Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The smallest Aroid....well almost

This very small plant of the Schismatoglottideae tribe has leaves only about 4cm long. They were found on a sandy flood zone of a small stream in Sarawak and would no doubt be submerged at least some time of the year. Bucephalandra motleyana was first discovered and named by Schott in 1858. It is endemic to Borneo and was for some time, thought to be the smallest Aroid, until the duckweed Wolffia was transferred over from family Lemnaceae.

There are only 2 species in this genus of rheophytes and both are found in Borneo only. The other species Bucephalandra gigantea is a rare plant from East Kalimantan, described only recently in 1984.

Reference:
Schott, H.W. (1858) Genera Aroidearum. (Ueberreuter: Vienna).

4 comments:

Ewa said...

very sweet small plant! thank for sharing!

Hermes said...

Wonderful, i want one.

Hort Log said...

Yes very nice and small....should make a good aquarium plant. Unfortunately, I do not think its commercially available. You have to trek in the Borneo woods to get this .... : )

linux said...

Very beautiful ! I want one :)

Related Posts with Thumbnails