Lilaeopsis brasiliensis is a plant that is much more commonly known as Lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae. I am putting this name (which actually belongs to a different species) right at the beginning to avoid questions about what kind of nova I am describing here. It is not a novelty – it is an old familiar lily we have been growing for years.
So let’s first take a look at what the Lilaeopsis genus is like. There are 14 species described, growing in both wet and truly aquatic environments (mostly on mud); of these, the following have found a place in aquarium keeping (so far):
L. brasiliensis (Glaziou) Affolter – Brazilian lily of the valley. In our country still referred to as L. novae-zelandiae, although it has been known for 20 years that this is a misnomer. Indeed, this plant is native to South America (specifically Argentina, Paraguay and SE Brazil), not New Zealand (which is good news for fans of South American biotope aquariums). If you find mention of Lilaeopsis in Czech or Slovak literature, it is almost always this species.
L. mauritiana G. Petersen & Affolter – has rounded, not flattened, petals on the cross-section, so it cannot be confused with the previous species. An interesting novelty, still very rare here. It should have slightly lower light requirements. It comes from the island of Mauritius, as the species name suggests.
L. carolinensis Coulter & Rose – also still rare; rather than getting it, you are more likely to buy it by mistake, mistaking it for L. brasiliensis, as the two species are very similar in sumberza form. The emersed form has leaves 5-20 cm long, but is smaller underwater. Another distinguishing feature is the number of transverse nerves, which are clearly visible in the light – L. carolinensis has 10-20, L. brasiliensis only 6-10; for completeness I will add a figure for L. mauritiana: 4-9. Thirdly, it is not difficult to guess from the name where the plant is native – on the east coast of North America, but not only there. It is also widespread in Argentina, Paraguay and southern Brazil and can even be found in Europe, on the coasts of Portugal and Spain (Basque Gulf).
L. macloviana (Gandoger) Hill – new in Tropica’s offer, not available here. It comes from South America and is unusually tall in the aquarium – up to half a meter!
This hopefully makes the systematics clear. For those who don’t care what the plant is called but prefer to choose with their eyes, I will summarise the appearance of the lily of the valley very simply: it looks like a grass. It has leaves about 3-6 cm long, flattened, growing singly or in pairs (sometimes more) from a creeping rhizome. The rhizome is thin, green and lies just below the surface of the substrate. The leaves grow at 1-3 cm intervals and the plant rhizomes profusely, so that if given the right conditions and enough time, you can get a really dense, low-lying lawn in the foreground.
What are the right conditions? This brings us to the ‘buried dog’ and the reason why this ornamental plant is not widely grown. Few people can grow it really satisfactorily, and it usually languishes after planting. It takes some time to lose its original emerse leaves and then goodbye, the lily of the valley fails and disappears.
The plant can most often be bought as a pre-grown rug in a bowl of sand or fine gravel, the contents of which can be tipped out and placed in the correct place in the tank. This will make a lot of work easier, as it is perhaps only possible to plant individual plants with tweezers and requires a great deal of patience. However, the beautifully prepared lawn will most likely have had a taste of the water environment in the shop – which may not bother us in principle, but it does mean a longer adaptation. This is in any case a lengthy process for this species.
If we plant individual plants that we have obtained, for example, from an aquarist friend, we have to be patient. (When I mention individual plants, I always mean the kind of “clump” that the lily of the valley forms – i.e. a piece of rhizome with leaves at least 2 cm long. I would not recommend dividing these into shorter sections and planting them separately.) Since the lily of the valley lasts long enough without rooting to keep growing, I recommend not planting the individual plants too neatly (and thus laboriously), but simply burying them in the substrate, regardless of whether the leaves or the rhizome are buried, and hoping that they will last in the chosen spot and just root.
The reason why they would not last is obvious – poor attachment in the substrate. And this is true even for plants that we have had for months and years. They’re easily picked off by bottom-dwelling fish. I am constantly collecting uprooted clumps of lily of the valley in my aquarium where I have a dwarf Corydoras pygmaeus – and it is definitely no “digger”. It’s just the fish weaving in and out from between and under the creeping rhizomes, which the lilyfish can’t stand.
Of course, aquarists’ lackluster success with this species is not due to their inability to plant it, or subsequently keep it planted. The literature states that the lily of the valley needs plenty of light. I cannot agree with this view, as I grow the humble grass plant without any problems and for a long time under a ‘roof’ of a tangle of stem plants underwater, and the light penetration is also prevented by floating plants. These are definitely not what we would call ‘good lighting’ conditions – the intensity is low to medium.
However, the adaptation to the conditions of my aquarium took several months, when the plants planted in small clusters stagnated and the prospects were poor. I had tried Lilaeopsis in another aquarium in the past, where there was also little light, but after about 4 months the last leaf disappeared and I removed the tray with the substrate and still living rhizomes from the aquarium. I should point out that this was a freshly set up aquarium. The second time I did not get the plants in the prepared tray, but individually plucked them from the cotton wool in the basket and planted them. The experiment was successful, I have had the lily plant for more than 2 years now and it is thriving.
So in my case, light is not important – what I consider the key factor is nutrients. This plant visibly accelerated its growth once the bottom was enriched with detritus. There are quite a lot of fish and snails in the aquarium and I never skim, so the detritus is visible on the surface of the gravel. I do not add CO2, the water has the following parameters: pH 7.2, alkalinity 6 °dKH, hardness 13 °dGH. I fertilize very little (Bioflor or PMDD) and irregularly, I assume that the iron concentration is in the range of 0.0-0.2 mg/l. I have to add nitrogen and phosphorus regularly, otherwise the growth of the plants slows down noticeably – but Lilaeopsis brasiliensis is more resistant in this respect than, for example, Echinodorus quadricostatus, which stops fruiting and its older leaves turn yellow and fall apart. Lilaeopsis does not turn yellow, it just slows down. So it doesn’t really serve us as an indicator of nutrient deficiency – this is because it grows slower overall than, for example, the just-mentioned rosehip. On the other hand, it is more resilient and can survive the various mistakes we can make with fertiliser.
When planning a suitable planting for the tank, the lily of the valley should be avoided if we expect to maintain high temperatures for a long time (the species grown are generally not tropical). It is also sometimes stated that water that is too soft is not suitable for growing it. I can’t confirm this, I haven’t tried it – in any case hard water is not a problem.
With regard to the amount of light, I will also note that this species is variable in appearance – we can have really low grass, but it can also reach a height of about 5 cm. In very intensely lit tanks, the lily of the valley seems to crawl under the gravel and only sends up the tops of its leaves above the surface. As I have already indicated, I hardly see this in my aquarium.
Lilaeopsis can also delight us with flowers that very rarely form underwater. In that case, it is even more likely that it is Lilaeopsis carolinensis – this species flowers more readily even partially or completely submerged. The formation of flowers underwater is generally quite rare, and all the more surprising because nobody would probably look for ornamental flowers in this slow-growing and barely thriving “grass”.
The genus Lilaeopsis belongs to the Apiaceae family, but the inflorescence does not have the typical umbrella shape because the individual flowers are on longer stems. However, it should be noted that the flower is really miniature, so a magnifying glass will be appreciated when admiring it. The petals are white.