Barclaya longifolia is a tuberous plant, highly related to Nymphea. There also exists a green variant. It is not remarkably that it did not obtain a foothold in aquaristics. The leaves of the species "red" at the underside are wine red colored; the upper site may vary from brown to reddish. It rather often occurs that the plant flowers. It is not necessary that the flowers come above the surface. Yet the molding of seeds will take place then (Cleistochamie). The color is less dependent of the light. Middle hard till soft and acid water at temperatures of 25 degrees does agree the best with the plant. Probably while the plant knows a period of rest now and then, she has been jostled in the Dutch aquaria by plants that are better to control and easier to cultivate. For a good development they demand an airy bottom with clay and scraps of peat. Nymphea lotus again is such a species with a large area that has adapted her to it and therefore is rather variable in color and form. The red specimen, are good eye-catchers on places where the arrangement demands for an accent that will stay a little a lower to the ground.