Ozelot Sword

Echinodorus 'Ozelot' is a cultivated sword plant rather than a wild species, selected for the dark leopard spotting scattered across its leaves. The plant builds a broad rosette from a short rhizome and belongs at the back of the tank, where it has room to spread.

It is an easy, fast growing plant and frequently available in the trade. The published optimum is 20 to 28 °C inside a tolerance of 15 to 30, with pH 5 to 7 and carbonate hardness anywhere from 0 to 21 dKH, a span that covers nearly any tap water. Light is medium to high and carbon dioxide is listed at 10 to 40 mg/l, so injection helps but is not a condition of keeping it.

Two routes increase it. Mature plants push up a flower stalk that carries adventitious plantlets, and each plantlet can be cut off and planted once it has roots and a few leaves. The rhizome can also be divided. Like other swords it grows emersed as well, which is how nurseries usually produce it.