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Name that plant! (Northern US...swords??)


    I recently found a large local (eastern North Dakota) population of 
what I can only describe as something that appears to be some sort of
sword, but I've never heard of swords growing this far north.  The plant
grows in boggy areas, either in water or in very wet mud left behind by
receding waters.  The leaves grow in the standard Echinodorus-style
cluster, with a leaf (typically) about 6" long and perhaps 3"-4" wide
(variable) on about an 8" stem.   The veining of the leaf consists of five
longitudinal veins, the outer two very close to the leaf edge, with small
veins running betweens these at about a 45-degree angle from the center
vein.  The leaves are a ligh green, with large emersed plants almost
always having dark scarlet stems up to near the leaf--the leaves
themselves also often have reddish coloring on the edges and veins.  Of
the couple of specimens I've yanked up, they have a cluster of white
unbranched, apparently hairless roots just as I'd expect of a sword.  Two
of the three specimens pulled up had a spot where a thick fibrous mass of
some sort had broken off during the uprooting--it may have been either
a rhizome or some sort of tap root (which would make little sense to me
in a plant that appears to die quickly if deprived of water-saturated
soil anyway.)  Propogation is unknown--no flowers were observed, and
plants were generally found in groups.  I found a few plants that had
grown right next to each other much like daughter plants might, but most
were better spaced.
   I took one home and plunked the poor SOB in a tank of the local
liquid rock (22 KH 18 GH, pH around 8.)  Within the first few days,
two of the four origional leaves (it was a smaller plant) died back,
but two new leaves appeared almost overnight on nearly foot long
stems--the plant appears to be absolutely determined to put up arials,
which will probably limit it's usefullness as an aquarium plant.  Still,
in a shallow tank the effect would be rather surreal, with the long
slender vertical stems and floating red hi-lighted leaves. Perhaps
pond people would like them as well--the emersed form is rather
striking, and they must be tough as nails to survive winter up here
and come back every year.
   WELL, that's the exhaustive story. :-)  Anyone care to guess what
these pretty plants might be?

Nathan H.