Winged Sword

Aquarius subulatus

A plain, sturdy sword plant from tropical American swamps — light green lance-shaped leaves on long stalks. Undemanding, tolerant of hard water and of warmth, and rarely noticed next to the coloured hybrids.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: easy
Height: 30 – 50 cm (12 – 20 in)
Temperature: 15 – 30 °C (59 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: medium
Tolerates light: medium – high
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 14 °dKH
Placement: semi-emersed, background
Propagation: plantlets on the inflorescence +4 plantlets on the inflorescence, rhizome division, seeds, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Lance-shaped light to mid green blades on long stalks, 30–50 cm tall in a broad rosette. Nothing about it is showy, which is exactly what makes it useful in a natural layout.

Keeping

Easy: medium light is enough, it grows well in medium-hard water and at temperatures up to about 30 °C, and like all swords it wants a nutritious substrate. One habit is worth knowing — a strong old plant may switch to its above-water form, sending up ever longer leaf stalks until only aerial leaves are left. Cutting all the long-stalked leaves off brings the submerged ones back, at least for a while.

Placement

The back of a large tank. It fits biotope layouts for South American fish, where it belongs by origin.

Propagation

By young plants on the flower stalk, by dividing the rhizome, and from seed.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1016 of 1249 species in the catalogue — these are the ones people look up most often.

Swordtail Guppies Cobra Guppy Blood Red Molly Butterflyfish Red Zebra Cichlid Julii Corydoras Red-finned Parotocinclus Gastromyzon monticola Egg-shaped Goldfish Flame Tetra Gardner's Killifish African Tetra Kenyi Cichlid Cuckoo Catfish Golden Swordtail Hypsolebias picturatus Common Zacco Labeo Bicolor Gambusia Flying barb Gastromyzon scitulus Albino Zebra Danio Geophagus Brokopondo Zebra Mbuna

Will eat this plant

These species damage plants, especially when their diet is short of vegetable food.

Bengal Loach Zebra Loach Burmese Border Loach Emperor Botia Spined Loach Marbled Headstander Pellegrin's Leporinus Leporinus striatus False Black Tetra Common Metynnis Mylossoma duriventre Red Whiptail Catfish Molly sphenops Balloon Molly Lyretail Molly Marble Molly Hi-Fin Platy Hawaii Platy Blue Platy Pintail Platy Black Platy Chocolate Molly Moonlight Gourami Melanotaenia parva

Will uproot it

These species dig through the substrate and pull rooted plants out.

Marble Loach Peacock Eel Forktail Loach Guntea Loach Long-nosed Loach Horseface Loach Pearlscale Black Moor Goldfish Shubunkin Painted Pleco Featherfin Synodontis Reddish Mystus Catfish Blue Acara Aulonocara maylandi Aulonocara multicolor Aulonocara Orchid Geophagus altifrons Geophagus winemilleri Pearlscale Cichlid Pearl Cichlid Redbelly Cichlid Red-spotted Cichlid Chuco godmanni Haplochromis philander Red Chromide Jack Dempsey cichlid

Matching water does not mean the fish will leave the plant alone.

The same plant with a different look: light, water and care are shared with the species.

Other varieties: Echinodorus andrieuxii, Echinodorus intermedius, Echinodorus martii, Echinodorus subalatus, Echinodorus Marble Queen

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Echinodorus andrieuxii (Hook. & Arn.) Small, Echinodorus intermedius (Mart. ex Schult.f.) Griseb., Echinodorus subalatus ssp. andrieuxii (Hook. & Arn.) R.R.Haynes & Holm-Niels., Alisma andrieuxii, Alisma intermedium, Alisma subalatum, Alisma subalatum majus, Alisma subalatum medium, Alisma subalatum minus, Aquarius subalatus, Echinodorus andrieuxii, Echinodorus andrieuxii andrieuxii, Echinodorus andrieuxii longistylus, Echinodorus ellipticus ovatus, Echinodorus intermedius, Echinodorus longistylus, Echinodorus martii, Echinodorus subalatus, Echinodorus subalatus andrieuxii, Echinodorus subalatus subalatus, Echinodorus subalatus minor
Family: Alismataceae

Winged Sword

Tank conditions

Care and keeping