C. sp 'Bintan' = C. cf. nurii / C. cf. scurrilis or something new?

My explorer friend collected some specimens of cryptocoryne from Bintan las year with spathes attached. Below are the photographs of these spathes again for your references. The leaves of these specimens had distinct markings on them and had wavy leaf edges, typical of that of C. nurii, which was why I termed them as C. cf. nurii 'Bintan'.

'The crypt pages' compared them (or at least I think could possibly be them) to C. scurrilis due to the long styles of the spathe, with limbs covered with irregular outgrowths (protuberances).

I had the good fortune to visit the habitat of these cryptocorynes during this field trip to Bintan Island with my explorer friend.

The cryptocorynes were growing abundantly along the banks of a river. It was a pity we did not locate any flowers this time there. The water level seemed to had just lowered recently resulting in many of the specimens having their leaves melted away, leaving just the petioles intact.

Below are some close up photographs of the leaves.

Deeper up along the river, my friend previously found a patch of cryptocorynes which he felt looked different from those shown above. Their leaves were wider, the specimens were larger and the spathes were larger too. My friend thought that these specimens found deeper upstream were more similar to C. scurrilis than those found earlier downstream.

The pH of the water was about 5.5 and the river bed was formed with mud.

Whether these specimens are the same or different or whether they are closer to C. nurii or C. scurrilis, I shall let the experts decide. I think I better term them as C. sp. 'Bintan Island' first to prevent making any mistakes with my wild guesses.

We decided to call it a day and ended our 1st day field trip with Ayam Penyet (with a piece of crispy fried chicken, a piece of fried beancurd and tempe, some fresh cabbage and basil leaves, with sambal belachan chilli paste and bits of golden fried fritter toppings sprinkled over) and freshly squeezed orange juice for dinner.

I suffered from sun burnt on my face and neck after travelling around Bintan Island on an ojek under the hot sun for just one day. This also meant that I did not wear any protective helmet during the first day there. I would like to recommend to all to insist that your ojek driver provide you with a helmet, especially on Bintan Island as the roads there are well suited for speeding. My ojek driver performed a high speed turning along our way back to the city. I could only hold on tightly to the back of the motocycle and watch in horror as the motorcycle skidded off the tarmac road out to the sandy side path (luckily we managed to maintain our balance without falling off) before the driver managed to reduce speed and guide the motorcycle back up onto the tarmac road....