Echinodorus Latifolius Bare-root
Scientific name: Echinodorus latifolius
Trade name: Latifolius Chain Sword
Difficulty: Easy
This fine, lancolate-leafed sword plants is a beautiful addition to any aquarium. Latifolius has delicate, green, narrow leaves on long petioles. This chain-sword will throw runners and creep around an aquarium and is relatively easy to grow.
Echinodorus Species
The Echinodorus family of plants are commonly called "Sword Plants." There are a diverse range of Echinodorus species and cultivars with many different leaf shapes and leaf colouration.
In the wild, in South America, Sword plants live in marshes and bogs that flood in the wet season. They have part of their life cycle during the drier weather where they grow out of water and reproduce. This natural emerse stage of their life is how most Echinodorus are grown commercially. The emerse plants are stronger and when the floods come to them in the wild or they are submersed in an aquarium, they happily adjust to their submerse form. With time, they will grow new underwater leaves, that are often softer and more colourful and the leaves may have a slightly different shape.Â
Sword plants are very versatile and can be grown in most aquariums, with most fish except large cichlids. These highly sought after plants come in a variety of sizes and leaf shapes with colours from vibrant, light, frog green through deep, dark green then across to reds or coppers and even a variegated "Marble Queen."
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