Orchid Lily

Barclaya longifolia

A bulb plant with long wine-red leaves that shimmer as the light moves. One of the most striking centrepieces in the hobby, and one that dislikes being disturbed.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: medium
Temperature: 18 – 30 °C (64 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red +1 green, red, bronze or brown
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: medium
Tolerates light: medium – high
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 20 °dKH
Placement: background, midground
Propagation: seeds, division +1 seeds, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: no

Appearance

Narrow wavy leaves on long stalks rise from a bulb in a loose rosette; colour runs from bronze-olive to deep maroon, deeper the brighter the light. In a big tank a single plant becomes a focal point on its own.

Keeping

Moderate demands and one firm rule: do not move it. It wants a nutritious substrate, moderate to strong light and clean water; carbon dioxide deepens the colour. After a while it may go dormant — the leaves die back and the bulb rests for a few weeks before starting again.

Placement

The middle or back of a large tank, alone. Its leaves are wide and shade the plants beneath.

Propagation

It flowers under water and sets seed by itself; the seedlings appear around the parent. Daughter bulbs form on an established plant and can be separated once they have their own leaves.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1016 of 1249 species in the catalogue — these are the ones people look up most often.

Swordtail Guppies Cobra Guppy Blood Red Molly Butterflyfish Red Zebra Cichlid Julii Corydoras Red-finned Parotocinclus Gastromyzon monticola Egg-shaped Goldfish Flame Tetra Gardner's Killifish African Tetra Kenyi Cichlid Cuckoo Catfish Golden Swordtail Hypsolebias picturatus Common Zacco Labeo Bicolor Gambusia Flying barb Gastromyzon scitulus Albino Zebra Danio Geophagus Brokopondo Zebra Mbuna

Will eat this plant

These species damage plants, especially when their diet is short of vegetable food.

Bengal Loach Zebra Loach Burmese Border Loach Emperor Botia Marbled Headstander Pellegrin's Leporinus Leporinus striatus False Black Tetra Common Metynnis Mylossoma duriventre Red Whiptail Catfish Molly sphenops Balloon Molly Lyretail Molly Marble Molly Hi-Fin Platy Hawaii Platy Blue Platy Pintail Platy Black Platy Chocolate Molly Moonlight Gourami Melanotaenia parva

Will uproot it

These species dig through the substrate and pull rooted plants out.

Marble Loach Peacock Eel Forktail Loach Guntea Loach Long-nosed Loach Horseface Loach Pearlscale Black Moor Goldfish Shubunkin Painted Pleco Featherfin Synodontis Reddish Mystus Catfish Blue Acara Aulonocara maylandi Aulonocara multicolor Aulonocara Orchid Geophagus altifrons Geophagus winemilleri Pearlscale Cichlid Pearl Cichlid Redbelly Cichlid Red-spotted Cichlid Chuco godmanni Haplochromis philander Red Chromide Jack Dempsey cichlid

Matching water does not mean the fish will leave the plant alone.

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Barclaya oblonga, Barclaya pierreana, Hydrostemma longifolium
Barclaya longifolia: Wall.
Family: Nymphaeaceae
Conservation status: LC