Homalomena Silver

Care at a glance

Overview

Treat it like a slow rhizome plant rather than a rooted rosette: attach the rhizome to rock or wood, or rest it on the substrate without burying it, since a buried rhizome rots. Low to medium light suits it, and because new leaves come slowly, strong light mostly grows algae on the old ones. CO2 is optional but speeds the changeover from fuzzy emersed leaves to clean submersed growth. Keep parameters stable; like Bucephalandra it answers sudden swings with melt. Propagate by cutting sections from the rhizome.

In the wild

An undescribed Homalomena form collected in the Kalimantan part of Borneo, Indonesia, and sold under the trade name Silver. In the wild these aroids grow on the shaded floor and banks of rainforest streams, rooted in wet ground rather than permanently underwater, which is why the plant takes to emersed culture so readily. Fully submersed growth is an adaptation it makes in the aquarium, slowly.

Good to know

Homalomena is a genus of well over a hundred aroid species across tropical Asia, in the same family, Araceae, as Bucephalandra and Anubias. Sp. 'Silver' carries no formal description; the trade recognizes it by bright green leaves with a muted silver sheen, close in shape and habit to Homalomena humilis. Emersed leaves carry a fine fuzzy texture that new submersed leaves replace with a smooth waxy surface.

Did you know

The leaves physically change surface as the plant adapts: grown above water they are noticeably fuzzy to the touch, and each new leaf grown underwater comes in smooth and waxy instead.

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