Cultivated form (nursery selection from Echinodorus 'Ozelot', no wild range); selected by Hans Barth in Dessau, Germany
Overview
Red Flame suits the midground, or the background of tanks up to about 30 cm tall. Plant it in a nutrient-rich substrate with the crown at the surface. Push root tabs under the crown if you use plain sand or gravel. Medium light is enough, and strong light gives intense red over very light green. CO2 is optional and speeds up growth. Potted plants usually arrive with plain green emersed leaves, which often die back after planting. Cut old leaves at the base. Flower stalks carry plantlets that you can cut free once they root.
In the wild
Red Flame is a nursery cultivar with no wild range. Hans Barth of Dessau, Germany, selected it from a stock of his spotted sword Ozelot. It has been in the trade since 1998. Ozelot is a cross of Echinodorus schlueteri 'Leopard' and Echinodorus 'Barthii'. The wild swords behind that cross root in the mud of South American marshes and slow rivers.
Good to know
Red Flame is a sword cultivar in the family Alismataceae. It forms a dense rosette about 30 cm tall, with leaf blades up to 20 cm long. Young underwater leaves carry dark red blotches packed closely over light green to brown-red. Aquasabi rates the pattern stronger and denser than Ozelot's. Echinodorus 'Aflame' is a different sword with deep dark red leaves, in the trade since about 2005.
Did you know
The Zoologica nursery in Altlandsberg, Germany, used Red Flame as a parent of three later swords, Paul Klöcker, Red Devil and Tanzende Feuerfeder. Barth also selected Green Flame from Ozelot, and Heimbiotop calls the two hard to tell apart underwater.
Low lightMidground7.9 in (20 cm)
Medium lightBackground19.7 in (50 cm)
High lightBackground19.7 in (50 cm)
Medium lightBackground19.7 in (50 cm)