Saturday, October 16, 2010

C. sp. 'Sedili 3'

This is yet another cryptocoryne habitat location around Sedili which my explorer friend brought me to. It was a stream in the forest. If you did not look carefully, you would had easily missed this location as the cryptocorynes were camouflaged by the muddy base of the stream.
The cryptocorynes specimens found here had more distinct markings on their leaves. The leaves were generally dark green in colour with a slightly reddish undersides.
This shows how muddy the bed of the forest was. I only could stand along the edge of the stream as the base of the centre of the stream was too soft (i.e. possibly could sink in up to knee level).
Compared to me, my explorer friend could not be bothered about the dirtiness or the possibility of having bacteria / germs / Mr Lee C. H. / etc lurking within the water and mud. He always wears normal shoes and sometimes only sandals and will not think twice about stepping and sinking into muddy base or having to dive his head under flooded waters just to collect the specimens he wants. As for me, I am always wearing high boots up to just below knee level and will have to prance around the forest looking for firm base formed by rocks or roots to step on so as not to get my feet wet. Well, i guess tthat is  why I am still considered as an amateur only.
The pH of the water was not too low, around 5.5 to 6.0.
These are a few close up shots of some specimens with longer and narrower leaves collected at the same vicinity, which is why it is almost impossible to accurately identify the right species just be looking at the highly varied leaves.
Are these specimens found at this location similar (i.e. belonging to the same species) to the rest found in nearby locations around Sedili area and if yes, what species are they (i.e. C. nurii, C. schulzei, C. griffithii, C. cordata, etc???)? I will term them as C. sp. 'Sedili 3' first in the mean time, until some expert cultivator can help to flower the specimens for verification.

1 comment:

Hermes said...

This is such a fascinating series.