Echinodorus palifolius
Aquarius palifolius
Also known as Echinodorus palaefolius
Care at a glance
- Light
- Medium light
- CO2
- No CO₂ needed
- Growth rate
- Fast
- Placement
- Background
- Type
- Rosette
- Temperature
- 73–82°F (23–28°C)
- pH
- 5.5–8.0
- Hardness
- 0–30 dGH
- Max height
- 39.4 in (100 cm)
- Nutrient uptake
- Root feeder
- Growth region
- Submersed or emersed
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Origin
- Eastern Brazil
- Family
- Alismataceae
Overview
An easy, fast sword, but plan for its ambitions. Submersed it makes a 30 to 40 cm background rosette that feeds heavily through the roots, so give it a deep, nutrient-rich substrate; CO2 is unnecessary. Once established it insists on sending aerial leaves above the waterline, approaching a metre, which makes it a natural for open-topped tanks and paludaria rather than closed aquaria. Cutting the aerial leaves back holds it submersed for a while, and splitting the rhizome resets an oversized plant.
In the wild
A bog plant from the hot lowlands of eastern Brazil, growing in marshes, ditches and seasonally flooded ground, mostly emersed with its feet in wet soil. Flooded plants grow submersed for a time, but a strong plant always pushes back above the surface, and that habit follows it into the aquarium.
Good to know
A sword plant in Alismataceae, long known as Echinodorus palifolius and very widely traded under the misspelling palaefolius. Recent taxonomy moved most of the classic aquarium swords out of Echinodorus into the genus Aquarius, so the accepted name is now Aquarius palifolius. It is its own species and should not be confused with Echinodorus cordifolius, a separate sword it is sometimes mixed up with in the trade.
Did you know
When it flowers on an emersed stalk, the inflorescence sprouts ready-made plantlets along its length, and each one can be pinched off and planted as a complete new sword.
Appears in
No-CO2 plants · Background plants · Beginner plants · Fast growers
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