[Robert Hudson]

Many plants can vary greatly in size and shape, and I am sure Java fern is no exception. I have gotten Java fern from Florida aquatic nurseries where the leaves measured over 20 inches from rhizome to tip, with only two leaves on the rhizome, and I have gotten plants 3" tall with several leaves on the rhizome. I presume they are the same specie.

There are many new genetic cultivars coming out now, and I guess it is possible there is a dwarf version that some nursery somewhere created. There are two well known cultivars that I am sure all of you are aware of: the Windelov and the Tropica. The Windelov has lacey fronds on the ends of the leaves, and the Tropica version is a much wider leaf than the standard. Both of these cultivars were derived from the same parent plants collected from Java according to Tropica, (Kasselmann).

The narrow leaf Java fern is from Oriental Aquarium's catalog and I believe is their exclusive, however they do not have it listed as a cultivar.

For the so-called nanas and nana 'petite', I have a regular nana in the same nanotank which produces very small new foliage, which most would mistake for 'petite.' Specimens of 'petite' (from Oriental's farm) that I have placed in my other tank (containing also regular nanas) for over 6 months remain tiny (a typical petite plant [rhizome with 6-7 leaves] would fit comfortably on a single regular nana leaf.

That is because the true petite nana is a geneticaly engineered cultivar, just as the marble leaf Anubias, stardust, varigated, narrow leaf and so forth. In the marble and varigated it is a recessive gene. I remember Tom Barr used to talk about it a few years ago when he seemed to be the first person to get a hold of "white" anubias. I am sure he could explain it a lot better. The same thing can be done to any plant to affect size and leaf shape.