Nair's Lagenandra

Lagenandra nairii

A small plant from a single waterfall in Kerala, where it grows on shaded river banks and spends the rainy season under water. The only lagenandra that spreads by runners, the way crypts do.

Height: 10 – 20 cm (3.9 – 7.9 in)
Temperature: 24 – 28 °C (75 – 82 °F)

Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: slow
Propagation: runners, rhizome division +2 runners, rhizome division, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

A modest rosette of leaves 10–20 cm tall on a thick horizontal stem. It is usually grown above water, and the submerged form is the less familiar one.

Keeping

Slow-growing and tolerant of shade, as befits a plant from a shaded river bank. It works both as a marsh plant and under water, and it is best treated like a crypt: a nutritious substrate and no disturbance once planted.

Placement

The front or middle of the tank, and the bank of a paludarium, which is where most keepers grow it.

Propagation

By runners — unusual in this genus — and by dividing the horizontal stem.

Water conditions match

The water suits 787 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 Featherfin Synodontis Flame Tetra Gardner's Killifish African Tetra Kenyi Cichlid Cuckoo Catfish Golden Swordtail Hypsolebias picturatus Labeo Bicolor Flying barb Geophagus Brokopondo Zebra Mbuna Red-tailed Rasbora Boraras naevus Lampeye Killifish Copadichromis azureus Spotted Raphael Catfish Festivum cichlid

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 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

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

The same plant with a different look: light, water and care are shared with the species.

Other varieties: Lagenandra nairii Topf

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Lagenandra nairii: Ramamurthy & Rajan
Family: Araceae
Range regions: India

Nair's Lagenandra

Tank conditions

Care and keeping