What is this?

[John G]

I had a plant in my aquarium for six months or more—reasonably small, about eight or nine inches tall. Suddenly it started growing enormous leaves, about 10 inches long and three or four inches wide. They would be on long stems and float on the top of the water. Then it started shooting out stems which go out of the water, and have small leaves and flowers. Here is a photo:

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You can see part of one of the large leaves to the left, in the aquarium. I assume this is some sort of Echinodorus; is it possible to identify it from the photo and description I gave?

[Aaron]

It certainly looks like some sort of Echinodorus. A happy one at that.

[John G]

The plant was taking over my aquarium, so I pulled it out today. Here is the entire plant—or what’s left of it:

plant5-21.jpg (154.82 KiB) Viewed 3635 times

The stems are about 2-1/2 feet long, not counting the leaves at the end. I still have no idea what it is. I haven’t decided if I will try to grow it emmersed, or just throw it away.

[Aaron]

It's definitely a sword plant of some sort. Do you have a pond outside?

[John G]

No pond.

[JLW]

Bring it on Saturday.