Bucephalandra motleyana is a gorgeous species of aquatic plant from the rivers and streams of Borneo. Bucephalandra are rheophytes that are especially well adapted to live in flowing water. Bucephalandra is one of the rarest plants in the aquarium plant hobby and still very few people have ever even heard of this plant. When people first look at a Bucephalandra plant they immediately compare it either to Cryptocoryne, Anubias or both: The slender olive green leaves make it look like a crypt but the creeping rhizome and holdfast roots are more like Anubias. There are only three described species of Bucephalandra, B. gigantea, B. motleyana and B. catherineae, but there over a dozen distinguishable varieties, some of which may represent new and undescribed species. One of my favorite strains is B. motleyana “kedagang”. Granted Kedagang is the only variety of Bucephalandra we have ever seen or grown but after poring over images of all the Bucephalandra varieties we could find we are convinced that Bucephalandra “kedagang” is one of the most desirable. Bucephalandra “kedagang” has tapering leaves with a ruffled side edge, “sparkles” on the surface and a rhizome that is usually red to pinkish. It has taken quite a while to grow our first three leaflets into a sizable plant but now that the leaves have become more mature, the plant has begun to sprout leaves at an appreciable rate and the larger leaves are really start to show off some nice sparkling on the surface. Hit the read link for several more pictures of this awesome new aquatic plant.

The images below of Bucephalandra motleyana “kedagang” are from the website aquatomsr.exblog.jp which is written by a fellow Bucephalandra enthusiast.