mats808

Hey guys I realize that this may be a shot in the dark but is anyone keeping any Bucephalandra species?

miremonster

I'm keeping Bucephalandra motleyana, a reddish brown form, obtained from Piet van Wijngaarden, collected by W.A. Tomey in Kalimantan Barat (article: W.A. Tomey, Wasserpflanzen in Kalimantan Barat. Das Aquarium Nr. 407, May 2003, p.35-38 ). Somewhere I've got a few ugly photos of my plants... Bertram Wallach (Munich) has also B. motleyana and has written an article about this species and Schismatoglottis roseospatha in another German aquarium journal. The plants in his pics look definitely better than mine. This small aroid grows very slowly but frequently develops inflorescences in submersed cultivation.

Cavan Allen

I found an odd note about cultivation with a specimen that said it doesn't grow so well emersed with soggy roots. That sounds odd for a rheophyte!

Let's see those pics!

miremonster

OK, but like I said, the pics are not the best... and please don't notice the algae
They are about 2-5 cm high and are attached on stones by their roots. The branching stems/rhizoms are rather ascending than creeping.




The spathe is detaching itself soon, leaving the basal part that surrounds the spadix then like a cup or funnel.

I consider that possible because they apparently don't grow in stagnant wetness in their natural habitats. The roots are possibly not adapted to lack of O2. For emersed cultivation I've planted some offshoots in a pot with coarse substrate mix (soil and lava chippings) - moist, but well drained. It seems they do well.

mats808

Miremonster,

You seem to have the answer to all my questions.

I've only seen pics of unamed Bucephalandra species in situ and a couple of pics of unamed species in culture. The cultured ones were on Japanese websites.

How are you growing them? Do they like soft, tannined water, with low to moderate light. I've seen pics of them growing totally submerged, emersed, and in the crevices of rocks along the sides of streams totally out of the water. I was thinking that the ones totally out of water are at some point submerged when the water line is higher. They seem to enjoy water movement in the pics I've seen of submerged plants.

thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience.

Aaron

Tex Gal

Beautiful plants.

miremonster

I'll answer soon, at the moment I'm looking for the articles from Tomey and Wallach.

Zapins

What exactly are these plants? Are they some kind of crypt? They look a little like lobela?

I've never heard of them before...

miremonster

Bucephalandra belongs together with Schismatoglottis, Aridarum, Piptospatha, Phymatarum to a group of Araceae mainly from tropical Asia: Schismatoglottideae. Terrestrial plants from the understory of forests as well as rheophytes. They are the next relatives of Lagenandra and Cryptocoryne.
See these papers:
http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/__data/...Tel9Hay001.pdf
http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/__data/...Tel9Bog179.pdf
Aaron has sent me a link to a site with awesome habitat pics: http://www5b.biglobe.ne.jp/~borneo/bun/41.html

mats808

Thanks Heiko. The value of the information you share is greatly appreciated.

Zapins, wait to you check out the link. The in situ pics are so K!@k A$$. When I saw those pics I knew I had to get some. It's been almost a year now since I began searching for them. Aside from "Team Borneo" I've only found them on Japanese websites. Heiko is the first person I've actually had dialogue with that has any Bucephalandras. Another friend of mine knows people in Japan with some but they are not selling any. I'm still trying to find a way to get some sent to me or a dealer in the US that has some. However I don't think the latter exists. I think I need to move to Japan or Germany. LOL At times, it's frustrating trying to get rare or obscure stuff in the US.

Aaron