Bucephalandra species

[Crispino Ramos]

Ask your seller to identify what you're buying.

[Vasteq]

Pictures are to small - it could be everything.

[Crispino Ramos]

At least you know they're Bucephas and they all have similar requirements.

[Tom Barr]

My Experience thus far is that they grow fairly quick, much like Anubias, certainly not slower.

I've subjected them to very high light values in the 250 umol range, which is more than most can even apply to their tanks.
There was some adaption, but they quickly took off and my small plants are nice sized now.

[Vasteq]

[Vasteq]

One of my Bucephalandra tank photo:


Hi-res picture here:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8190/8...59d75cfd_k.jpg

[spyke]

PLEASE!!!! For those of you going to the AGA convention, please bring some Bucephelandra. I'm going to try and acquire as many as I can afford. I can't possibly pay "retail" for them to get a bunch of species, but I will pay close to it at the auction. So, if you got extras, bring them!

[deric79k]

This bucephalandra plants , really make people crazy of it

[krandall]

When the water is high, they are able to hang on, but they are only VERY RARELY naturally found growing in submersed conditions and that's likely because a rain recently raised the water level in the streams. That's what the Rheophyte term is for I suppose....seasonally flood tolerant and able to hang on.

Sword plants are similar if you want to apply this term to them.
However, swords have true heterophy, they have two different leaf mporphologies.
But like this species, they have large tough root systems to avoid being swept away, crypts also.
One of the main differences is the slower rates of growth for this genus vs Swords/Crypts, which are found in soft clays and lower down in the streams, sometimes permanently submersed for years........and the other main difference is these species grow on the rocks, and the roots anchor to those types of substrates.
In the video, you see many examples where they have the roots in the water, or....rain keeps the moss and rocks wet enough and the shade dark enough to avoid drying out and dessication. Rocks and moss are the only real substrates, there's ample water above and below the water line.

Hi Tom, I am certainly no expert on Bucephalandra, and have not (yet) been to see them in the wild. But I have to respond to your comment about Cryptocoryne. This is a genus where it is hard to make generalizations. Even within a single species (C. crispatula, for example) there is HUGE variation in terms of morphology and habitat.

Below are photos of C. crispatula. The first are taken up along the Mekong. While the substrate LOOKS muddy, it is actually silt settled in over heavy river gravel. It was VERY difficult to dig any plants out, as they are DEFINITELY anchored "between rocks". In this locality, and this population, the plants put out much larger leaves at low water, which is when they flower. At high water, the leaves are insignificant, as you can see in the photo with the tiny leaves. The plants, at high water, are under meters of brown, silty water, with no chance of photosynthesis. add to this the silt flowing over them that would just sand-paper away larger leaves.

OK, I can't attach all the photos to this post, so I'll add another...

[krandall]

OK, I can't attach all the photos to this post, so I'll add another...

The second set of photos is also C. crispatula, in this case from peninsular Thailand, just north of the island of Phuket. Thee photos were taken on a very short river that runs from the peninsula's mountainous mid-ridge, toward the Adaman Sea on the west. This is a permanent river, but ranges from quite low water to a high, muddy torrent in the rainy season. Still, it never reaches close to the depth or breadth of the Mekong. In this locality, and this population, the plants have their (much) more significant leaves at high water, and have only tiny, insignificant leaves during the emersed period. Some are in sections of the river that never dry out, others, obviously, do. Again, the substrate is silt over gravel/rocks.