [truncated]
>
>

RE: Eustralis Stellata

by "CK Yeo" <aiyeoyeo/hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2002

If you look at the emersed leave and the flowers, They are obviously very
different plants.

Picture of a flowering Eusteralis stellata is shown below.
http://members.tripodasia.com.sg/chansy/pgplant36.jpg

Picture of a flowering Limnophila aromatica is shown below.
http://members2.easyspace.com/chansy/JG06.jpg

I always thought the leaf length and width were good enough to distinguish
the two plants... According to Tropica, L. aromatica grows to about 5-8cm
wide while E. stellata is 10-20cm wide.
L. aromatica has slightly wider leaves (and maybe less leaves in a whorl
than E. stellata). Do we really want to go into the detailed  botanical
description of both plants? i.e. how many leaves arranged in a whorl,
internode length, flower type etc.

Wayne, so what is the name of the large and mini Riccia? I saw the mini one
the other day, but have yet to see the large form. Well, if you have excess
mini Riccia, you know who to give? hint* hint* :)

ck
Singapore

Eustralis

by "James Purchase" <jppurchase/rogers.com>
Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2002

At the risk of being chastised again by some of our correspondents who seems
to feel that such things really don't matter.... I've noticed another group
of questions concerning the care of some plants commonly identified within
the hobby as being "Eustralis".

I leave the care instructions to others, but if you are looking to properly
ID the plants, it might help to be aware of the fact that the generic name
"Eustralis" is pretty much considered obsolete and I've really only seen it
reported in aquarium hobby related material. What we think of as
"Eusteralis" are in fact now considered botanically to belong to the genus
Pogostemon (along with plants formerly called Dysophylla). Together with
around 250 other genera (around 3500 separate species) they are members of
the family Labiatae (Juss.) [the family is also sometimes known as Lamiaceae
(Lindl.)].

Does it make any difference as to how to care for them? Probably not, but if
you are wanting to know anything other than 2nd hand information about them,
it might help to use the most up to date scientific name. Then at least you
can plug the name into a search engine and hope to get some more accurate
information.

Many times, care and husbandry guidelines can be inferred from that given
for other plants which are closely related. At least, its a place to start
looking.

James Purchase
Toronto

Eustralis is really Pogostemon stellatus

by Dave Wilson <rwilson/octa4.net.au>
Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2002

Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2002 09:59:12 -0500 James Purchase wrote;

>At the risk of being chastised again by some of our correspondents who seems
>to feel that such things really don't matter.... I've noticed another group
>of questions concerning the care of some plants commonly identified within
>the hobby as being "Eustralis".

Good one James
I have looked everywhere for a reference to "Eustralis stellata" but 
cant find any.   I can find plenty of references to Dysophylla 
stellata and Pogostemon stellatus.   The most recent name being 
Pogostemon stellatus.  I have a book that divides Pogostemon 
stellatus into two subspecies, Pogostemon stellatus var. stellatus 
and Pogostemon stellatus var. roxburgianus.   The book is called 
"Freshwater Plants of PNG" by Leach and Osborne.   The references 
cited in the book is :   Keng, H. (1978).  Labiatae.  Fl. Males. ser. 
1,  8: 301-394.   there is also information about Pogostemon 
stellatus in the book "Floodplain Flora, a flora of the coastal 
floodplains of the Northern Territory, Australia" by Cowie, Short and 
Osterkamp published 2000.   they have the plant Pogostemon stellatus 
in the family LAMIACEAE and the distribution of it from India to 
southern China, Japan, Malesia and Northern Australia.

I grow Pogostemon stellatus from several different locations across 
the top of Australia and a plant I obtained from the aquarium trade 
as Eustralis stellata, and to me there are a few minor differences in 
leaf shapes, colour and size but the flowers are all the same.   If 
anybody is interested in some photos of wild Pogo (Eustralis) send me 
an email and I will send you a picture or two.

Cheers
Dave Wilson

Eustralis is really Pogostemon stellatus

by Dave Wilson <rwilson/octa4.net.au>
Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2002

More references for the plant Pogostemon stellatus.   In the book 
"Flora of the Kimberley Region"  by Wheeler, Rye, Koch and Wilson 
published 1992, they have Pogostemon stellatus in the family 
LAMIACEAE. Other names mentioned are Mentha stellata, Mentha 
verticillata, Dysophylla verticillata and Pogostemon verticillata.

The Kimberley Region is the north of Western Australia.   The book 
gives the range of Pogostemon stellatus from India through eastern 
Asia to Japan and throughout south east Asia to northern Australia. 
No mention of Eustralis.

Kasselman Cover Plant

by "James Purchase" <jppurchase/rogers.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2002

Neil Frank wrote:
"On the 1st German edition, it is Eusteralis stellata.

Neil Frank,  who is not yet ready to call it Pogostemon stellata until I
see or someone sends me the new taxonomic reference :-)"

OK - several references, while not necessarily "specific" regarding
stellata, they do cover the generic names Eusteralis and Pogostemon:

"L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The Families of Flowering
Plants: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information
Retrieval. Version: 14th December 2000. http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/"

In the section on the family Labiatae Juss.
(http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/angio/www/labiatae.htm) they give  a
listing of the approximately 210 genera which are currently "accepted" (or
at least recognized by the authors) as belonging to the family. Eusteralis
is not listed while Pogostemon is. They note that numerous authors have
disagreed as to the circumspection of the family Labiatae, especially when
comparing it with the Verbenaceae and make note of a recent re-working by
Cantino et al. 1992.

The Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew maintains a rather informal (and internal)
database which lists the genera contained within each flowering plant
family. This database was off line for a while but it appears to be
available once again. My correspondence with the folks at Kew indicate that
this is meant more for their internal use than as a definative authority,
and is undergoing revision, but they currently list Eusteralis Raf. as a
synonym of Pogostemon Desf. (with Pogostemon Desf. being the currently
accepted generic name)
(http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/cgi-bin/web.dbs/genlist.pl?LABIATAE).

Moving to the species "stellata", I found that in
The International Plant Names Index (a collaboration between RBG, Kew, The
Harvard University Herbarium and the Australian National Herbarium,
(http://www.ipni.org/) they DO give listings for Eusteralis stellata and
there isn't a citation under the genus Pogostemon for that species. But I
also note that theirs is merely a listing of what various workers have
called plants in published papers, and they make no claim that the name was
used (or publsihed) correctly.

James L. Reveal, Professor Emeritus of the Norton-Brown Herbarium, is a real
stickler for "procedure" in the naming of various plants and the use of
those names. While he is now retired, he maintains the Indices Nominum
Supragenericorum Plantarium Vascularium, which lists the names of plants
which have been validly published.
(http://www.inform.umd.edu/PBIO/fam/inspvindex.html) The latest update to
the online list is 07 January 2001 and nowhere is the genus Eusteralis
mentioned, although Pogostemon Desf. (1815) is listed as having been validly
published.

It is quite possible that the reason Eusteralis is no longer considered the
"correct" generic name is purely procedural - i.e. the people who used the
name didn't follow the correct rules regarding how a scientific name is to
be "published" and therefor all species ascribed to that genus get shunted
into the "accepted" generic slot under a name which HAS been published
properly.

Be that as it may, such considerations are WAY beyond our interest here as
aquatic gardners (as well as being way beyond my competence to comment much
upon). I'm not claiming that we should use one or the other - merely that if
someone is looking for information regarding a plant known in the hobby as
Eusteralis, they should also probably look to see if they can find any
information under the name Pogostemon, since there is confusion/contention
as to which name is correct.

James Purchase
Toronto

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