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pygmy chain sword?
'Bout a month ago I bought 3 plants at a local shop that were described
only as "a pygmy chain sword". I assumed it was E. tenellus, and it
looked the part; about 3 inches tall, some leaves narrowly lanceolate with
indistinct petioles and some leaves more ribbonlike. The plants also had
runners with plantlets. I took them home, planted them near the front of
a 20 gallon long nursery tank and waited for them to spread out enough
that I could transplant them to my larger tanks.
Well, I now have about 50 of these things and they *didn't* stay cute and
little. The longer leaves are laying out on the water surface. All of
the new leaves are straight and ribbonlike, less than 0.5 cm wide and up
to 28 cm long (and getting longer) with a gradually tapering tip. There
is usually one slightly more prominant vein in the center of the leaf and
the veins all appear to be completely straight - not converging to the tip
as in vallisneria (but its hard to tell). The leaves are slightly curved
downward and the plant forms a spreading rosette - it isn't a vertical
plant like val.
I'm wondering if this might actually be a Sagittaria (probably S.
subulata) instead of an echinodorus. But I understand there are other
echinodorus that might fit the description. How can one tell? Any ideas?
Roger Miller