Sword ID

[Ben Belton]

I don't have a pic. Sorry.

Short: A couple years ago there was a sword (Echinodorus) being sold that was practically purple, grew miserably slow, wasn't easy, hard to find, and pretty expensive. (like $60) Anyone remember what it was?

Long: A couple years ago someone from Thialand (I think) was selling tissue cultured plants on eBay. They were still in flask, so importation wasn't an issue. One of these swords was being offered. I thought I'd be clever, buy one, culture it, and corner the market. (Even though I'm a terrible seller). I bought one, put it in MS media, it grew a little, and it died. Great. This was maybe 18 months ago. Being lazy I never did anything with the flask. It has sat on a shelf all this time. A couple weeks ago, I picked it up and there were baby plants all over the mother. So I made media, chopped off the babies, put them in flask, and they are starting to grow. So if I don't screw it up, I'll have about 12 of these. BTW when I was making the media I realized it didn't have any sugar in it. This also made me realize that I don't remember putting in it when I made it before. Maybe this is why it died.

[JLW]

There are actually quite a few cultivars of sword plants that could be described as "purple," though red is a better descriptor. I've got one called, I believe, a "Jaguar" Sword which has dark, dark red leaves.

Just a couple of other guesses, there's a "Firefly" variety that has very, very red stems and leaves. There's one I've seen called "Deep Purple," as well, though that one usually looks bright red to me. There's also "Purple Knight," which looks very purple and would be my best guess. My last guess would be the Dschungel Star variety, which if you do a google image search (I've never seen it in person) can look kind of purple.

If it is Purple Knight, I'd be interested in getting one.

J.

[Ben Belton]

I found it. I knew there was a reason I didn't delete email.

Echinodorus aflame

http://www.dewinters.nl/planten/Echinod ... aflame.htm

[Aaron]

If you ever can get 'Deep Purple' please do. I had it once and it was truly purple with lime green stems. Just amazing.

[Ltrepeter2000]

Ben

You are right on it growing terribly slow....I have one that probably puts out new leaves every other month at the most and I have never managed to get plantlets from it. I would probably be interested in getting a couple from you down the line.

Thanks
Rob

[JLW]

Aflame is Purple Knight.