Hadi Red Pearl sword

Care at a glance

Overview

A compact, well-behaved red-marked sword, usually staying under 25cm, which makes it usable even in smaller tanks as a midground centerpiece. It is undemanding: moderate light and a nutrient-rich substrate with root tabs are enough, and it tolerates low light while showing best color under brighter light with CO2. It is a heavy root feeder that reproduces by plantlets on side shoots, which you can cut off and replant once they root.

In the wild

A cultivated Echinodorus hybrid with no wild population. It grows as a compact submersed rosette of green leaves stippled and marked with red, and like many swords it will also grow emersed with leaves rising above the waterline. Its parentage is often linked in the trade to the cordifolius group.

Good to know

Echinodorus 'Hadi Red Pearl' is a cultivar name written in single quotes, with no valid wild binomial. It is sometimes traded under the name Echinodorus cordifolius 'Harbich Red'. The genus sits in the Alismataceae, and the plant's red flecking comes from anthocyanin pigments concentrated in patches rather than across the whole leaf.

Did you know

Its red does not spread evenly like a solid red sword. Instead it comes as pearly red speckles and blotches scattered over green leaves, which is exactly where the Red Pearl name comes from.

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