Sword Plants

[Wills]

I'm hoping in the next few weeks to rescape my tank into a low tech set up and want to add in some swords. I really like the fancy types you can get now but I'm struggling to work out/remember how big they are.

How many would you have in a 2 foot tank? I'm planning to get smaller growing ones like Echinodorus Reni and also bigger ones like Echinodorus Ozelot and I've seen some fancy ones like 'Red wild grass' and 'Rose'.

thanks Wills

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I'm hoping in the next few weeks to rescape my tank into a low tech set up and want to add in some swords. I really like the fancy types you can get now but I'm struggling to work out/remember how big they are.

How many would you have in a 2 foot tank? I'm planning to get smaller growing ones like Echinodorus Reni and also bigger ones like Echinodorus Ozelot and I've seen some fancy ones like 'Red wild grass' and 'Rose'.

thanks Wills

They will grow as tall as the tank allows. The root system those things create are also INSANELY big.

The fancy variety’s usually grow a tad smaller.

 

[FishHobby99]

They will grow as tall as the tank allows. The root system those things create are also INSANELY big.

The fancy variety’s usually grow a tad smaller.

Wow! I want some too!

 

[Colin_T]

Underwater, most Echinodorus can have leaves that grow to about 12 inches long.
Out of the water and many species can grow to 2-3 feet tall.

In a 2 ft tank, I would have 1 or 2 swordplants.

 

[Essjay]

@JennySolano - there's a thought; Echinodorus reni does have red leaves when they first grow Though it does need good light and fertiliser to stay red.

 

[Byron]

All of the red-tinted varieties, as well as some non-red varieties, are not natural wild Echinodorus plants but cultivars developed by crossing various species. The height to which they grow might be more uniform for the variety than are wild species. There is considerable variation among the size of the plants in the natural species, and this can depend upon the conditions in the aquarium. But it is also a fact of the natural species. For example, Echinodorus griesbachii: Differences in appearance between plants of this species are apparent and seem dependent on the specific environment in the aquarium; this seems likely to also occur in nature, what can be termed transitional forms of the species. But the limited genetic variation within the complex is insufficient to establish reasonable groupings (Lehtonen & Falck, 2011). The "species" E. amazonicus, E. bleherae, E. grisebachii and E. parviflorus were initially described as distinct species, but phylogenetic analysis has confirmed that these are actually all the one species, E. grisebachii, with variant appearances.

According to Kasselmann ((2003) the leaf blades of Echinodorus "ozelot" are 10-15cm long and 3-4 cm wide, giving the plant a maximum height of 20 cm. I have no information in my texts of E. "reni."

The wild species as I mentioned can grow quite different in terms of size. I had E. grisebachii [at the time thought to be E. bleherae which is now known to not be a distinct species] That produced dozens of inflorescences over the years, and I detached many of the adventitious plants and placed them in other tanks. In spite of the fact that all of them came from the same parent, and presumably would grow similarly, the differences in leaf blade length and width was remarkable. Some never grew beyond a third of the size of the parent, while some came very close to the size of the parent plant, in different tanks.

 

[Wills]

Underwater, most Echinodorus can have leaves that grow to about 12 inches long.
Out of the water and many species can grow to 2-3 feet tall.

In a 2 ft tank, I would have 1 or 2 swordplants.

I think you are right here I think I could go with one big one and then add in one with a reputation to be smaller closer to the middle.

All of the red-tinted varieties, as well as some non-red varieties, are not natural wild Echinodorus plants but cultivars developed by crossing various species. The height to which they grow might be more uniform for the variety than are wild species. There is considerable variation among the size of the plants in the natural species, and this can depend upon the conditions in the aquarium. But it is also a fact of the natural species. For example, Echinodorus griesbachii: Differences in appearance between plants of this species are apparent and seem dependent on the specific environment in the aquarium; this seems likely to also occur in nature, what can be termed transitional forms of the species. But the limited genetic variation within the complex is insufficient to establish reasonable groupings (Lehtonen & Falck, 2011). The "species" E. amazonicus, E. bleherae, E. grisebachii and E. parviflorus were initially described as distinct species, but phylogenetic analysis has confirmed that these are actually all the one species, E. grisebachii, with variant appearances.

According to Kasselmann ((2003) the leaf blades of Echinodorus "ozelot" are 10-15cm long and 3-4 cm wide, giving the plant a maximum height of 20 cm. I have no information in my texts of E. "reni."

The wild species as I mentioned can grow quite different in terms of size. I had E. grisebachii [at the time thought to be E. bleherae which is now known to not be a distinct species] That produced dozens of inflorescences over the years, and I detached many of the adventitious plants and placed them in other tanks. In spite of the fact that all of them came from the same parent, and presumably would grow similarly, the differences in leaf blade length and width was remarkable. Some never grew beyond a third of the size of the parent, while some came very close to the size of the parent plant, in different tanks.

Thats really interesting I knew most of the colours were grown in captivity some of them you see for sale tell the story including one I saw named after a German town haha. What do you think of this one? https://www.pro-shrimp.co.uk/aquarium-plants/4571-echinodorus-xinguensis-aquadip-8717344712460.html Is it correctly labeled or is there only one true Echinodorus now? I know they moved some of the smaller ones to a new group called Helenthium.

Wills

 

[Byron]

I think you are right here I think I could go with one big one and then add in one with a reputation to be smaller closer to the middle.

Thats really interesting I knew most of the colours were grown in captivity some of them you see for sale tell the story including one I saw named after a German town haha. What do you think of this one? https://www.pro-shrimp.co.uk/aquarium-plants/4571-echinodorus-xinguensis-aquadip-8717344712460.html Is it correctly labeled or is there only one true Echinodorus now? I know they moved some of the smaller ones to a new group called Helenthium.

Wills

I know you often appreciate the explanation detail, so my response is lengthy, lol. This is from my profile published elsewhere.

The plant itself is a natural wild species, but misnamed. The accepted species is Helanthium bolivianum (Rusby, 1947). [There is no valid species E. xinguensis.] This species was originally described by Rusby in the genus Alisma; the species epithet is Latin and means originating from Bolivia. In 1979, Holm-Nielsen moved it into Echinodorus, the second-largest genus of aquatic plants in the Alismataceae family. The Alismataceae is a family of aquatic herbs containing 12 genera with about 80 species that are distributed in the tropical and subtropical regions of both hemispheres. Three genera of interest to aquarists occur in the Neotropics [=tropical regions in the Americas]: Sagittaria, Echinodorus and Helanthium. The species in these genera are quite similar in appearance, making it difficult for aquarists to differentiate between them. To add to the confusion, even within each species the plants can take on quite different leaf lengths depending upon the conditions in the aquarium. With a few exceptions that grow fully submersed, the plants are amphibious bog plants in their habitat, spending roughly half the year emersed when they flower, and half submersed during the flooded period which lasts several months.

H. bolivianum is reported from areas in Mexico, Central America, West Indies, and South America down to northern Argentina. Nurseries frequently supply H. bolivianum as H. tenellum but the two species are easily distinguishable; H. bolivianum has three rows of chlorophyll-free pullucid "windows" adjacent to the leaf spine, while H. tenellum has normal (green) tissue throughout the leaf (Rataj, 2004). The subject plant is also larger in leaf length and width. I had both species, I'm not sure if my H. bolivianum survived but I have H. tenellum in my 40g cory tank now.

There are 11 "species" described by Rataj which are all now deemed to be the one species H. bolivianum, so the other names are synonyms (The Plant Index, 2021).

Aquarists who propagate aquarium plants have always recognized that while the various species in Echinodorus will readily hybridize, some even naturally--producing the many new red, spotted, and marble leaf forms--the chain swords have resisted hybridization with species in Echinodorus; this lends further credence to the view that the two genera are distinct.

[The taxonomic history, quite involved:]

The group Helanthium [the spelling Helianthium with the first "i" is incorrect] was described by Engelmann, Bentham and Hooker in 1883 as a section in the genus Alisma. In 1905, Engelmann and Britton erected Helanthium as a distinct genus and they assigned to it the dwarf chain sword species from Echinodorus. In 1955, Fassett reversed this and considered the species within Helanthium as Echinodorus; however, he divided the genus into two subgenera, Helanthium and Echinodorus. Helanthium held two sections, Nymphaeifolii (containing one species, Echinodorus nymphaeifolius) and Tenellii that contained the several closely-related species with E. tenellus as the type species. The subgenus Echinodorus held nine sections containing the remaining species within this genus. In his recent revision of the genus Echinodorus, Rataj (2004) followed Fassett (1955).

In phylogenetic analysis (Lehtonen 2006; Lehtonen & Myllys 2008) Echinodorus was found to be polyphyletic [=the last common ancestor is not included in the genus] and in order to obtain a monophyletic [=a clade (here genus) consisting of the last common ancestor and all descendant species] circumscription of the genus, the classification proposed by Pichon (1946) was followed by Lehtonen. E. nymphaeifolius was transferred into the genus Albidella, and E. bolivianus, E. tenellus and E. zombiensis were transferred into Helanthium.

The species now in Helanthium are those former Echinodorus species that have traditionally been considered within the generic common designation of chain sword plants (because they reproduce in aquaria via "runners") and are smaller than the true Echinodorus species, though leaf length can vary greatly depending upon conditions in the aquarium.

 

[FishHobby99]

I know you often appreciate the explanation detail, so my response is lengthy, lol. This is from my profile published elsewhere.

The plant itself is a natural wild species, but misnamed. The accepted species is Helanthium bolivianum (Rusby, 1947). [There is no valid species E. xinguensis.] This species was originally described by Rusby in the genus Alisma; the species epithet is Latin and means originating from Bolivia. In 1979, Holm-Nielsen moved it into Echinodorus, the second-largest genus of aquatic plants in the Alismataceae family. The Alismataceae is a family of aquatic herbs containing 12 genera with about 80 species that are distributed in the tropical and subtropical regions of both hemispheres. Three genera of interest to aquarists occur in the Neotropics [=tropical regions in the Americas]: Sagittaria, Echinodorus and Helanthium. The species in these genera are quite similar in appearance, making it difficult for aquarists to differentiate between them. To add to the confusion, even within each species the plants can take on quite different leaf lengths depending upon the conditions in the aquarium. With a few exceptions that grow fully submersed, the plants are amphibious bog plants in their habitat, spending roughly half the year emersed when they flower, and half submersed during the flooded period which lasts several months.

H. bolivianum is reported from areas in Mexico, Central America, West Indies, and South America down to northern Argentina. Nurseries frequently supply H. bolivianum as H. tenellum but the two species are easily distinguishable; H. bolivianum has three rows of chlorophyll-free pullucid "windows" adjacent to the leaf spine, while H. tenellum has normal (green) tissue throughout the leaf (Rataj, 2004). The subject plant is also larger in leaf length and width. I had both species, I'm not sure if my H. bolivianum survived but I have H. tenellum in my 40g cory tank now.

There are 11 "species" described by Rataj which are all now deemed to be the one species H. bolivianum, so the other names are synonyms (The Plant Index, 2021).

Aquarists who propagate aquarium plants have always recognized that while the various species in Echinodorus will readily hybridize, some even naturally--producing the many new red, spotted, and marble leaf forms--the chain swords have resisted hybridization with species in Echinodorus; this lends further credence to the view that the two genera are distinct.

[The taxonomic history, quite involved:]

The group Helanthium [the spelling Helianthium with the first "i" is incorrect] was described by Engelmann, Bentham and Hooker in 1883 as a section in the genus Alisma. In 1905, Engelmann and Britton erected Helanthium as a distinct genus and they assigned to it the dwarf chain sword species from Echinodorus. In 1955, Fassett reversed this and considered the species within Helanthium as Echinodorus; however, he divided the genus into two subgenera, Helanthium and Echinodorus. Helanthium held two sections, Nymphaeifolii (containing one species, Echinodorus nymphaeifolius) and Tenellii that contained the several closely-related species with E. tenellus as the type species. The subgenus Echinodorus held nine sections containing the remaining species within this genus. In his recent revision of the genus Echinodorus, Rataj (2004) followed Fassett (1955).

In phylogenetic analysis (Lehtonen 2006; Lehtonen & Myllys 2008) Echinodorus was found to be polyphyletic [=the last common ancestor is not included in the genus] and in order to obtain a monophyletic [=a clade (here genus) consisting of the last common ancestor and all descendant species] circumscription of the genus, the classification proposed by Pichon (1946) was followed by Lehtonen. E. nymphaeifolius was transferred into the genus Albidella, and E. bolivianus, E. tenellus and E. zombiensis were transferred into Helanthium.

The species now in Helanthium are those former Echinodorus species that have traditionally been considered within the generic common designation of chain sword plants (because they reproduce in aquaria via "runners") and are smaller than the true Echinodorus species, though leaf length can vary greatly depending upon conditions in the aquarium.

can sword plants be used in a covered tank?

 

[Byron]

can sword plants be used in a covered tank?

Yes. A very few of the larger species in Echinodorus when grown submersed will sometimes grow leaves long enough to break the surface, but this is not the same as emersed growth.

 

[FishHobby99]

Yes. A very few of the larger species in Echinodorus when grown submersed will sometimes grow leaves long enough to break the surface, but this is not the same as emersed growth.

Thanks, I’m on the prowl for more plants for my cichlid/catfish tank

 

[Byron]

Another tidbit on the chain swords I forgot to include in my previous post.

As with all species in this genus, Helanthium bolivianum can be grown permanently submersed or emersed as a bog plant in paludariums and terrariums provided the roots are permanently submerged. When grown emersed, the leaves are oval and on short stems, and flowers will be produced. If planted in the aquarium, the new leaves will be awl-shaped phyllodes (stemless linear and narrow leaves), and the emersed leaves will yellow and die off. Submersed phyllodes (leaves) are variable but normally have a leaf width of up to 1.5 cm (5/8 inch) and can attain 15-20 cm (8 inches) in length depending upon light intensity.

In both the emersed and submersed forms, it reproduces vegetatively by sending out numerous pseudo-stolons on top of the substrate from which plantlets will emerge every couple of inches and root in the substrate. These pseudo-stolons are usually referred to simply as "runners" but technically they are not true runners (stolons) but a modification of the flower stalk. It spreads rapidly once it is settled into the aquarium, and may be controlled by cutting off the runners as needed; the daughter plants can be re-planted.

 

[FishHobby99]

Another tidbit on the chain swords I forgot to include in my previous post.

As with all species in this genus, Helanthium bolivianum can be grown permanently submersed or emersed as a bog plant in paludariums and terrariums provided the roots are permanently submerged. When grown emersed, the leaves are oval and on short stems, and flowers will be produced. If planted in the aquarium, the new leaves will be awl-shaped phyllodes (stemless linear and narrow leaves), and the emersed leaves will yellow and die off. Submersed phyllodes (leaves) are variable but normally have a leaf width of up to 1.5 cm (5/8 inch) and can attain 15-20 cm (8 inches) in length depending upon light intensity.

In both the emersed and submersed forms, it reproduces vegetatively by sending out numerous pseudo-stolons on top of the substrate from which plantlets will emerge every couple of inches and root in the substrate. These pseudo-stolons are usually referred to simply as "runners" but technically they are not true runners (stolons) but a modification of the flower stalk. It spreads rapidly once it is settled into the aquarium, and may be controlled by cutting off the runners as needed; the daughter plants can be re-planted.

Any chance this plant will take over my house & go through the Skylights?

 

[mbsqw1d]

Ended up removing e.impai from my 200l (3' ish) as it took over. Size 8 foot for reference:

 

[FishHobby99]

Dang! It’s huge!