Sagittaria subulata 'Needle'

The underwater leaves are very narrow and linear, often no longer than 10 cm and 1.5–2 mm wide; with plentiful feeding and CO₂ they grow up to 30 cm long and 3 mm wide. The leaf tip is pointed, and the leaf itself curves downward, as in other sagittarias. Colour is medium green, olive, and under strong light reddish, as in the underwater leaves of Helanthium tenellum. Runners are mostly underground, with short internodes.

Easy: growth medium, light medium to bright, CO₂ 10–40 mg/l. Height 5–30 cm, width 5–10 cm. Propagated by runners.

Midground, nano aquarium, foreground in a group.

It was cultivated as one of several sagittaria forms in a Swiss plant nursery under the provisional name Sagittaria 'filiformis', though this is unlikely to be true S. filiformis. In Austria and Germany it is known as 'needle sagittaria', Sagittaria sp. 'Needle'. It flowered in an outdoor pool of a botanical garden: the structure of the inflorescence — flowers on stems floating just below the surface, male flowers with 7 stamens — confirms that it belongs to the S. subulata group. Where it was introduced into the aquarium hobby from is unknown; it is probably native to the east or southeast of North America.