[APD] Re:Petite nana

["Robert H" <robertph3 at comcast_net>]

Richard Sexton said
> > Nope.
I had it before Oriental existed.<<

With all due respect Richard, I doubt we are talking about the same plant. I 
have been researching the origins of this plant for some time, and I know 
for a fact the the Petite nana that Oriental aquarium of Singapore exports 
is a cultivar, and they even state this in their catalog. They have other 
Anubias cultivars such as "Stardust" which has a white powdered looking 
stripe going down the middle of the leaf, and marble or varigated nana and 
barteri, and a narrow leaf nana which is pointy shaped. These are developed 
in tissue culture, not wild collected. Their petite nana  is about the size 
of a 50 cent peice with 20 or 30 leaves not much bigger than glossostigma 
leaves. I have been told by some of my AGA customers that the leaves can 
grow out to the size of a thumbnail, but many remain no bigger than your 
pinky fingernail.

I know that the Pigmy nana coming out of West Africa is much MUCH bigger 
than that. It's leaves  looks only a little smaller than normal nana  and 
the plant is shorter than regular nana, but several times bigger than 
"Petite nana".

There are no big nurseries or tissue culture labs in West Africa. All of 
their plant exporters are very primitive in their operation and simply 
collect the plants from the jungle. One of the best known African importers 
in the USA is Rehobeth Aquatics. He sells the pigmy, not the petite. The 
exporter in Africa he buys from is one of the largest in Africa. They 
approached me directly and even used Rehobeth as a reference. I asked them 
about Petite nana and was told there was no such plant in the wild.  I have 
since been in contact with two other African exporters who told me the same 
thing.  In addition, the two American importers that I deal with have both 
told me that Petite nana is ONLY available from Asia, not Africa.  So, if it 
is available from Africa, I have yet to find the source.

Raymond said
> > Thanks everyone for your input on places that I can get this plant from.
Any other advice on this plant? <<

Petite nana grows in very thick clusters of leaves on very small rhizomes 
and shallow roots. I found the plant to grow better, and planting is 
certainly easier when attached to wood or rock than trying to keep it in the 
substrate. If it is too shaded the leaves will fall off quickly. Other than 
that it seems to require no special care. It works great as a foreground 
middleground plant. There are dozens and dozens of people who have bought 
this plant from me or elsewhere that can tell you about it on my forums if 
they do not speak up here.  If you want to see an example of it in an 
aquascape,  this is Ken's ten gallon tank that was entered in both the AGA 
aquascaping contest, and the Aqua Botanic Aquascaping contest 
http://www.aquabotanic.com/contest/2003/resized/17/10galpici..jpg  This is a 
close up picture, and for some sense of scale notice the Glossostigma in 
front of it. His Petite nana have reached the more mature size.

Best regards

Robert Hudson
www.aquabotanic.com

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