Banana Plant on the Surface:

The aquatic Banana Plant (Nymphoides aquatica), also called Banana Lily, is a floating-leaved aquatic plant native to ponds, lakes, and slow streams across the Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States. Its name comes from the cluster of thick, banana-shaped storage roots at its base, which rests on the leaf litter bed and sends up round, notched leaves, green above and purple below. In the Botanical Method Aquarium, those leaves provide refuge from mid-water to the surface, along with broad surfaces where biofilm can encrust.

Essential Details

• Care Level: Easy
• Growth Habit: Grows from a cluster of storage roots and sends up floating leaves
• Light: Low to Medium
• CO2: Not Necessary
• Water Parameters: 68 to 79°F, pH 6.0 to 7.2, soft to moderately hard
• Propagation: Plantlets that form beneath floating leaves
• Tint Tolerance: Low to High
• Habitat Location: Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States
• Optimal For: Betta fish, shrimp, and other small species suited to surface cover in blackwater and biotope aquariums, nano to medium-sized aquariums
• Use with Caution: Rinse before introducing; may carry beneficial hitchhiking snails, snail eggs, or duckweed from the grow-out ponds
• Size Range: Leaves up to about 4 inches across; height follows water depth, reaching the surface unless trimmed
• Quantities: 1-count bare root

Banana Plant for Planted Aquariums & Blackwater Biotopes

The banana-shaped roots are storage roots, holding nutrients the plant uses as it establishes into a new aquarium's water parameters. We place the cluster on top of the substrate of our aquariums, so most of each root stays exposed to the flow of water, the same care we give an Anubias rhizome. Finer roots then reach down into the substrate, where a dirted aquarium, or inert sand with root tabs, provides the nutrients the plant absorbs as it grows.

Each new leaf emerges on a slender stalk, growing upward toward the light. Tint reduces the light that reaches submerged leaves, which slows their photosynthesis. Once a leaf reaches the surface, it floats with full access to light and to CO2 from the air. In a heavily tinted Botanical Method Aquarium, moderate light at the substrate helps new leaves photosynthesize to sustain the plants growth. For compact, submerged growth, trim the long-stalked leaves as they near the surface, and the plant puts its energy into new leaves below.

Floating leaves shade the water beneath them and provide a resting place for betta fish near the surface. Their undersides collect biofilm, which becomes a grazing resource for shrimp, what we call supplemental nutrition. New plants form at the surface, as a small cluster of banana-shaped roots grows just beneath a floating leaf, where its flowers also form. Once the cluster appears, clip it free with its leaf and set the new plant on the substrate. Thin floating leaves by hand to keep part of the surface open, place any excess in the garbage, and never release aquarium plants into local waterways.

Beneath the Leaves: Nymphoides aquatica in the Wild

Nymphoides aquatica grows in ponds, lakes, millponds, and slow streams from Delaware to Florida and east Texas, rooted in the sediment with its leaves floating at the surface. In the wild, it spreads mainly the same way we propagate it in the aquarium. Each floating leaf shares its stalk with a flower cluster and a bud, and that bud can grow into a new plant with its own cluster of thick roots. These clusters break away and float off to become new plants. From spring through summer, small white flowers with five petals bloom at the water's surface, pollinated by bees and flies.

Where a botanical contributes as it breaks down, an aquatic plant is living and contributes as it grows. So let them grow. Mother Nature leads the way.

Sustainability Note:

Please select a heat/cold pack if necessary. Check your local weather before ordering to avoid any shipment holds or cancellations. All Plants may contain snails or snail eggs. We keep them in all of our aquariums for the benefits they provide. Our blackwater aquarium plants are provided in cooperation with PNW Bettas in adherence to their Shipping and DOA Policies. Your curated selection will arrive in their packaging separate from your botanical, wood & merch orders.