Echinodorus amazonicus

Echinodorus amazonicus

Family:Alismataceae

Common Name:Amazon Sword Plant

Echinodorus amazonicus is found in Brazil.
E. Amazonicus is a rosette plant that can grow to about 20 inches tall. It has a small rhizome. The leaves are narrow-lanceolate, having a slightly curved top (like a scimitar). This is known as ensiform. The stems on this plant are short for the size of the leaves. The leaves are bright green. The recommended requirements for E. amazonicus is a temperature of 72-82 F with a pH of 5.8-7.0 (2 -12 dCH). It tolerates soft water a lot better than hard. If the carbonate hardness becomes high, this plant can become stunted. An iron-containing fertilizer is recommended. Fairly high light levels are also needed.

I bought this plant back at the end of January. I placed it in my 25 gallon tank along with my A. barteri and E. canadensis. This is my tetra tank. I figured if the neons do well then so should the plant. When I bought this plant it was only 3 inches tall with about 6 leaves on it. It thrived in the 25 gallon, which had a pH of around 7 and a temperature of 79 F. There is a single flourescent bulb over this tank. Several weeks later I noticed some new leaves starting. One turned into a stalk that had several small flowers on them. These flowers were brownish in colour. The stalk was about 4" tall. After this I did not pay that much attention as I was more involved with my fish. Later I noticed that where the flowers were there were now leaves growing off the stalk. The stalk continued to grow. About the middle of Mar. I saw more flowers on the stalk which had grown to about 10-11" tall. At the time of writing this article, these have leaves as well. The leaves were now about 8" tall.