Anubias Butterfly

Care at a glance

Overview

Grow it like any other Anubias: fix the rhizome to wood or stone, leave it exposed, and give it low light with no CO2 required. It is hardy and forgiving, a good beginner epiphyte, and the wavy leaves add texture that plain-leaved Anubias lack. Growth is slow, so keep light gentle to keep algae off the foliage, and propagate by cutting the rhizome into pieces that each keep a few leaves.

In the wild

Anubias 'Butterfly' is a cultivated selection descended from the West African Anubias barteri complex, plants that grow along shaded streams and rivers rooted to rock and wood. There is no distinct wild Butterfly population; it is a nursery form kept in the trade for its wavy, twisted leaf blades that flare out like butterfly wings. Its parentage lives in the same shaded, flowing-water aroid habitat as the rest of the genus.

Good to know

This is a cultivar in the family Araceae, usually sold as a form of Anubias barteri though its exact hybrid origin is not formally described, so the plain 'Butterfly' cultivar name is the accurate label. The distinctive rippled leaf edge is a fixed morphological trait maintained through vegetative propagation. Like all Anubias it grows from a creeping rhizome and flowers with an aroid spadix and spathe.

Did you know

The 'butterfly' look is not a trick of the light but a stable genetic quirk in the leaf margin, so every leaf the plant grows comes out with the same rippled, winged edge.

Related plants

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  Anubias coffeefolia

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