Leaf colourgreen
Native range
- Brazil Northeast
- Brazil Southeast
- Mexico Southwest
rosette semi-emersed background
A large, fast, undemanding sword plant that sooner or later leaves the water. Fine as a young plant in an aquarium, and at its best as a marsh plant in an open tank or paludarium.
- Light
- medium–high
- Difficulty
- very easy
- Temperature
- 15 – 30 °C
Parameters
Plant typerosette
Growth ratefast
Tolerates lightmedium – high
General hardness0 – 30 °dGH
Placementsemi-emersed, background
Propagationplantlets on the inflorescence +3
Grows emersedyes
Appearance
Lance-shaped to broadly oval green leaves on long stalks. Young plants are lightly translucent and look at home in a natural layout; a mature plant grows to about a metre above water and carries branched, drooping flower stalks with small flowers.
Keeping
Very easy and fast, with one limitation worth knowing before buying: a strong plant starts making ever longer leaf stalks and grows out of the water, and this cannot be prevented for good. Cutting off the newest leaves brings shorter-stalked submerged ones back for a while; the other option is to replace an overgrown plant with a young one. It is often sold under other names.
Placement
The back of a large tank while it is young; long term, an open tank or a paludarium, where it becomes a specimen plant.
Propagation
By young plants on the flower stalk and by dividing the rhizome.
Fish and this plant
Water conditions match
The water suits 1015 of 1249 species in the catalogue — these are the ones people look up most often.
Swordtail GuppiesCobra GuppyBlood Red MollyButterflyfishRed Zebra CichlidJulii CorydorasRed-finned ParotocinclusGastromyzon monticolaEgg-shaped GoldfishFlame TetraGardner's KillifishAfrican TetraKenyi CichlidCuckoo CatfishGolden SwordtailHypsolebias picturatusCommon ZaccoLabeo BicolorGambusiaFlying barbGastromyzon scitulusAlbino Zebra DanioGeophagus BrokopondoZebra Mbuna
Will eat this plant
These species damage plants, especially when their diet is short of vegetable food.
Bengal LoachZebra LoachBurmese Border LoachEmperor BotiaSpined LoachMarbled HeadstanderPellegrin's LeporinusLeporinus striatusFalse Black TetraCommon MetynnisMylossoma duriventreRed Whiptail CatfishMolly sphenopsBalloon MollyLyretail MollyMarble MollyHi-Fin PlatyHawaii PlatyBlue PlatyPintail PlatyBlack PlatyChocolate MollyMoonlight GouramiMelanotaenia parva
Will uproot it
These species dig through the substrate and pull rooted plants out.
Marble LoachPeacock EelForktail LoachGuntea LoachLong-nosed LoachHorseface LoachPearlscaleBlack Moor GoldfishShubunkinPainted PlecoFeatherfin SynodontisReddish Mystus CatfishBlue AcaraAulonocara maylandiAulonocara multicolorAulonocara OrchidGeophagus altifronsGeophagus winemilleriPearlscale CichlidPearl CichlidRedbelly CichlidRed-spotted CichlidChuco godmanniHaplochromis philanderRed ChromideJack Dempsey cichlid
Cultivars
The same plant with a different look: light, water and care are shared with the species.
Other varieties: Echinodorus palifolius, Echinodorus palifolius Topf