Help Identify this Plant Please

[_Nemo_]

On the weekend I purchased a very interesting plant from the LFS.
The leaves are brown-red and have the shape of the arrowhead plant shown here

The plant was sold as a group of low-lying leaves/stems/small roots attached/tied to a piece of wood. The piece of wood was totally covered, I initially thought it was an onion. Some of the leaves have longer 1-2 stems and are biggers in size (2-3 inches in length ?).

The plant is very delicate in general. Could not identify it, neither could the guy at the LFS.

Any idea what it is? I'll try to take a picture of it if my description is not sufficient.

Thanks

 

[madasafish]

Picture would be good, but I should warn you that arrowhead plants are (at least usually) terrestrial plants, NOT aquarium plants... or they are emergent not submerged plants. I've certainly seen red versions of the arrowhead above... you may have one of those.

Careful! If the LFS dude doesn't know what it is, it's likely not to be truly aquatic. I found my LFS guys will accept a plant regardless of whether they've heard of it, and won't check to find out if it the plant is truly aquatic... OY!

There is also another non-true aquatic plant with beautiful purple and green (on either side) leaves that is not aquatic. This may be what you're describing. Picture would be best, of course.

 

[OneFishTwoFish]

Could it possibly be the Red Tiger Lilly. You didn't mention a bulb so it might not be, but from the pictures here http://www.plantgeek.net/images/plantpics/tigerlotus2.jpg and here http://aquariumplant.com/cgi-bin/cart/bra595.html it almost matches your description. Except for the fact it was on the wood. Just rambling. Good luck in your hunt.

One last link http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/People/sb-big-lotus.jpg

 

[_Nemo_]

It looks very much like a red tiger lotus. For some reason, I though for sure the leaves were attached to a piece of wood. Perhaps it was a bulb after all! 8O. I'll dig it up tonight to double check.

Is the bulb to be kept at the substrate surface or burried?

 

[OneFishTwoFish]

Don't really know. I imagine burried though. From all of the pictures I've seen (not a lot mind you and I can't remember seeing any live) they all look burried.

 

[madasafish]

Yeah, I held back from saying tiger lotus, since they stem from bulbs, and wouldn't attach well to wood. However, the bulbs are quite woody and can be large (my largest lotus bulb (of 7 or 8) is about 1.5" by 1". I could see a lot in a small space looking like wood, especially if the leaves were bunched near the substrate, which they do if you cut back the leaves which shoot upwards.