Cryptocoryne sp. 'Lingga 22'

Along the stream banks where we found C. sp. 'Lingga 19 - Platinum Line', we found emersed cryptocorynes growing which did not had any 'Platinum' coloured veins.

The leaves were greenish both on the upper and under sides. We managed to find an opened spathe, the spathe was rather small. The limb of the spathe was reddish in colour with protuberances attached. It had a reddish throat too.

We cut open the spathe when we were back in the hotel to photograph the interior.

As we could not confirm that it was the same as C. sp. 'Lingga 19 - Platinum Line', my explorer friend decided to first term it as C. sp. 'Lingga 22'.

Cryptocoryne sp. 'Lingga 19 - Platinum Line'

The natural habitat of C. sp. 'Lingga 19 - Platinum line' was the first cryptocoryne location we went to on our 3rd day of our field trip. We had to bash a few hundred metres into a secondary forest / swamp to reach the stream where the cryptocorynes could be found.

The cryptocorynes were growing fully submersed in the stream, the water level was higher as compared to when my friend visited it previously a few months ago.

From the close up photographs, you could see the striking lighter coloured veins of the leaves.

I scooped a few inhabitants of the stream for photography purpose.

The lighter coloured veins seemed to be metallic in colour, which was why my explorer friend termed this cryptocoryne as "platinum line". The underside of the leaves were greenish in colour and the leaves were bullated.

A distance away, I found some cryptocoryne growing in emersed form on the steeper portion of the stream banks.

The substrate was muddy and the pH of the water was around 5.0.

I unwittingly walked into the web of this striking spider which landed on my head. I hated spider and immediately called out to my friend to help to remove it away from me. Was this a poisonous spider and what would happened if it had bit me? => turn into spiderman?

We found many specimens with unopened spathes as shown below. Fruits were found too. My friend previously cut an unopened spathe of this species before and the limb seemed as if it was red in colour, see this link for the photographs.

Back in the hotel, we attempted to cut open three of the unopened spathes we collected and were shocked to find out that two of the unopened spathes actually harboured caterpillars inside them. We were not sure what type of caterpillars they were or how did they entered the unopened spathe in the first place. It seemed that the caterpillars had fed themselves with the internal male and female portions of the flower.

One of the limb was yellowish in colour instead of reddish, unlike what my friend discovered earlier. Was the difference in colour due to the immaturity of the spathe or effects of the caterpillar attack, or was it because this species had varying coloured spathes? The limbs of the other two spathes reminded me of the surface of pancakes. Hahaha.

Below are the sof the remaining immature male and female flower of the spathe which did not had any caterpillar.

A Morning in Pancur

Below are some photographs of the morning scene in Pancur. The hotel room was the largest one in the hotel with 2 beds and an attached toilet.

We found a large rhino beetle along the hotel corridor on our way out.

This is the place where people buy tickets to board to the ferry to Bintan Island every morning at 0715hrs. The hut housed a coffee shop which we had coffee and breakfast in.

These are the main streets along the river with shops on both sides of the river.

The great mountain of Lingga could be seen across the sea.

The fishing boat just returned to unload their catchings of the day. We were shocked to see what they had caught......

Below are some other random shots of Pancur.

These are ikan billis laid on the ground for drying. The shop owner told us that they would be exported to other areas, including Singapore.

It was a busy morning in Pancur.

Video clip of boat trip

This will be my first video clip posting on my blog. It is a short video clip taken during the boat trip stated below for your viewing. Hope you will enjoy it.

A scenic boat trip

We decided to call it a day after our visit to the waterfall area. Our ojeks drove us to a jetty along a river where many small wooden boats were docked. We decided to take a boat ride down the river to another town in Lingga Island.

I enjoyed the ride thoroughly, travelling along the meandering river which varied in width ranging possibly from 30m to over 100m. At times, you might be travelling along a narrow section of the river with vegetation along the banks overhanging your boat. After a sharp turning, the scene might totally change when you suddenly enters the wider section of the river, which felt as if you had entered a lake.

We were lucky that that day was a rather windless day and the water was calm. We were able to see the beautiful reflections of the mountains, vegetation and clouds on the river water surface. Note also the change in vegetation along the way from inland forest to mangrove swamp.

Unfortunately, the boat was travelling rather fast and was making sharp turns which required the boat to rotate at times about 30 degrees to one side, I was not able to take clearer photographs using my canon A480 P&S camera. Below are some of the "better ones" which I took for you viewing.

We reached the end of the river and out into the open sea and could see the Pancur town which we were heading towards. It was close to sun set already. Pancur is a town along the edge of the island with many houses on stilts fronting the sea.

We settled for a hotel which we could dock our boat against the entrance courtyard and had our dinner there. The courtyard had a small side hut with 2 food stalls, one operated by a Chinese cook which we order fried rice and stir-fried mix vegetable, the other by a Malay (not sure if this race reference is correct) couple with 2 very beautiful daughters which we ordered BBQ fish and sting-ray.

The BBQ fishes were quite tasty marinated with spices, herbs and coconut milk (a little similar to Otah type of taste), different from the ones we had in Singapore which usually would be coated with sambal chilli.

We end day 2 of field trip and rested in the hotel.

A visit to the waterfall area

We visited the lower stream of one of the waterfalls found on Lingga Island in the late afternoon. Although no cryptocoryne was found, I saw many pretty plants growing on the surfaces of the rocks along the stream. Below are some photographs of these plants.

If you can identify the species of these plants, do share with me. Thanks.

Cryptocoryne sp. 'Lingga 18'

We reached Lingga Island after about half an hour of boat ride from Singkep Island.

It has been close to 1 year since I first visited the island in January 2009 when we found 6 different locations with cryptocorynes. Since then, my explorer friend had re-visited the island a few more times and had discovered many more locations of natural habitats with cryptocorynes. Some of the cryptocorynes found in the various locations might be of similar species but some are probably different.

After settling our ojeks (motorcycle taxi), my explorer friend brought me to visit the natural habitat of C. sp. 'Lingga 18'. Below are a few photographs of the views along the way. Take note of the mountain in the background with its top covered by clouds, Lingga island actually has a mountain which is more than 1000m high.

The location was a stream in the middle of what I viewed as a grass field at the edge of a forest. The cryptocorynes were submersed due to the high water level. The leaves of the cryptocoryne were greenish both on the upper and under sides. Some of the leaves had dark green markings on them.

My friend found the spathe of this cryptocoryne before during his previous trips, see his blog for the photographs. The limb was reddish in colour and had irregular outgrowths (protuberances), quite typical of cryptocorynes found on Lingga Island. The substrate was made of fine sand and the pH of the water was quite low, less than 5.0.