Roaming the forest of Mersing where C. nurii and C. schulzei could be found

My explorer friend and I went roaming inside the forest near Mersing after a simple traditional Malay lunch comprising of my favourite tapioca leaves curry and fried chicken.

 

 

Both C. nurii and C. schulzei could be found in this forest. I took a photograph of the spathe of the C. schulzei found there.

 

 

 

 

I found a "flower mushroom" there too.

 

The below are signs of other creatures roaming together with us inside the forest, likely that of an elephant and of a very large predator cat...

 

C. sp. 'Pahang 10, Rompin' unopend spathe and fruit found

Breakfast is always an important meal to eat when you go out for a cryptocoryne searching trip. This is because sometimes after you set off you may not be able to locate a suitable place to have proper lunch along your way.

 

We went back to Rompin to visit C. sp. 'Pahang 10' and managed to locate a spathe which unfortunately was not opened yet.

 

 

  

 

Which species do you think these specimens belonged to based on the appearance of the unopened spathe?

 

 

 

We found a fruit too which was quite large in size.

 

Fortunately this time round we managed to locate a proper stall to have lunch.

C. xpurpurea 'Malacca'

Many hobbyists recently reported finding C. xpurpurea in Malacca state and therefore I went with my explorer friend to take some photographs of it too. Below is a photograph of the overview of the natural habitat, a stream flowing out of the forest.

The leaves had cordate shape with upper side being greenish and lower side being either greenish or reddish.

The below photograph shows the typical size of a specimen and the root area having rhizome.

The pH of the water was about 6.5 and the substrate was a mixture of gravel and sand.

We found 2 unopened spathes and 2 opened spathes.

One of the opened spathe had its limb slightly torn already.

The other opened spathe was with better condition showing the slightly raised orange collar and the pink limb which was unusually long and distinctively arched.

As usual we cut open a kettle to take photographs of the male and female portion of the flower and as usual, we spotted a fly being trapped inside the limb. The fly was in a daze with its wings slightly wet, allowing us the opportunity to take photographs of it without flying away immediately.

See below for the male and female portion of the flower. I personally felt that the stigma was not the typical round and white rabbit tail shape as shown in 'the crypt pages'.

We had a bowl of Maggi chicken flavoured instant noodle with egg each for lunch at one small coffee shop as a reward for locating the above.

So it the identification above (i.e. C. xpurpurea) correct? I will leave it to the viewer to decide for yourself.

Cryptocoryne Horizontal Distribution Summary Table

My explorer friend shared with me his knowledge regarding horizontal and vertical distribution of species, especially that of butterfly which he was actively involved in the research when he was younger. We decided to carry out some analysis for cryptocorynes.

The below table shows the summary of the horizontal distribution pattern of cryptocorynes found in Malay Peninsula (including Riau Islands), Sumatra and Borneo. I categorised the distribution patterns into 4 categories:

1. Spot Distribution (i.e. within 1 swamp or river system)
2. Wider Distribution (i.e. more than 1 swamp or river system and located further away)
3. Inter boundary distribution (across various countries or islands)
4. Unknown

I created the below table based on the information deduced from "the crypt pages" distribution map for each species, with some amendments based on my personal experience gained from visiting the natural habitats of the various species of cryptocorynes in Malay Peninsula, Riau Islands and Borneo.

Why does Borneo has so many species under the category of what I termed as "spot distribution" compared to Malay Peninsula, Riau Islands and Sumatra? Is this due to the more complex palaeogeography of Borneo?