Red Mini fits nano tanks and tight crevices, where the small leaves keep the scale right. Its red shows best under RGB or full-spectrum LEDs, and warm white light can make it look muddy brown. For tissue-culture cups, rinse off all the gel and attach the plantlets separately. A single cup can take close to six months to fill in. Keep the rhizome above the substrate, and give low to medium light with optional CO2. Brighter light than that tends to grow algae on leaves this slow.
In the wild
Red Mini is a farmed trade clone with no known wild locality. Wild Bucephalandra are rheophytes, rooted to rocks along Bornean streams that flood them for part of the year. US shops sell Red Mini as tissue culture from UNS, Aquatic Farmer and APF's Vitro Culture line, and as farmed pots.
Good to know
Red Mini is an Araceae trade clone with no species attached, like most Buce in the trade. Its obovate leaf blades run about 1 to 2.5 cm long, on stalks about 1 cm long. New leaves open red-brown and age to olive-brown or near black with a blue-gray metallic sheen. Tropica's Bucephalandra 'Red' carries leaves 4 to 6 cm long, and Grappa Red Mini has slimmer teardrop leaves.
Did you know
Red Mini is probably the plant Aquasabi sells as 'Mini Red'. Aquasabi tells it apart from the similar 'Lamandau Mini Red' by rounder, more ruffled leaves and a stronger blue-gray sheen.
Low lightEpiphyte3.9 in (10 cm)
Low lightEpiphyte2.4 in (6 cm)