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Echinodorus offsets
>Subject: Echinodorus observaton
>
>I've been propagating this large Echinodorus sp. identified as a hybrid
>by Karen, that resembles E. martii, for several years. Recently one of
>the younger, but rather large plants, put up a flower stalk that hit the
>lights and wilted at the growth tip. It was doing no harm so I left it
>there and noticed that the stalk was getting thicker than usual but
>other than that all seemed normal. Some time latter I noticed that the
>oldest, largest leaves looked like they were being rasped by the
>Bristlenose, again nothing unusual, the plant gets too big anyway and
>this is a good way of controlling it's growth. Yesterday I noticed
>these very same leaves all floating at the surface, they had rotted off
>at the bottom, now this is unusual. When I pruned away the surrounding
>plants so I could get a good look at what was going on, to my surprise I
>found several plantlets growing attached to the base of the original
>plant, just as they normally do on the flower stalk. Has anyone
>observed this behavior, or have an idea as to what may cause this to
>occur?
It's actually pretty common with non-chaining Echinodorus. If they are
growing well, in a substrate that supports their nutritional needs, it's
not at all unusual for them to begin to produce a second (or more) "crown".
My old Rubin needs to be divided at least a couple of times a year, as
well as producing flower spikes with plantlets.
Karen