About the species

Helanthium bolivianum 'Quadricostatus' is a South American rosette plant with pale green, ribbon-shaped leaves. The leaves grow ten to fifteen centimetres long and each rosette 15–20 centimetres wide, and the light colour gives a clear contrast to darker plants. In good conditions it sends out runners that spread across the substrate. It used to be sold as Echinodorus bolivianus var. magdalenensis.

Facts

• Latin name: Helanthium bolivianum 'Quadricostatus'
• Plant type: Rosette plant
• Origin: South America
• Height: 10–15 cm
• Growth rate: Medium
• Position: Midground

Light requirement

Low light requirement. It manages with the lighting that comes with most aquariums and is happy in partial shade behind or beneath taller plants. Strong lighting does not harm it, but raises the risk of algae on the leaves because the plant cannot use all the available light.

CO₂ & nutrition

Manages entirely without added CO₂, which makes it as suitable for a simple aquarium as for an aquascape. Liquid carbon or injected CO₂ speeds up growth but is never a requirement. Dose an all-round fertiliser with iron and micronutrients every week.

Planting

Plant the root ball in the substrate so the roots are covered but the crown — where the new leaves emerge — sits just above it. Burying the growth point makes the plant rot. Give it plenty of room, since the leaves spread out in a rosette.

Rinse all the gel off in lukewarm water before planting, otherwise it can cause bacterial cloudiness. The cup holds many small plants — divide them up and plant them in several portions.

Care & propagation

Cut old outer leaves off at the base once they start to look tired, and the rosette stays fresh. The plant propagates itself with daughter plants from the rootstock; separate them from the mother plant once they have their own roots and a few leaves.

Position in the aquarium

Its height makes it a classic midground plant. It works nicely as the transition between low foreground plants and tall background plants, and looks best in a group or around a piece of wood.

Difficulty level

🟢 Easy — grows in most aquariums without CO₂ and under ordinary lighting.

Delivery format

Delivered as 1-2-Grow! — a laboratory-grown cup holding many small plants in nutrient gel. Because the plant is cultivated in vitro it is completely free of snails, algae, planaria and pesticides, which makes it the safest choice for a shrimp aquarium.

Recommendation

It looks best planted as a group in the midground, where the pale leaves lift everything dark green around them. If the leaves turn really pale it is almost always a shortage of micronutrients rather than the light.