Aflame sword

Care at a glance

Overview

A red sword that stays moderately sized at roughly 25 to 30 cm, which suits it to the midground or the front of a larger background rather than a towering centerpiece. It is a heavy root feeder, so give it a nutrient-rich substrate with root tabs, plus iron and potassium to hold the deep burgundy to purple-red color. Strong light noticeably improves coloration and keeps it compact, and added CO2 is not strictly required but speeds and firms up growth; keep the crown above the substrate to avoid rot.

In the wild

Aflame is a nursery-produced hybrid rather than a wild-collected plant, so it has no native range of its own. Its Echinodorus parentage traces to the marshes, slow streams, and seasonally flooded ground of tropical Central and South America, where swords root in mud and push emersed leaves above the waterline.

Good to know

This is a cultivar in the family Alismataceae, sold under a quoted cultivar name because it has no valid botanical binomial. Like other Echinodorus it is a rosette-forming marsh plant that grows both submersed and emersed, and it flowers on tall inflorescences that produce adventitious plantlets rather than true seed under aquarium conditions.

Did you know

Did you know the leaf color is basically a light meter? Under weak light Aflame drifts toward plain green, and it only develops its signature dark red to purple tones when given intense lighting and iron.

Related plants

• Oriental sword

  Echinodorus 'Oriental'

  High lightMidground11.8 in (30 cm)
• Red Devil sword

  Echinodorus 'Red Devil'

  Medium lightMidground11.8 in (30 cm)
• Apart sword

  Echinodorus 'Apart'

  Medium lightMidground9.8 in (25 cm)
• Hadi Red Pearl sword

  Echinodorus 'Hadi Red Pearl'

  Medium lightMidground9.8 in (25 cm)

• 

  Ozelot sword

  Echinodorus 'Ozelot'

  Medium lightMidground15.7 in (40 cm)
• Fancy Twist sword

  Echinodorus 'Fancy Twist'

  Medium lightMidground15.7 in (40 cm)