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Big Bear sword

Echinodorus 'Big Bear'

One of 21 cultivars of Echinodorus · See all cultivars →

Also known as Echinodorus Big Bear, Echinodorus 'Großer Bär', Grosser Bar sword

FreshwaterRosettePlantletsRhizome division

Cultivars · Echinodorus

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Care at a glance

Light
Medium light
CO2
CO₂ beneficial
Growth rate
Medium
Placement
Background
Type
Rosette
Temperature
72–82°F (22–28°C)
pH
6.5–7.5
Max height
17.7 in (45 cm)
Spread
11.8 in (30 cm)
Nutrient uptake
Root + water column
Growth region
Submersed or emersed
Difficulty
Easy
Origin
Cultivated hybrid from the German Echinodorus breeding programs of the 1990s, sold in English as the translation of 'Großer Bär'; parentage undocumented
Family
Alismataceae

Overview

A big, forgiving background sword for tanks of about 75 liters and up, reaching around 45 cm with a broad spread. It is a heavy root feeder: plant it in rich substrate or keep root tabs under it, set the crown just proud of the substrate, and give it room, because a happy specimen shades everything behind it. Moderate light is enough and CO2 is optional, adding size and pace rather than being a requirement. Prune the outer leaves at the base as they age, and take plantlets from the flower stalks it sends out when well fed. Its failure mode is quiet starvation on clean gravel, thinning leaf by leaf until someone feeds the roots.

In the wild

Big Bear is a nursery cultivar with no wild range. Its Echinodorus ancestors come from the swamps and riverbanks of South America, amphibious plants that stand emersed most of the year and grow submersed when flooded, and like the rest of the group it is farmed emersed and converts after planting.

Good to know

A sword plant in the family Alismataceae whose English trade name translates the German 'Großer Bär', the big sibling of the well-known 'Kleiner Bär'. Both trace to the German Echinodorus hybridization work of the 1990s, but where Kasselmann records the parentage of Kleiner Bär, no parentage for Big Bear was ever published, so it stands as a cultivar of unrecorded cross. It grows broad, slightly rippled, deep green leaves into one of the larger sword rosettes in the trade.

Did you know

The bear names come as a pair. German breeders named the compact cultivar Kleiner Bär, the little bear, and this larger one Großer Bär, and English-speaking shops simply translated the big one into Big Bear.

Appears in

Background plants · Sword plants · Beginner plants

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