Anubias Microsorum Pteropus 'Windeløv'

The very easy to care for Microsorum Pteropus 'Windeløv', or Windelov's Java fern, comes from Southeast Asia. The epiphyte is 10 to 20 cm high and is perfect for tying onto roots or stones in the middle ground and tolerates soft to hard water.

The Java fern Microsorum Pteropus 'Windeløv' is a cultivated form of the Java fern from the jungle streams of Southeast Asia. It is characterised by pretty fringed leaf tips and otherwise looks like normal Java fern - also medium green and with relatively upright leaves that sit on a rootstock.

Windelov's Java fern is robust and easy to care for. It gets along really well even in low-tech aquariums with little light and does not need any CO2 fertilisation.

Microsorum Pteropus 'Windeløv' is a typical epiphyte plant in which the rhizome creeps onto the ground. Please never plant the rhizome because it can start to rot in the ground, and then the plant will die. So it's best to glue or tie Java fern to a piece of aquarium root or an aquarium stone. If you do want to plant it, you must make sure that the rootstock is not in the gravel or soil, but is on top of the substrate.

The easy-to-keep Microsorum Pteropus 'Windeløv' is a great epiphyte for the roots and stones in the middle ground of the aquarium. It tolerates almost all water values in the freshwater aquarium. What the Windelov Java fern actually needs is potassium. If there is not enough potassium in the water of the aquarium, Windelov Java fern gets unsightly black spots on the leaves. This mainly affects the older foliage.

Windelov's Java fern sprouts daughter plants at the leaf tips, which you can simply remove and plant if you want to propagate the plants.

Our expert Oliver Knott recommends:
You can, of course, wrap the plant around with nylon thread to fix it, but I can recommend the quick-acting adhesive Gel ProHaru Rapid from JBL as a more uncomplicated alternative. This makes attaching Java fern easy and much faster. In addition, this does not squeeze the rhizome.