Ross Vandegrift wrote in message m...
In article , Doug wrote:
!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"

(Not to flame or anything, but USENET postings in HTML format are
generally frowned upon. Try to configure your software to send articles
as plain text.)

I have looked a bit on this plant as well.  I think you will be a
bit "surprised" how it does (or doesn't) in the aquarium.   a href="http://www.aquazoo.co.uk/Page.cfm/Type=Plants/PlantID=89"Lobelia
cardinalis/a as is available in most stores is grown either hydroponically
or emersed.  Generally this is done because it looks good when it
is all purple and scarlet.  In the aquarium, it generally turns light
green even under  intense lighting, which it does require.

Yea, the tank in question produces beautiful scarlet red sunset hygro,
and even gets bacopa to turn a touch red. But it's been about a week or
so now, and the purple leaves have already mostly dropped off. It
doesn't appear to be dying just yet, but if it's growable emersed, it
could take a few weeks.

All in all, kind of a bummer that it probably won't work out - it looked
great at the LFS. I'll post later on the topic, once we see how things
are actually going to work out. I won't mind a bit if it grows green
::-)

Lobelia is only red or purple when it grows above the water.
Underwater the red emmersed leaves fall off or turn green, and all new
growth leaves will be green. It is still a neat plant. It is a fore
ground plant if you keep it trimmed low to the ground, otherwise it
will get fairly tall. There is also a true dwarf variety that is
imported into the USA. Florida Aquatic does not grow it.

Lobelia need 2 to 3 watts of light per gallon of water, and should not
be shaded by other plants. It will rot in the substrate pretty easy if
the substrate becomes too dirty and oxygen is too low. This plant has
been used in dutch aquariums for 50 years or more.

There is a lot of detailed discussion of this plant in my forums. It
is also a terrestrial plant. I have it in my garden where it is 3 feet
tall, leaves all beet red and its flowers are bright fire engine red.
Its an amazing plant.

Robert Hudson
www.aquabotanic.com
Red cherry shrimp!