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Junior Amazon Sword Plant

Helanthium tenellum

Also called Dwarf Burhead, Mudbabies, Pygmy Chain Sword

Junior Amazon Sword Plant
Photo: USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canad, Public domain

Junior Amazon Sword (Helanthium tenellum, also called pygmy chain sword or dwarf burhead) is a small aquatic or semi-aquatic plant in the water-plantain family, native to the Americas. It is grown in aquariums and wet paludariums, where it is kept submerged or emersed in damp substrate.

Family
Alismataceae (Alismat family)
Grows as
Aquatic
Light
Bright indirect
Water
Keep the roots constantly submerged or in saturated substrate; it grows fully underwater or in wet soil.
Soil
Fine aquarium gravel or sand, or a moist, nutrient-rich wet substrate.
Temperature
18–28 °C; protect below 10 °C.
How easy
Easy
Native range
C. & E. U.S.A. to Trop. & Subtrop. America
Climate
temperate

About

Helanthium tenellum, the pygmy chain sword, is a species of plants in the Alismataceae. It is native to the eastern United States (from Texas to Florida, north to Michigan and Massachusetts), southern Mexico (Chiapas, Veracruz), West Indies (Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola), Central America, South America (from Guyana to Argentina)

Other Helanthium plants

Bolivian Chain Sword · Helanthium zombiense · Helanthium

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Helanthium tenellum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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