Bucephalandra Red Blade

• 

  Wavy Green
• Red

• 

  Kedagang
• Kedagang Round
• Kedagang Long
• Brownie Blue

• 

  Brownie Ghost
• Deep Purple
• Dark Velvet

• 

  Velvet
• Apple Leaf
• Mini Coin

• 

  Godzilla
• Sintang

• 

  Theia
• Grappa Red
• Red BladeThis page

Care at a glance

Overview

One of the slightly larger Buce forms, suited to the midground of a nano tank or foreground detail in a bigger one. Attach the rhizome to rock or driftwood with glue or thread and never bury it, a covered rhizome rots. Low to medium light is enough, and because the leaves are slow to renew, restrained light keeps algae from colonising them; CO2 and liquid fertiliser are optional but speed up growth and bring the red tint in sooner. Expect some melt if parameters swing after import, and be patient while emersed-grown leaves are replaced. Propagate by dividing the rhizome.

In the wild

Red Blade is a trade selection of Bucephalandra rather than a described species, and no collection site is published for it. The genus it comes from grows only on Borneo, as rheophytes gripping rock and wood in fast, clean forest streams, emersed along the margins in the dry season and submersed when the rivers rise. Like the rest of the trade, this form is now propagated on farms and in tissue culture.

Good to know

A commercial cultivar name within Bucephalandra, family Araceae, tribe Schismatoglottideae, the bulk of whose trade forms are referred to the variable Bucephalandra motleyana complex. The name describes the leaf: narrow and blade-like with slightly ruffled margins, a sharp tip and a pale, prominent midrib. Grown emersed it is plain green; the red to maroon tones develop only after the plant has fully converted to submersed growth, and it runs a little larger than the coin-leaved Buce varieties.

Did you know

Shop stock is usually grown emersed, so Red Blade often arrives plain green. The namesake red develops over weeks as new submersed leaves replace the old ones, a slow reveal rather than an instant effect.

Related plants

• 

  Bucephalandra motleyana

  Freshwater

  Low lightEpiphyte3.9 in (10 cm)
• Bucephalandra sordidula

  Freshwater

  Low lightEpiphyte3.9 in (10 cm)

• 

  Bucephalandra catherinae

  Freshwater

  Low lightEpiphyte2.4 in (6 cm)

• 

  Anubias nana

  Anubias barteri var. nana

  Freshwater·Brackish

  Low lightEpiphyte4.7 in (12 cm)
• Anubias Dragon Claw

  Anubias barteri var. glabra 'Dragon Claw'

  Freshwater

  Low lightEpiphyte4.7 in (12 cm)
• Anubias nana Long Wavy

  Anubias barteri var. nana 'Long Wavy'

  Freshwater

  Low lightEpiphyte4.7 in (12 cm)