Flame Sword

Flame Sword reached the market in 2000, selected by Hans Barth of Dessau from a population of Echinodorus 'Red Flame'. Flowgrow files it as Echinodorus 'Green Flame', and that is the cultivar this entry describes: submersed leaves that are longish-oval with paler red spots on a greener ground, as against the deeper red of 'Red Flame' itself. Flowgrow gives its height as 30 to 40 cm.

For a sword of that size it asks for very little. Flowgrow puts the working range at 20 to 28 °C, pH 5 to 7, and only moderate light, and growth is quick enough that feeding matters more than lighting. It builds a dense rosette and multiplies both by rhizome division and by the plantlets carried on its flower stalks, so one plant becomes several without any intervention. Old outer leaves are worth cutting away to keep the centre open. Its tolerance for carbonate hardness is unusually wide, 0 to 21 °dKH on Flowgrow's scale, so it settles into soft and hard tap water alike, and it accepts anything from medium to high light. Flowgrow files it as a background, midground or specimen plant, and it also grows emersed and is suited to ponds.