Small/dwarf water lily from South America

[Tim Harrison]

n relatively inert substrate lilies stay rather small anyway.. They love very rich muddy loamy soils to grow bigger. I believe you are good to go with any small to medium sized lily in an aquarium (of any size even nano) if you do it the corect way.

That's good to know...may give it a go at some point.

 

[limz_777]

i grew water lily before ,those in ready pots , i remember i bought two , one is a day bloom and other is night bloom , not a expert thou ,only recently i look into seeds , then i found out there are two types one which is the tuber and other is the one you had which is from seed grown , with roots then pads ? and the tuber ones do they have a dormant stage ? i remember mine died off then stop growing leaves

 

[zozo]

Nymphaea family vary in 4 different rootstock types.. Those Tuberosa rhizomes (grows like a carot), Odorata rhizomes (bulb, gingseng root), Marliac-type and the Mexicana type rhizome.. The first is one of the most vigoreus growing type the marliac the slowest and the Mexicana seems to be typical for the tropical sp. The most winter hardy lilies we get in the garden centres are commonly the Odorata (bulb), the tuberosa and Marliac i've not yet seen. It is also not realy commonly described wath kind of rhizome cultivated sp. have. For this we need to dig into cultivation data. The mexican is probably the kind that looks like fat soft roots more like you see on Nymphoides sp. but not realy sure about that. The N. Glandulifera roots look like it. Most tropicals are night flowers the Glandulifera is too..

@Tim Harrison i can't find a good picture and all my lilies are potted right now but i can try to make a smal drawing from how to do it with an odorata rhizom. So when you have a mature medium or small size pond lily tuber (cultivar from the garden centre) in your hand it has a crown where all the leaves come out, the tuber and fat white long roots hanging down.can be as big as a small potato.. But if you inspect it closely you might see little pimpels (round nodule) grow out of the tuber with a tiny leaf sprouting out.

Plant it in the tank in a bed of fine gravel with some weight to it because it likes to float. On top of a clay tab. Coarse gravel might be to rough on the small fragile baby leaves. But it will survive and takes a week or 2 but you'll see it grow.. This way you will have a tiny dwarf lily for a few years to enjoy. Lilies take all the energy from the tuberosa.. Hence if the tuberosa is tiny it can't grow fat stems and large leaves. Rather not put it in one of your dirt tanks.. But don't expect flowers very soon, but tiny floaters may appear within a few months.

@Nelson keep an eye on this one too.. Few years back found in South america near a place called Santarem..

But not so long ago identified by botanicus as Nymphaea gardneriana.. Seems to be pretty common in south america.
It is waiting in anticipation before it is finaly available in the trade.. But probably will one day after all it is discovered already..

 

[Tim Harrison]

Thanks for the info Marcel, I often wondered how best to grow them in a tank without them taking over I always used A. natans as a substitute.

 

[zozo]

Thanks for the info Marcel, I often wondered how best to grow them in a tank without them taking over I always used A. natans as a substitute.

Welcome Tim now you know.. The down side is you have to buy a bigger one, clean the tuber and search those small nodules.. If it has none you need to wait till it grows one.. But most i had in my hands had them.. And if so you still are left with a bigger lily.. Maybe time for a pond in the garden..

But as i said the picture above is a year old tuber now, not bigger than a finger nail the day i planted it in the tank. I do not worry about it the next few years..

A. Natans is also a beautifull plant and lovely flower, would be my choice as well. Hard to find plant sometimes, i ordered it 2 times from Indonesia, both times it didn't survive the trip..

 

[Nelson]

There's also Nymphaea jamesoniana.

Just a bit skint at the moment .
http://www.aquaritet.com/category/plant?letter=N

 

[flchamp89]

Zozo made a great point. I only have 30 par my n.stellata only gets about 8 in at most. I have it in a small sand beach area. Low low light makes them reach to surface. I have to give it a root tab to help it along. Loves FE actually one of my favorite plants.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[zozo]

Low low light makes them reach to surface.

I indeed experienced the same after i had to fix my lights and the tank was without it for 3 days and got only

a bit daylight.. And when i switched it on again i saw the smalll lily developed a floater leaf in this dark periode.. Now the lights are on again continuesly since a few months and no new floater yet grew and only making new submersed leaves. Thos this seems to vary in sp. how sensitive they react to light, the lily i have in the stronger lit high tech tank grew floaters like a champion for a year. About 2 new floaters a week and suddenly stopped doing that.. Have no idea why.. I'll maybe find out when i strip this tank and dig it up..

Odorata rhizomes (bulb, gingseng root)

Here i mixed something up, i meant Ginger root...

 

[waterlily_fan]

@zozo Do you still cultivate your Nymphaea glandulifera? It would be very interesting to see an update on this plant.​

 

[waterlily_fan]

But not so long ago identified by botanicus as Nymphaea gardneriana.. Seems to be pretty common in south america.
It is waiting in anticipation before it is finaly available in the trade..

Nymphaea gardneriana is luckily becoming increasingly available. And its very handy to share around, since it produces runners, which can easily be separated and grown as a new plant.

 

[zozo]

@zozo Do you still cultivate your Nymphaea glandulifera? It would be very interesting to see an update on this plant.​

No, I never managed to get it to grow. As far as I know, it's genuinely tropical and requires temperatures of at least 28°C anything below this and it will suffer and slowly melt away. I tried and failed 3 times with different specimens. The first one I got was a mature plant from a Discus fishkeeper, hence he was very successful because 28°C is a regular temperature for Discus tanks. Then I found a shop selling it and ordered a young plant 2 times and every time it failed again.

After this experience, I read somewhere the ideal temperature is 28°C or higher... And that's not what I'm after so I stopped trying. It wasn't really that cheap to keep experimenting...

It might do better at lower temperatures when CO² is added, but I do not know...

 

[waterlily_fan]

No, I never managed to get it to grow.

Mmh, that's unfortunate. Well maybe it would work with a smaller aquarium, which is easier to heat, and a good aquarium heater over the winter months.
I'd certainly give it a try if I get this plant.

 

[waterlily_fan]

Then I found a shop selling it

Do you remember which one it was?

 

[zozo]

Do you remember which one it was?

This shop had it for a short while, maybe again in the future...

Bijzondere planten/ Rare aquatic plants - Welkom bij aquarium-planten.com - bijzondere-planten--rare-aquatic-plants

Bijzondere planten/ Rare aquatic plants - Bijzondere planten/ Rare aquatic plants - Welkom bij aquarium-planten.com

www.aquarium-planten.com

Also, this shop in your home country is worthwhile to keep track of, they regularly have rare aquatic plants in their collection. Unfortunately, most rare plants are only available now and then in limited numbers for a limited time, obviously or else they wouldn't be rare...

Kleinblättrige Zwerg-Seerose / Nymphaea minuta eine RARITÄT! WFW wasse

Kleinblättrige Zwerg-Seerose / Nymphaea minuta eine RARITÄT! WFW wasserflora üT757_OK günstig bei wasserflora - Es handelt sich um einen handelsüblichen Topf mit einem Durchmesser von 5 cm:Kleinblättrige Zwerg-Seerose / Nymphaea minuta*** RARITÄT - begrenzte Menge nur kurze Zeit verfügbar ***Die...

www.wasserflora.de

With Wasserflora you can subscribe for e-mail alerts if I remember correctly.

And keep scavenging Ebay.de (kleinanzeigen) for private collectors offering homegrown aquatic plants...

Getting your hands on rare aquatic plants is an active hunting hobby. And jump on it when you get a chance.
And as said it's a typical plant that likes to survive in Discus tanks because this needs the preferred high temperature, scavenge the discus clubs and forums and ask. That's where I found my first one...

And here at this expo, you might have a good chance of finding it...

- Vivarium

Viel Glück... 👊

 

[waterlily_fan]

@zozo Great, thank you for your reply!

 

[waterlily_fan]

And keep scavenging Ebay.de (kleinanzeigen)

Yes, it's quite a "goldmine". For instance, I have found a cool green Barclaya longifolia there.