Re: Flower Spike

["Madan Subramanian" <madans at hathway_com>]

> From: John Stark <starkj at pacbell_net>
> Subject: Flower spike
>
> Hi All,
>
> I have a sword plant (unidentified) that has been growing rapidly in my
> tank (new leaf every 4 days) and has recently sent up a flower spike.
> This spike grew 2-3" a day until it is now well out of the water.  My
> tank is not open air, so the spike is going to fry nestled in among the
> CF bulbs.  Now, onto the questions:
>
> 1) Can I simply cut off the flower spike with impunity?
> 2) Can I cut sword leaves that are older (the plant is dominating my
> tank at this point).
>
> The plant itself has long and broad leaves that start out with a number
> of red flecks (almost geometric in shape) that fade over the life of the
> leaf.  Old leaves are almost entirely green.  The plant is about 12"
> tall and easily 12-14" in diameter at this point.
>
> Thanks for input, as I am going to remove the spike if it is deemed to
> be safe to the plant.  Either way, it will not survive where it is now
> :-)
>
> John Stark
>
> John at starkreality dot net


Why don't you try keeping the spike under water. Push it below the leaves of
some plant or driftwood so that it remains under water. Because very soon
you'll have plantlets from this spike which you can trade.
From your description it appears like it is an Echinodorus - Ozelot, Red
Flame or one of the variants.
You can cut the spike off if you want to no harm done.

Madan Subramanian
Bangalore, India.
madans at hathway_com
madans at satyam_net.in