Encyclopedia - Plants for ponds
Long-leaved Barclaya
Barclaya longifolia
Long-leaved Barclaya is a perennial aquatic plant with short roots and a large number of leaves. The plant's leaves are always submerged in water.
The leaf shape of Long-leaved Barclaya is oblong-lanceolate, gradually tapering towards the tip, with petioles up to 820 cm and rather wavy margins.
Leaf length ranges from 12 to 30 centimeters, and width from 2.5 to 5 cm.
The leaves are delicate, with a distinctive coloration - olive-green above and brownish-red beneath.
Among the plants there are forms with an extremely decorative reddish-brown leaf coloration.
The leaf of Long-leaved Barclaya has 12-14 pairs of lateral veins, which makes it easy to distinguish this plant from members of the family Cryptocoryne.
The flowers give Long-leaved Barclaya a special decorative appeal, having fanciful, ornate shapes.
The flower of the plant consists of five petals up to 5 centimeters long, lanceolate or ovate in shape, fused at the base.
Petal coloration varies - from greenish-olive on the outside to bright red on the inside. All inner parts of the flower are bright red.
In the upper part of the corolla tube of the flower there are about a dozen sessile yellow anthers, arranged on short staminal filaments. The anthers are arranged around the flower in five to seven rows. The two upper rows of anthers in Long-leaved Barclaya are sterile.
The plant's pistil has a flattened-conical shape, open in the center. After pollination the fruit begins to develop, which, when ripe, opens, separates from the stem and floats to the water surface.
In some cases the flowers of Long-leaved Barclaya remain submerged and do not open, but fruiting continues, since in all Barclaya species the flowers are capable of self-pollination in the closed state (cleistogamy).
The fruit of Long-leaved Barclaya has a pink spongy flesh in which are seeds covered with soft bristles, about the size of a mustard seed.
Propagation and cultivation of Barclaya longifolia. Long-leaved Barclaya in culture can be propagated both by seed and vegetatively (by root offsets). For seed propagation, it is necessary to take a ripe fruit of Long-leaved Barclaya and place it in a container into which the seeds will be released after the fruit fully ripens.
Sowing of the seeds is done in a container with a low water level. Fine gravel and sand are used as the substrate.
Seeds of Long-leaved Barclaya germinate after a certain period of time.
When cultivating Long-leaved Barclaya one should consider that the plant is extremely demanding of lighting and water temperature. Barclaya dies if the holding temperature falls below 25 C.
Under natural lighting, without the use of artificial light culture, it is rarely possible to obtain attractive specimens. Even when an aquarium receives direct sunlight for several hours, this is often insufficient for the successful growth of the plant.