Sagittaria subulata (dwarf sagittaria): grower data and range

What the grower data says

Tropica rates Sagittaria subulata easy, with low light demand and, unusually for an easy plant, medium CO2 demand ^[1]. The growth-rate field is blank on its page, so that rating is not published. Aquasabi profiles the ‘Pusilla’ form as easy, medium in growth and low in light, with no need for added CO2, a care height of 5–20 cm and water up to “hard” ^[2]. So the two growers differ on CO2: Tropica places it in its medium band (6–14 mg/L on its scale), Aquasabi says added CO2 is not needed.

The height rating, 5–30 cm or more, is wide for a reason. Tropica describes it as an ideal, undemanding foreground plant, but warns that under certain conditions it suddenly grows to a height of 50 cm as it gets older. If it is then moved to the background, it may become low again ^[1].

Placement and planting

Tropica describes it as a foreground plant ^[1]; Aquasabi lists the ‘Pusilla’ form for the foreground, middle ground and nano tanks ^[2]. Tropica’s planting advice is to set individual plants 2–4 cm apart; their short runners then form a compact group ^[1].

As a rooted plant spreading through the substrate, it takes nutrients by the roots; see root tabs and nutrient substrates for what manufacturers state about root feeding.

Growth and flowering

The plant spreads by runners (stolons), which is how a few plants become a group ^[1]. Tropica also notes that in the aquarium it sometimes sends a long flower stem to the surface, where small white flowers open just above the water ^[1].

Names and taxonomy

The World Checklist of Vascular Plants accepts Sagittaria subulata (L.) Buchenau in the water-plantain family Alismataceae. Linnaeus first described it as Alisma subulatum, and the checklist lists Sagittaria pusilla Nutt. and Sagittaria lorata (Chapm.) Small among its synonyms ^[3]. The trade form name ‘Pusilla’ echoes that old species name.

Here the grower data and the checklist disagree on origin. Tropica gives “South America” ^[1]. WCVP’s native range is mainly the eastern United States, from Massachusetts and New York south to Florida, Alabama and Mississippi, plus Colombia and Venezuela ^{[3, 4]}. WCVP also records introduced populations in the Azores, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Java, Palestine and Trinidad and Tobago ^[3]. A plant that has naturalized outside its range should never be released or composted where fragments can reach water; see invasive aquarium plants and safe disposal.