Echinodorus grandiflorus

Description

Echinodorus grandiflorus is a plant species native to rivers and riverbanks along the coast of southeastern South America, particularly in southern Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentine provinces. It typically grows as a robust bog plant up to 1 meter tall with a thick creeping rhizome, long leaf stalks often with tubercles, and oblong-ovate to heart-shaped leaves. The emersed form has pellucid markings on the leaves forming lines and dots. In the aquarium, it can be cultivated as a slow-growing plant up to 50 cm tall when provided with sufficient nutrients in large tanks with rich substrates. The submersed leaves are lanceaolate to obovate, often reddish-golden with reddish-brown freckles and coarse bristles on the rims. The land form produces flower stalks after cool periods and short day conditions, bearing large flowers with 3.5 cm diameter, up to 30 stamina, and a faint scent. The plant can be propagated through seed sowing or dividing the thick rhizome. Echinodorus grandiflorus is an uncommon aquarium plant that thrives in unheated aquaria as a solitary plant, tolerating deeper temperatures due to its native region's cool winters. It can also be cultivated emersed in open tanks or as a marsh plant on outdoor tank edges with a nutrient-rich substrate like loam.