Amazon Sword Plant Care

With their bladelike appearance and impressive endurance, the Amazon Sword Plant has earned a spot among the most popular aquatic plants.

This plant is beautiful and easy to care for, and will create a forest-like effect in your tank – it’s great for beginners and experienced aquarists alike!

What’s even better is its ability to reproduce in the tank, giving you a chance to share this wonder with friends or diversify your other tanks

The Amazon Sword Plant (Echinodorus grisebachii/amazonicus) is an aquatic plant that has become very popular with fish keepers worldwide over the past several years.

It originates from the extremely diverse and beautiful Amazon River basin.

Although the whole Echinodorus genus is known as Amazon Sword Plant, many aquarists refer to the Echinodorus grisebachii or Echinodorus amazonicus as the true Amazon Sword Plant – they are the same plant.

Even though you will find lots of plants being sold as the Amazon Sword Plant, this isn’t a problem because they more or less all require the same tank conditions and have the same care needs.

Other Echinodorus plants can also be found in the USA, Cuba and Columbia. However, most of the plants grow in the region of the Amazon River, an area with unique flora and fauna.

It is commonly found in aquariums all over the world mainly due to its sturdiness and ability to tolerate a wide range of temperatures. These plants are not only a great choice for fish tanks but are quite popular in plant-only aquariums as well.

~Appearance~

Plants in this genus all have a very similar appearance and are easily mistaken for one another, especially because so many of them are used in aquariums.

This is a bushy plant with a short stem. All the leaves extend straight from the roots on thin scapes. The leaves themselves make up most of the plant’s length and reach nearly 14 inches. This plant is quite a large one, growing up to 15-16 inches.

They get their name from the uniquely-shaped leaves that resemble sword blades. Leaves start to widen out near the base, reaching maximum thickness near the middle and narrowing down again towards the top of the leaf.

In good water conditions, you should expect your plant to be a slightly dark green color. If at any point it starts turning a brownish or muddy red color, it’s an indicator of lack of nutrients.

The roots of this plant are important to mention. Its rootstock (rhizome) is pretty large and powerful. Due to this, it can penetrate the substrate quite far down. They are light in color and spread out widely and deeply into the substrate..