Wookii
Member
Can anyone recommend a Lotus or Lily, ideally red, that grows relatively small leaves? Many of the images I see of Tiger Lotus appear to have quite large leaves.
The treatment of this species in E Asia is problematic. In North America and Europe Nymphaea tetragona is restricted to boreal regions above 50° N latitude, where the plants have a prominently tetragonous receptacle, flowers with a reddish to purplish center, and thinner leaves abaxially with raised veins........ However, plants of tropical and warm temperate China, Japan, and Vietnam appear to differ in having an only slightly tetragonous receptacle, flowers with a yellow center, and thicker leaves abaxially with impressed veins. Such plants are sometimes known in cultivation in Europe and North America as N. tetragona var. angusta Caspary, but were originally sent in 1805 by William Kerr from Guangdong Province and described under the name of Castalia pygmaea Salisbury ( N. pygmaea (Salisbury) W. T. Aiton). Further study may indicate that much of the Chinese and Japanese material should be segregated as N. pygmaea or at some other rank.
I have the tiger lotus in my scape, not really by choice - my girlfriend bought it for me as a gift and I couldn't really say ‘no darling, it’s just too big for my 60L tank, but well done for trying’ - I planted that bulb in the back right hand corner and I love it. Its a raised area and easily accessible, which is key.Can anyone recommend a Lotus or Lily, ideally red, that grows relatively small leaves? Many of the images I see of Tiger Lotus appear to have quite large leaves.
Mine appeared to be dead, then went fairly berserk! No flower yet. But it has spawned multiple subplants via runners and is very dominant in its front-left position. I should trim it more but I literally just trim out any leaves that develop holes in.I have the tiger lotus in my scape, not really by choice - my girlfriend bought it for me as a gift and I couldn't really say ‘no darling, it’s just too big for my 60L tank, but well done for trying’ - I planted that bulb in the back right hand corner and I love it. Its a raised area and easily accessible, which is key.
All I do is prune the biggest leaf every now and then, it’s dead simple, and the other leaves just follow one by one and I get to keep this awesome red plant just chugging along. I highly recommend - will throw some pictures in here tomorrow if I remember 👍
Sounds like a weird question but are you planning to keep it in the substrate? @Wookii
Ok cool, yeah that's what I do.I've not kept one for about 20 years, so I can't remember the best way to plant them, but yeah, I had assumed planting the bulb part way into the substrate (which in may case will be sand over enriched base layer on my forthcoming rescape.
I think waterlilies/lotus are quite tough, and also receptive to their environment - give them lots of nutrients and they'll grow large. Don't, and they'll grow small. I think this is why @Courtneybst's lily grown epiphytically survives, but doesn't grow big. I think @zozo knows a lot more about them, I remember he linked to some great minature ones on ebay from a specialist, but sadly with Brexit I don't think we'd be able to get them now. Waterlilies come with bulbs and/or tubers, and the bigger that is, the bigger the plant and leaves will be. if you cut a small baby off the mother plant with not much tuber, it will take a long time to grow big because it doesn't have that store of energy to pull from. If I remember right, @zozo said that waterlilies can essentially be "dwarfed" this way. I have a small baby lotus that's grown from my main one, it has quite small leaves at the moment, but I've noticed them getting bigger, I think because it's root system has got deep enough to access the soil. I would try to get a baby plant off of someone (or a new one with a small bulb), and then grow it in gravel or sand so it can only get nutrients from the water and see how that goes. I'm planning to try this myself with my baby plant, otherwise I'd send it to you.
I have also been planning on trying helvola, but I think that colder-climate waterlilies usually need a dormancy period which is an extra hassle. I was planning on putting it in a small container hidden under the sand so it could be pulled out in the winter and shoved in a vase in the greenhouse. Personally I'm kinda intrigued by keeping these kind of plants in the aquarium, despite the added hassle you could grow a wider variety of plants, and maybe giving our tanks a yearly cycle could be a good thing, it would be very interesting to explore. It reminds me of that thread about tempurature and how some people let their tanks get quite cold in the winter.
Regular pruning keeps tiger lotus small - just ensure that no leaves ever reach the surface and it will be compact, and keep throwing up new leaves.
@Wookii looking at those links, I'm not sure if those lilies will be smaller than an tiger lotus.
No, they don't if kept in a temperate climate they only lose all leaves if temperature and light intensity go below a certain treshhold. SUch as kept outdoors in the northern hemisphere. But if kept indoors even relatively unheated they will grow as an evergreen aquarium plant. If it ever will develop floaters are light intensity-dependent. If the light intensity isn't enough it will only grow in submerged form.waterlilies usually need a dormancy period
No, they don't if kept in a temperate climate they only lose all leaves if temperature and light intensity go below a certain treshhold. SUch as kept outdoors in the northern hemisphere. But if kept indoors even relatively unheated they will grow as an evergreen aquarium plant. If it ever will develop floaters are light intensity-dependent. If the light intensity isn't enough it will only grow in submerged form.
You can indeed kinda dwarf any type of lily you can find if it has the correct rhizome, the most common one you'll find is the Marliac rhizome. This grows horizontally and can be compared with a potato forming growing eyes from which the new young plantlets sprout. You can cut off the baby nymphaea leaving a piece of the rhizome to it. Like in the picture below.
Then plant it back in the substrate and it will grow on and the size of the rhizome simply can't allow it to grow much bigger it simply doesn't have the energy for this. And depending on the conditions you give it, but you can be pretty sure in average indoor aquarium conditions it will stay rather small for quite some years to come.
True or exclusively tropical lilies all have a different rhizome named the Mexicana rhizome and this behaves and forms differently with the plant rooting vertically instead. I guess also this rhizome can be cut, but this is a guess I've no experience with this and never done it. The Tiger lotus is such a tropical lily sp. with Mexicana rhizome.
The Lily in the picture is an N. Burgundy Princess which actually is a quite big lily sp. when fully matured to big for the aquarium. I started with this cutting about 6 years ago in a 110-litre indoor low tech tank it is still in there in a manageable size sending out baby plants spreading over the substrate.
Amazing, thank you for correcting me, this is super interesting! Have you ever kept any of the marliac rhizome lilies in a heated aquarium?No, they don't if kept in a temperate climate they only lose all leaves if temperature and light intensity go below a certain treshhold. SUch as kept outdoors in the northern hemisphere. But if kept indoors even relatively unheated they will grow as an evergreen aquarium plant. If it ever will develop floaters are light intensity-dependent. If the light intensity isn't enough it will only grow in submerged form.
You can indeed kinda dwarf any type of lily you can find if it has the correct rhizome, the most common one you'll find is the Marliac rhizome. This grows horizontally and can be compared with a potato forming growing eyes from which the new young plantlets sprout. You can cut off the baby nymphaea leaving a piece of the rhizome to it. Like in the picture below.
Then plant it back in the substrate and it will grow on and the size of the rhizome simply can't allow it to grow much bigger it simply doesn't have the energy for this. And depending on the conditions you give it, but you can be pretty sure in average indoor aquarium conditions it will stay rather small for quite some years to come.
True or exclusively tropical lilies all have a different rhizome named the Mexicana rhizome and this behaves and forms differently with the plant rooting vertically instead. I guess also this rhizome can be cut, but this is a guess I've no experience with this and never done it. The Tiger lotus is such a tropical lily sp. with Mexicana rhizome.
The Lily in the picture is an N. Burgundy Princess which actually is a quite big lily sp. when fully matured to big for the aquarium. I started with this cutting about 6 years ago in a 110-litre indoor low tech tank it is still in there in a manageable size sending out baby plants spreading over the substrate.
Thanks for the info Marcel. (picture isn't working for me though?)
So is it likely that most of the pygmy pond lilies that I link to in post #6 will be of the Marliac rhizome type, and suitable for cutting down to limit leaf size?
Have you ever kept any of the marliac rhizome lilies in a heated aquarium?