Aquarium Plant Identification: Name Your Tank Plants

Identify an aquarium plant by its growth form first, then by leaf shape: whether it grows from a creeping rhizome, from a rosette at the base, along an upright stem, floats, or is a moss or algae ball decides which handful of species to compare. Stores usually sort plants by where they go in the tank, foreground, midground or background, as LiveAquaria does, which says little about what a plant is. Growth form does.

• Rhizome plants (java fern, anubias): leaves rise from a thick horizontal stem that sits on wood or rock rather than in the gravel.
• Rosette plants (Amazon sword, crypts, vallisneria): all leaves come from one crown at the substrate.
• Stem plants (ludwigia, water wisteria, cabomba, hornwort): leaves along a tall stem; cuttings root easily.
• Floating plants (salvinia, crystalwort): sit at the surface.
• Mosses, liverworts and algae (java moss, pellia, marimo): no true leaves and stems of the flowering-plant kind.

Then check leaf shape, edge, color and arrangement against the species below.

• Java fern (Leptochilus pteropus, formerly Microsorum pteropus): a fern native to Malaysia, Thailand, northeastern India and southern China whose varieties differ in leaf size, texture and shape, including the crested 'Windelov' and 'Trident'. The surest mark is small plantlets growing from leaf tips and edges. It is tied or glued to rock or driftwood, and it grows in tap water, dim or bright light, with or without gravel (Wikipedia).
• Anubias: broad, thick, dark leaves on a rhizome. The rhizome must stay above the substrate or it rots and the plant dies. It prefers subdued light, and growth is slow, usually a leaf every 3 weeks or slower (Wikipedia).

If a tough, dark plant is rotting from the base after being planted in gravel, a buried rhizome is the likely cause.

• Cryptocoryne (crypts): leaves from a central crown. Newly planted crypts often lose all their leaves, called crypt melt, from transplant shock or because nursery plants were grown above water; they may need about 30 days to regrow. Cryptocoryne wendtii is one of the hardy species; Cryptocoryne beckettii has become invasive in Florida (Wikipedia).
• Vallisneria (eelgrass, tape grass): long ribbon leaves with rounded tips and raised veins, spreading by runners that make daughter plants. Dwarf Vallisneria tortifolia has leaves about 15 to 20 cm; Vallisneria spiralis 30 to 60 cm; giant types exceed 1 m. It needs no added CO2 and even tolerates brackish water (Wikipedia).
• Amazon sword (Echinodorus amazonicus): a sword-leaved rosette plant listed among the common freshwater species (Wikipedia).

• Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum): no roots at all. Leaves grow in whorls of six to twelve, each forked into two to eight thread-like segments, and they are stiff and brittle. Stems reach 1 to 3 m. It is a declared weed in Tasmania and an unwanted organism in New Zealand (Wikipedia).
• Cabomba (Carolina fanwort), creeping ludwigia (Ludwigia repens), water wisteria (Hygrophila difformis), Brazilian milfoil (Myriophyllum aquaticum) and Alternanthera reineckii all appear on Wikipedia's list of common freshwater aquarium species.

A feathery plant with no roots that snaps when bent is most likely hornwort.

• Java moss (Taxiphyllum barbieri) and pellia (Monosolenium tenerum), a liverwort, are both on Wikipedia's list of common aquarium plants, as is crystalwort (Riccia fluitans), a floating liverwort.
• Marimo, sold as 'Japanese moss balls', is not a moss at all but a filamentous green alga (Aegagropila). On 2 March 2021 the US Geological Survey was told that invasive zebra mussels had been found in moss balls sold in pet stores; by 8 March they had been detected in 21 states, and Petco and PetSmart recalled moss balls. Owners were asked to boil, freeze or bleach them before disposal (Wikipedia).

No official count ranks the most common aquarium plant. These are among the species Wikipedia lists as commonly kept freshwater aquarium plants:

• Rhizome: java fern, dwarf anubias (Anubias barteri var. nana)
• Rosette: Amazon sword, Cryptocoryne wendtii, straight vallisneria, ruffled aponogeton, needle sagittaria, dwarf swordplant, water onion (Crinum thaianum), dwarf water-lily
• Stem: Carolina fanwort, creeping ludwigia, water wisteria, Brazilian milfoil, dwarf bacopa, hornwort, Alternanthera reineckii
• Carpet and fern allies: hairgrass (Eleocharis acicularis), dwarf waterclover (Marsilea crenata), water sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides)
• Floating: mini water velvet (Salvinia minima), crystalwort
• Moss, liverwort, alga: java moss, pellia, marimo

For beginners, the sources point to java fern (grows in dim or bright light, tap water), vallisneria (among the hardiest, no CO2) and Cryptocoryne wendtii as tolerant choices.

Many aquarium plants are grown above water at the nursery. Wikipedia notes that most listed species can grow fully emersed if the soil is moist, and that crypts often drop their leaves when moved from emersed to submerged growth. The leaves that regrow underwater can differ from the ones in the store photo, so photograph the new submerged growth, not the old leaves, when you try to identify a plant weeks after planting.

Wikipedia's list warns that many aquarium plant species are dangerous invasives and should be disposed of in a way that guarantees they will not reach local waters. Examples from the sources: Cryptocoryne beckettii is invasive in Florida, and hornwort is a declared weed in Tasmania. Put trimmings and unwanted plants in the trash, not in a drain, pond or stream.

Take the plant out of the water or photograph it against a plain background, with the whole plant visible from base to tip, including any rhizome or runners. NatureLens can suggest a species from that photo, with free scans every day. Then confirm with the growth-form check above: if the app names a stem plant and yours grows from a rosette, the answer is wrong. MyPlantIn, one of the top results for this search, advertises a database of more than 17,000 plant species, but no identifier replaces checking the rhizome, leaves and roots yourself.

Research and drafting for this page used AI assistance. Every measurement, date and claim was then checked against the sources listed below, which were opened and read on 2026-09-25. Where two sources give different numbers, both are shown.