Glossostigma Elatinoides

Glossostigma elatinoides is the classic carpeting plant of Japanese-style nature aquariums — tiny paired round leaves on creeping runners that knit into one of the shortest, tightest lawns you can grow.

It earns that look by being demanding. Glosso needs high light reaching the substrate and injected CO2. Give it either one at half measure and it stops creeping sideways and starts growing upward toward the light, which is how a glosso carpet turns into a tangled mat. Trim it back hard and often to keep it flat.

Plant small clumps a couple of centimetres apart across the foreground and let the runners close the gaps. Live plant, shipped healthy.