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Could anyone please tell me what these plants are?

Shannen attached this image:

number 2

Shannen attached this image:

Number 3

Last one I promise. Sorry for the blurred pic.

Shannen attached this image:

1. rotala magenta?
2. anubias(which should come as no surprise to you) var. cofeefolia
3. rubin sword

Yeah, I found it on a Plant ID website, I just wanted to make sure.

I actually had never seen any in real life before.

So the last one is in fact a sword..How tall will it grow?

#1 looks very similar to what I was given as red temple plant. One of the few red plants that can retain their red in 2wpg. Alternathera reinekii v. "Rosaefolia" Red temple plant is how I have it in my notes....Tropica may be able to help further.

^_^


[hr width='40%']"There’s an emptiness inside her. And she’d do anything to fill it in.
And though it’s red blood bleeding from her now. It's more like cold blue ice in her heart.
She feels like kicking out all the windows. And setting fire to this life."

As you've probably noticed, these swords aren't really upwards growing sword plants; rather, they spread their leaves to the sides of the plant. Rubins grow about 15ish inches in height, similar in width.

EDIT: I believe Babel is correct on the first plant. On second inspection, leaves are elongated and the stem is, relative to the leaves, rather short.

Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 01-Mar-2005 10:31

15 inches wow, that's too big.

Can I keep pruning it down to size and it not bother the plant too much.

I'm sure it would need to be uprooted every so often to have it hacked down to size. Right?

It´s (#3) some cultivated version of an Echinodorus species, not a clue wich one. I´ve had one for about a year or so and it´s of about the same size as yours looks to be. I´m not good with inches but it´s about a doubble fist. I keep pruning of the older outer leaves to let the young red ones dominate. It keeps sending out a new leaf about every second week and seems very undemanding. I use mine as a foreground solitaire and my dwarf botias love to chase algea waffers under the leafs.

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So here I am once more...

Hi Shannen,

#1 - I would bet my house that this is in fact Ammania Gracillis. I have some myself. The copper/cognac colored leaves are a real give away.It should have 2 opposing leaves at each node and a relatively thick stem.Not the easiest plant, but not the most difficult either. Try to keep Nitrates at a steady 5ppm or so and likes Iron. Good light, make sure it's not shaded.

#2 Anubias Coffiefolia. My favourite Anubias, made to be a forground centerpiece plant.

#3 Rubin Sword. It is a cultivated hybrid. Very fast growing and they do get huge. As Noodles said they get very wide. Bigger then even an Amazon.

Last edited by bensaf at 01-Mar-2005 20:04

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

I posted in the RR... sorry about the slow reaction time; I've been busy at my other sites. You guys have most of the plants well enough, except the sword, so I'll just list them off for ya.

1. Ammania gracilis
2. Anubias barteri var coffeefolia
3. Echinodorus sp. "Red Melon"

He's had the melon sword forever, so don't sweat it getting huge... it probably won't. If it is a melon, it shouldn't get a whole lot bigger than that. You shouldn't have problems keeping the Ammania happy; Brian's had that plant for about two years and as long as the water changes were done and the ferts were dosed, it stayed nice and red.

It looks like your nitrogen is a little low in the tank, so you might want to look into upping that sometime soon. It will probably rid the tank of hair algae.

That is most definitely not a melon sword. Whereas E. osiris is primarily an erect plant with large ovaline leaves (once well established), rubin swords tend to be bushy, with fairly standard, tapering leaves. Melons also grow to about 19", which means that if the thing hasn't grown much larger than that over time, then it probably isn't a melon sword.

Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 01-Mar-2005 23:17

The melon swords I've gotten from that particular greenhouse have never gotten much bigger than 10". It might just be because of the lighting it's under that the thing hasn't gotten much larger. As far as the leaf shape, that particular plant does have ovalline leaves... I've seen it in person several times. The plant started out with emersed foilage classic to melon swords; it didn't look anything like a Rubin when he bought it. The emersed leaves on these plants are very easy to tell apart.

I wouldn't go much on eventual size of swords as to their identification. I've seen five or six Rubin swords at 30".

Growth patterns can't be trusted too well, either, as I've seen swords with all kinds of different overall shapes, depending on the lighting conditions of the tank. The lighting on that particular tank isn't all that spectacular, so it wouldn't suprise me if that's why the plant has stayed so short and bushy. We're also discussing cultivars, not individual species; there's quite a bit of variation within breeds of plants, depending on the greenhouse growing them.

I guess what I'm saying is that it really doesn't matter what particular kind of sword it is... the same thing pretty much goes for all the varieties. Since it's alive and happy in that tank (it started out only 4" tall with three bright green, round leaves) that's all that really matters.

Thank you both.

Since moving the plant to a smaller tank, even tho it is under less overall lighting (2.2 where the 75 is almost 2.5) it has started reaching upwards and not looking so droopy.

In the smaller tank it has a comapct floro right over the plant, so in a way it's getting more lighting now and is much happier.

Cheers