illumbomb's cryptocoryne blog

Cryptocoryne noritoi 'East Kalimantan'

2012-01-28T23:45:00.002+08:00

My explorer friend recently went to East Kalimantan and collected Cryptocoryne noritoi from there. I was lucky to obtain some live specimens as well as some preserved spathes. Below are some photographs of these specimens and spathes.

Note the cordate shape of the leaf which is mainly green in colour both at the upper and under sides. In my opinion, as compared to C. pontederiifolia and C. moehlmannii, the leaf edges of C. noritoi are slightly more wavy and the leaf bases are more cordate. And according to 'the crypt pages', the leaf veins have furrows (depressions) along them.

Some of the leaves were brown with some slight venation too.

Many specimens had fruits meaning that they were flowering profusely previously.

Although there was no live spathe found currently, I was lucky to be able to take the photographs of the spathes which were preserved in 70% alcohol by my friend.

I fished out a spathe from the alcohol to cut open the kettle. The colour of the limb had already faded.

Note the dark spot inside the kettle.

A poor fly was trapped in the kettle and was drowned in the alcohol dip.

The male and female flowers are as shown below.

Another preserved spathe which was not fully blooming yet was cut open for photograph taking.

Hopefully the specimens below grown in charcoal filter media will flower soon so that I can take the photographs of the fresh spathe for record.

Mersing to Singapore

2011-12-24T23:42:00.001+08:00

It rained heavily in Mersing all night long.

We woke up the next morning and was greeted with a drizzling weather while having breakfast at the hotel we stayed.

As the drizzle did not stop, we proceeded to the river side for brunch. The river was swelling with all the rain, which was not a good sign for us.

We had a fresh sotong (Malay word for squid) with chili and roti prata again.

When the rain finally stopped, we headed to the first location at west of Mersing to visit C. cf. xpurpurea (or C. cf. jacobsenii as my friend recognised it). The rain luckily did not flood this habitat too much and we were able to still locate the cryptocorynes.

C. nurii 'Mersing' habitat was thoroughly flooded. The river had even flooded beyond the banks into the forest as could be seen from all the mud deposits on the forest floor. The cryptocorynes could not be seen at all from the edge of the river.

I saw some pretty wild ginger species there with yellow flowers which had plantlets growing from the flowering points.

We had a durian for snack along the way back from Mersing at a road side durian stall.

We took a detour to Sedili and was greeted with another destructed habitat sight. The C. sp. 'Sedili 6' habitat had been destroyed by excavator to form water drainage for the nearby oil palm plantation. Sad...

We were stuck in a traffic jam for close to 2 hours on our way back into Singapore due to the holiday season and had Ampang Yong Tou Fou for dinner at upper Thomson Road before ending our 2D1N road trip.

Romping in Rompin

2011-12-22T18:34:00.001+08:00

I had the opportunity to go for a 2D1N trip with my explorer friend to Peninsula Malaysia 2 weekends ago to visit some nearby cryptocoryne habitats again. As usual, the trip started with having roti prata for breakfast in Johor Bahru.

And as usual, the strategy we adopted was to go to the furthest location first, then make our way back slowly. For 2D1N, we decided to venture furthest to Rompin only, then back to Mersing and Singapore. The first habitat we visited was that of C. sp. 'Pahang 10, Rompin' to see if we could locate a blooming spathe.

Unfortunately, luck was not on our side, no spathe was found and instead we were greeted with the sight of an extremely large paw print of a cat again...

The quantities of plants seemed to be much more than when we previously visited, which was good as it signified that the plants were reproducing.

We brought Mr Lee C. H. out from the jungle for a simple lunch of fried rice before heading to C. sp. 'Pahang 8, Rompin' habitat.

C. sp. 'Pahang 8, Rompin' habitat could be destroyed sooner or later with all the deforestation going on around Rompin like the case shown below.

Footpaths could now be seen being formed inside the jungle where the cryptocorynes were found, indicating that human activities were increasing in the jungle, possibly surveying the potential for logging?

A spider guarded the throat of the blooming spathe, waiting to trap insects travelling in and out of the kettle tube?

C. sp. 'Pahang 2, Rompin' could be found mixed with C. sp. 'Pahang 8, Rompin' at this habitat. We found the fruits and some unopened spathes.

We travelled to Mersing and stayed over there for the night and spent the rest of the night enjoying the simple seafood dinner and mindless chatting...

C. nurii 'Central Pahang' bloomed

2011-11-26T16:34:00.000+08:00

My C. nurii 'Central Pahang recently bloomed after more than 2 years of cultivation. This is the specimen with very small spathe. See below for the photographs of the spathe.

C. moehlmannii spathe

2011-10-30T23:58:00.000+08:00

I had the great fortune to obtain from my explorer friend a blooming specimen of C. moehlmannii which he had previously collected around Aceh in Sumatra. The specimen was grown in my friend's farm with used charcoal filter media and was infected with red mites (see the swamp of mites on the unopened spathe) which I did not noticed until I was cutting the spathe.

The spathe opened a few days later in my home.

The limb of the spathe was red (can you spot the red mite on the limb?). The collar had a distinctive circular line separating the lower smoother portion from the upper rougher limb. This distinctive line could be seen at the back of the limb too as a bulge.

We cut opened the kettle as usual to reveal the male and female portion of the spathe.

The inner wall of the kettle just below the throat had red spots.

The spadix was wrapped up within the flap / valve.

A closer look at the spadix, stigma and olfactory bodies.

spathes of bucephalandra vs aridarum vs bakoa

2011-10-26T17:59:00.001+08:00

I took some photographs of the spathes of bucephalandra, aridarum and bakoa from my friend's farm for comparison.

Bucephalandra:

The leaves of bucephalandra found at different locations may look different but the spathe do not look very different in my opinion as compared to that of cryptocorynes. Below are some examples.

Aridarum:

Bakoa:

The naked spathes:

Time flies, final update on hydroponics results

2011-10-23T22:58:00.000+08:00

Time flies. It has been closed to a year since I started to grow some cryptocorynes with just water and sponge media. Of the 16 species tested, only C. ferruginea, C. alba and C. ideii (collected from west Kalimantan which i suspected could had been C. ferruginea too) eventually survived the harsh environment. There shall be no further updates on this in the future as only 2 or 3 species are left.

spathe of C. lingua from Mr Teo's farm

2011-09-04T19:35:00.000+08:00

I went to Mr Teo's farm recently and saw a fibre tank full of C. lingua growing emersed in a mixture of soil and chicken poo.

I had seen C. lingua spathe in the nature previously when I visited Sarawak but the spathe was not opened yet then. Therefore I took the opportunity this time round to take photographs of the blooming C. lingua spathes I found in the farm.

My experience is that it is not easy to grow C. lingua emersed in my cultivation tank but look at these healthy specimens grown by Mr Teo in his farm exposed to the environment!

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

2011-08-30T16:30:00.000+08:00

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

2011-08-22T00:19:00.000+08:00

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'

2011-08-11T04:46:00.003+08:00

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

2011-08-05T21:50:00.004+08:00

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:

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

Spathe of C. scurrilis from type locality at Indragiri found

2011-06-28T06:52:00.000+08:00

Hi all, my explorer friend finally found a specimen of the C. scurrilis spathe growing in the wild at the type locality within the Indragiri region. Click on the link below to see it:

http://cryptoandbetta.blogspot.com/2011/06/c-sucrrilis-type-spathe.html

Does it look like any of the current so called C. scurrlis specimens found so far which have been circulated? The pronounced collar seemed to be very distinct and the limb based colour is much lighter than that of the irregular outgrows (protuberances) resulting in it having sort of a polka dot effect. Nice?

C. sp. ‘location name, number, etc’ does not necessarily mean a new species!

2011-06-20T00:50:00.004+08:00

I have not been going for any field trips recently so I decided to write some articles about some of my thoughts and insights gathered from my few years of cryptocorynes obsession. The article below is to explain what exactly C. sp' Belitong', C. sp. 'Lingga', C. sp. 'Pahang', etc stands for in case I have managed to confuse some of you with it. The title of the article is as per stated in this blog entry's title.

C. sp. ‘location name, number, etc’ does not necessarily mean a new species!

I am lucky to be living in Singapore, a small country represented by just a tiny red dot on many world maps. However, due to its geographical location (i.e. Singapore is centrally located within South East Asia), it is easy to travel to places with abundant cryptocorynes habitats such as Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sarawak, etc from Singapore.

Secondly I am lucky to have met my explorer friend for without him, I would not have the chance to visit so many different habitats of various species of cryptocorynes found by him to take amateur photographic records of the various habitat conditions and cryptocoryne specimens found.

One of the major problems faced during my visits to these cryptocoryne habitats is that many a times I will not be able to locate a blooming specimen with a fully open spathe to aid in the correct identification of the species (i.e. there are some locations which my explorer friend or I have visited more than 10 times but we are still not able to locate any blooming specimen). It is generally very difficult to identify which known species a specimen found belongs to by just looking at the appearance of the leaves which can vary greatly even for specimens found within the same location (with the exception of maybe C. longicauda, C. thewaitesii, etc which leaves have rather distinctive characteristics). See below for one such example of the varied leaves of specimens located at one same habitat.

I have also learnt and realised that there is always a bias perception, which is: if there is a habitat which previously had certain species of cryptocorynes recorded to be found there, any specimens found subsequently at this location will be deemed to belong to the same species previously recorded (especially if no blooming specimens was found). While this is generally true, there had been some occasions where exceptions were encountered because eventually 2 or more different species of cryptocorynes were found dwelling within the same forest / swamp / river system. See below for one example of 2 different species of cryptocoryne found within the same swamp forest. Another example is C. minima and C. elliptical at Pondok Tanjung reserve forest.

Even if a blooming specimen was found, from the many photographs found on-line, you will probably agree that there are so many variations in the appearance of the spathe in terms of the shape, size and colour of the limbs / male and female flowers / etc, making it sometimes difficult to confirm which known species the blooming specimen should belongs to. See below for examples of some of such specimens in my opinion.

Click on this link to view C. sp. 'Matak 1'

Click on this link to view C. sp. 'Aceh 1'

With all the problems listed above, instead of making wild guesses (i.e. based on just the appearance of the leaves or on the location of the habitat), my personal preference (probably some may agree while others may not agree) is generally to use C. sp. ‘area name, number representing the different locations within the same area’ to name:

specimens found without a blooming specimen, even if the specimens were found at locations with previous records, or
specimens found with a blooming specimen which spathe has sufficient variations from the current know species such that one cannot confidently confirm the accurate identification of species

What is important to me is to have good photographic records of as much details as possible. I prefer to then leave it to the viewers and the experts to make their own judgement and inference on which known species should such specimens belong to.

Hopefully spathes can be located soon (i.e. either through repeated visits to the habitats or through cultivation) for those specimens currently without any blooming specimens found. And hopefully, a handful of such specimens may eventually be recognized by the experts in the future to be something new (i.e. new species, new natural hybrid, new sub-species, new location record, etc). Until then, C. sp. ‘location name, number, etc’ does not necessarily mean a new species!

C. sp. 'Sumatra - Indragiri East 3' spathe

2011-06-18T20:56:00.000+08:00

Today I went to my friend's farm again and managed to take some photographs of a blooming spathe of C. sp. 'Sumatra - Indragiri East 3'.

I also took some photographs of a species of aglaonema from Sumatra with beautiful green camouflage coloured leaves.

C. sp. 'Sumatra - Indragiri East'

2011-06-14T00:21:00.001+08:00

My explorer friend collected cryptocoryne specimens from 4 locations around Indragiri East region in Sumatra recently. Out of the specimens from 4 locations, 2 of them had unopened spathes attached. He termed these 2 locations as. C. sp. 3 and C. sp. 4. from Indragiri East. We cut opened the immature spathes to take photographs in case they melt away without blooming.

C. sp. 3 'Indragiri East 3'

Fruits was found for C. sp. 'Indragiri East 3'. The olfactory bodies distinctively had 2 colours. The limb was reddish in colour and had protuberances, they looked similar to those of C. sp. 'Lingga' in my opinion. See this link for photographs of the bloomed spathe taken by my explorer friend.

C. sp. 4

C. sp. 4 was very similar to C. sp. 3, the olfactory bodies had 2 distinct colours too.

Our "free" watch dogs greeted us when we left the farm.

C. sp. 'Kota Tinggi' flowered

2011-06-08T06:20:00.000+08:00

After more than 2 years, my cultivated C. sp. 'Kota Tinggi' finally decided to flower again. I spotted the spathe since early May 2011 but only took a photograph of it during end May 2011 as below. The spathe had already rotated more than 90 degrees anti-clockwise since it first sprouted.

By the time the spathe bloomed, it had rotated another 180 degrees anti-clockwise. This phenomenon was not observed when compared to another cryptocoryne (i.e. C. nurii 'Central Pahang') which simultaneously flowered in the same tank during the same period.

Below are the close up photographs of the distinctive red crumpled surfaced limb of the spathe.

The red colour extended beyond the sharped folded collar down the throat.

As usual, I cut opened the kettle to take photographs of the spadix, stamens, flap (valve), appendix, pistals, styles, stigmas, olfactory bodies, etc.

When will it flower again?

Yet another day in the farm experimenting with cultivation methodologies

2011-05-29T10:55:00.001+08:00

I spent an afternoon at my friend's mini-farm yesterday, experimenting with different cultivation methodologies.

My friend had moved away from using small cultivation tanks for a long time. Currently, his plants are laid in plastic baskets with water spraying down and splashing at them 15 minutes every hour using a pump connected to mechanical timer. This will ensure that the plants are sufficiently wet, or at least keep the humidity level high around these concrete ponds.

Before letting your imagination run wild thinking that all the plants shown in the above photographs are cryptocorynes, I better inform you that they are not. Most of them are actually bucephalandra. Let your imagination run wild now if you are a bucephalandra fanatic! The below photograph shows one of the very rare mutated monster bucephalandra under his collection.

As you can see from the below photograph, my friend is trying out using used active charcoal filter media (free of charge, left over from adjacent fish farms) as substrate instead of soil-based substrate for some of his cryptocorynes collection.

The below photograph shows another trial using rock wool as substrate, again instead of soil-based substrate.

Some specimens of C. striolata collected from west Kalimantan by my friend are currently being cultivated just by placing them on a layer of rock wool. We spotted a beautiful budding spathe with yellow tip.

The leaves of these C. striolata specimens are quite beautiful too.

There were some fibre tanks which are filled with higher levels of water. Some cryptocorynes cultivation trials are being conducted here too.

My friend was kind enough to let me have a small space in one of such tanks to play around with my own cryptocorynes. I selected a few pots of cryptocorynes from my home's cultivated tanks to be relocated here instead, hoping that the change in environment (i.e. water condition, water level, temperature, humidity, etc) will spur these pots of cryptocorynes to exhibit better growth as compared to their current lacklustre performance.

I also lined a basket with filter sponge and filled the space with "aquarium soil" to see whether the increased permeability (i.e. allowing for more water to flow through the substrate as compared to those in pots with only a few holes at the bottom) will improve the plant growth or not.

Hopefully all these changes above will prove to be beneficial to the plants. My friend is also lucky to have beautiful show dogs from the neighbouring farm to help him to guard his mini plant farm free of charge.

C. sp 'Rompin, Pahang 10'

2011-05-22T23:29:00.001+08:00

Rompin swamp was really a gem with many pockets of cryptocorynes specimens waiting to be found. Below are the photographs of yet another location where we found cryptocorynes within this swamp.

Both emersed and submersed specimens could be found but unfortunately, we were not able to find any spathes to confirm their identity.

Some of the submersed specimens had really large heart shape leaves.

Bettas and boraras maculata were common fishes which we always found in such swamp habitat.

If the above fishes were bigger, they might end up as our dinner i.e. clay pot curry fish head.

C. nurii 'Central Pahang'

2011-05-15T23:19:00.002+08:00

After eating wanton noodle for breakfast, my explorer friend brought me to the habitat for C. nurii at Central Pahang.

The habitat was a wide river with water level at about shin height. The water flow was rather fast and all the cryptocorynes were fully submersed. The river had sandy bed and the water had neutral pH, i.e. about 7.0 to 7.5.

Below are the close up photographs of the submersed leaves.

We found 2 opened submersed spathes and a few unopened ones as well. One of the spathe's protuberance tips were whitish in colour. Note also the long peduncle (flower stalk).

As usual, we cut open the kettles of a submersed spathe as well as an unopened spathe for review and were rather surprised at what we saw. Look closely at the female flower portion.

The phenomenon was more apparent in the kettle of the unopened spathe.

Did you noticed that there were actually 2 layers (one on top of the other) of female flowers present? What caused such mutation? Was it because of the specimens frequently being submersed under water?

C. sp. 'Rompin, Pahang 9'

2011-05-14T22:22:00.000+08:00

Before entering the jungle and forest, always fill up you stomach first as you will definitely need energy to manoeuvre through the forest and that was what we did.

After lunch, my explorer friend brought me through a complex maze of dirt roads and paths to a forested area around Rompin to visit a black water river where he discovered huge batches of cryptocorynes therein.

And once again, we met their good neighbour, the barclaya motleyi again.

I caught some, shrimps, bettas and parosphromenus among the cryptocorynes to take photograph.

Both emersed and submersed specimens could be found.

The substrate was peat soil.

Unfortunately, we could not locate any spathe belonging to these specimens to confirm their identity and had to plan to come back again in the future to search for it again. My friend felt that it could maybe be comparable to C. scurrilis. After taking all the required photographs, we quickly got back into the car to escape from the sand flies.

Searching for C. jacobsenii in Johor

2011-05-08T21:53:00.000+08:00

I recently read the post from See Nature website that C. jacobsenii was recently found in Johore state together with C. nurii and therefore decided to stop by one of the C. nurii habitat in a forest in Johore with my explorer friend to search for it and this was what we found:
Overview of the habitat:

Close up of the riverbeds where many cryptocoryne specimens of varying apperance could be found, note also the many tree roots growing out the river bed:

Close up of the various specimens of cryptocorynes found, these were not the usual C. nurii as their leaves edges were not wavy:

While some parts of the river bed were covered with coarse sand, there were some sections which were more muddy with fine sand:

These were some inhabitants living in the river:

Whether the cryptocorynes found were the same shown on the See Nature website, whether the various specimens found were the same or different species and whether they were C. jacobsenii remain to be proved by finding the opened spathes. However one thing for sure was that it was again proven that having multiple cryptocoryne species staying together within one locality is common.

C. sp. 'Sedili 3' mystery solved!

2011-05-07T22:02:00.001+08:00

I revisited C. sp. 'Sedili 3' habitat with my explorer friend and we were happy to finally find an open spathe to confirm its identity.

From the appearance of the spathe, the species should belong to that of the C. cordata family but I am not sure which variety it belonged to. Below are the close up photographs of the spathe for your review. Note that the specimen had raised collar at the throat of the spathe.

The spathe was cut off and brought to the operation theatre for further autopsy.

The kettle was cut open and as usual, a fly "hopped" out in a daze after being unlawfully detained inside the kettle for some time.

So what do you think? Is this C. cordata var. cordata or should this be considered as . cordata var grabowskii?

C. sp. 'Pahang 8', should it be C. cf. xpurpurea 'Rompin' or C. cf. zukalii or what else?

2011-03-21T00:29:00.003+08:00

I managed to visit the habitat of what I earlier termed as C. cf. xpurpurea to see the opened spathe in its natural habitat in Rompin. My friend who saw it earlier felt that it could be comparable to C. zukalii instead. attached below are the photographs which I took for your reference for you to decide yourself what it should be.

an unopened spathe

the golden orange coloured limb of the opened spathe, note the acute angle of the limb and the throat

the spathe being cut off to further expose the interior of the kettle

the slightly yellow coloured throat attracting a fly to rest, , the throat areas were not fully closed up for all the 3 opened spathes I saw so far

the interior of the kettle

The spectrum of variation in cryptocorynes found in the nature is sometimes really too great in my opinion to be able to accurately identify which species should a cryptocoryne be declared as. Maybe I should revert to terming it as just C. sp. 'Pahang 8' so as not to cause future confusion due to inaccurate indentification!

Another lesson learnt from this habitat : if one is too oblivious to what is happening in the surrounding, one might be easily crushed by the little fingers of others (mine in this case :-p, the mosquito would not fly away once they started sucking blood even as my little fingers closed in to kill them).

Inside the kettle of C. pontederiifolia 'Thomson'

2011-03-06T09:49:00.000+08:00

I cut open the kettle of C. pontederiifolia 'Thomson' (the one flowering in my tub pond) to take some close up shots of its interior for record.

Why do C. affinis have spiral limbs

2011-02-21T01:58:00.001+08:00

At many of the habitats of C. affinis, snails such as the ones shown below can be found living in the water among the cryptocorynes. My explorer friend told me that these snails often end up as food for the larva of fireflies.

Can you spot the similarities?!?!?!? Hahahaha. How did the genes of the snails get transferred into the cryptocorynes???

C. pontederiifolia 'Thomson' - a master of adaptability

2011-02-13T22:55:00.002+08:00

I was checking on the good works carried out by my platys, guppies and bettas in helping me to clean up my pots of infested cryptocorynes (i.e. infested with algae, mould, fungus, aphids, etc) when i suddenly realised ......

...... that my C. pontederiifolia 'Thomson' was flowering. This was one of my very first specimen in my collection. It was so stable that I decided not to keep it in my cultivation tanks when I did not have sufficient space and threw it into my metal tub in my balcony.

The plants were adapting well. Even though the pot was already toppled over long time ago, the roots of the plants were growing well and forming a thick web over the pot holding the soil in place.

I hope that these plants will continue to grow well, feeding off the nutrients from the mulm of the fishes.

C. sp. 'Pahang 1' revisited (mini C. affinis?)

2011-02-13T00:44:00.001+08:00

I revisited the habitat of C. sp. 'Pahang 1' at the northern part of Pahang. The water in the large river is at almost the same level as when I first visited it more than 2 years ago. Both emersed and submersed specimens could be found growing along the banks of the river. No spathes could be found at all again. The cryptocorynes were growing among the fine roots of the trees along the banks making them very difficult to collect. The pH was surprisingly rather high at about 9.0.

Could these be miniature C. affinis judging from the looks of the leaves as well as the location the were found? They have great potential to be good foreground plants for planted tanks!

C. sp. 'Sedili 6' bloomed!!!!

2011-02-10T06:41:00.002+08:00

A fellow master cryptocoryne cultivator in Japan managed to bloom C. sp. 'Sedili 6' and my explorer friend managed to obtain some photographs from him and posted them in his blog: see this posting!!!. From the appearance of the leaves, my explorer friend guessed previously that it could be comparable to C. decus silvae.

From the latest development with the verification of a blooming spathe, I thought that C. sp. 'Sedili 6' could be possibly comparable too to C. sp. 'Kota Tinggi' (which is good news since the currently only known habitat of C. sp. 'Kota Tinggi' had been destroyed already) or even C. jacobsenii??? What do you think?

C. sp. 'Pahang 8' = C. cf. xpurpurea 'Rompin'? - a difference in perception and attitute resulted in difference in outcome

2011-02-10T05:29:00.007+08:00

I visited an old cryptocoryne habitat we found in 2009 at Rompin area within Pahang State with my explorer friend and found another batch of cryptocorynes growing about 100m away from where we found the previous batch of cryptocorynes. The habitat was a flooded forest with sandy bed.

The close up photographs of the leaves are as follow.

As usual, barclaya motleyi could be found growing abundantly together with the cryptocorynes.

We found many spathes but none had bloomed yet then.

This is where a difference in perception and attitude resulted in a difference in outcome eventually. For me, I will always assume that any specimens found near a repeated habitat are the same as what we found previously although the leaves may look slightly different. Therefore I did not collect any specimens back.

My explorer friend will always assume otherwise. He will assume that the specimens are different from what we previously found near a repeated habitat if there are differences in the appearance of the leaves. He collected some specimens back.

A few days later he called me to inform me that the spathe bloomed and the specimens turned out to be a different species compared to what we collected previously from the same location. Below are the photographs of the spathe for your reference.

My explorer friend felt that it could be comparable to one of the C. cordata group variety. I thought that the spots on the limb could be comparable to C. xpurpurea but the female portion of the flower (i.e. stigma) seemed to be longer than that of a typical C. xpurpurea and it did not have the typical wide collar area as well..... So what do you think??? I shall term it as C. sp. 'Pahang 8' first.

C. affinis 'West Pahang - Metallic Red'

2011-02-06T09:03:00.002+08:00

West Pahang area was really a kingdom for C. affinis. During our recent trip there, we found quite a few different locations with C. affinis. I will try to follow how my explorer friend named the C. affinis found at the various locations based on their local variation characteristics so as not to create further confusions.
Pahang was rather far from Singapore and we spent a day travelling up to Pahang and staying over for 1 night before commencing our pre "Chinese New Year house visiting" to the various cryptocoryne habitats. After visiting a fresh water lake with "sea-side" banks and a flooded swamp forest, we stayed over at a town flooded with swallows and had dinner and breakfast at the local Chinese coffee shops there.

The first location my friend brought me to visit was the habitat of what he termed as C. affinis 'metallic red' based on the colour of the leaves of the specimens found there. It was a river flowing out of a forest with rather fast flowing water. Carpets of C. affinis could be found in this river.

The river had fine sandy base and a neutral pH.

One thing I always liked about visiting habitats with submersed specimens with bullate leaves was the view of how the pockets of undulations on the leaves retained the fine sand particles washed across the leaves by the water.

Specimens with leaves of various degree of redness could be found here.

My photographs above do not bring justice to why my friend termed these specimens as "metallic red" and therefore I imported a photograph taken by my friend and posted on his blog for your reference below.

We found many fully blooming spathes here, sticking out of the water for various reasons...

As usual, we cut open the kettle of one of the spathe to capture the photographs of the male and female portion of the flower therein for you reference too.

Other C. affinis found at other habitats around west Pahang will be featured in separate postings.

How cryptocorynes help others

2011-02-03T18:20:00.000+08:00

by providing a resting point for those crossing the river......

Seeing the spathe of C. schulzei 'Kota Tinggi' finally

2011-02-02T16:09:00.001+08:00

I had the good fortune to finally see the spathe of C. schulzei 'Kota Tinggi' during my recent trip to Peninsula Malaysia. After having a quick lunch of spicy cucumber + carrot salad, chilli brinjal, and curry squid with rice at a Malay stall near the jetty area at Mersing, we headed down to Kota Tinggi to visit the habitat of C. schulzei.

The habitat was a small stream running out of the forest. Both emersed and submersed specimens could be found in this stream with peat swamp bottom and pH of about 5.5

I had visited this habitat many times as we frequently passed by this area during our cryptocoryne hunting trips in Peninsula Malaysia but never had the good fortune to find any opened spathe during my previous visits. 2 spathes were found this time round. The kettle of the spathes was submersed in water or peat with the tube extending out to expose the limb.

The limb was yellowish in colour with slightly crumpled surface with a large (as compared to the surface of the limb) throat which was reddish in colour. The spathe looked rather typical when compared to the photographs shown on 'the crypt pages'. Below are some close up photographs of the external and internal of the spathe.

A small insect was flying out of the throat and later many escaped through the cut kettle. I had to borrow the photograph from my explorer friend as my hands were tied up with the cutting of the kettle while he focused his camera to take the shot once I opened up the kettle.

From this posting onwards, I will have to upload my photographs onto photobucket and then insert the photographs into this blog through adding the URL links as I have reached my free photograph storage space of 1.0GB allowed by google e-blogger website.

Happy 2011 Chinese New Year to all fellow cryptocoryne enthusiasts!

re-visitng C affinis 'West Pahang'

2011-01-29T09:40:00.000+08:00

During this trip I also visited C. affinis 'West Pahang' again after a simple lunch of fried bee hoon beside a cat taking a nap.

The habitat is a small river with fast flowing water, below is a video clip of it.

The water level is much lower this time, a large part of the island which was below water previously was now above above the water level. The emersed leaves (could be submersed leaves previous but were now left exposed to the air after the water level fell) photographs are attached below, the leaves were bullate and greenish in colour.

There were portion of the island (i.e. at the edges) which should be more often submersed. The leaves of such area showed a darker colour at the under side.

The bed of the river was sandy and the pH was neutral (i.e. about 7.0) as expected for C. affinis habitats.

As per the previous trip, many flowering specimens could be found here.

A freshwater clam was found too.

C. nurii 'West Pahang'

2011-01-28T06:44:00.003+08:00

I visited the habitat of C. nurii in West Pahang again recently. This is the variety of C. nurii with miniature spathe as can be seen later. Below is a video clip of the habitat (a small river with fast flower water) for your reference.

Both emersed and submersed specimens could be found at this location.

Some collector probably named the specimens found here as C. nurii 'Central Pahang'. My explorer friend named the C. nurii found here as "luminous green" due to the luminous green marking which could be seen on the upper side of the leaves. Some of the leaves veins were rather pronounced too but not enough to be termed as "rosanervig". The edge of the leaves was wavy too (common for C. nurii) and the under side could be reddish in colour.

We found the spathe of this specimen again this time round and took some close up photograph of it. The flower only vaguely resemble the typical spathe of a C. nurii (i.e. bright red, heart shape with protuberances on the limb) in my opinion. The limb of this variety can be considered as being more crinkled than having protuberances.

The below photograph will clearly show why I said that they had miniature spathe. The tube of the spathe was extremely short for this variety of C. nurii.

The photographs of the interior of the kettle as usual.

The bed of the river was sandy with water with neutral pH.

So would these specimens fall under the category of C. nurii in your opinion after you reviewed the above photographs?

C. cf. affinis 'Pink Rosa Pahang'

2011-01-27T06:44:00.002+08:00

I managed to visit the state of affinis kingdom, i.e. Pahang state with my explorer friend and he brought me to a few locations where affinis could be found. Below is one of such location with specimens which my friend termed as "Pink Rosa" (rosa = rosanervig) in his blog.

The habitat is a small river with flowing water, see below for a short video clip of the habitat.

Both emersed and submersed specimens could be found. The specimens found in this location can be considered as small size as compared to other C. affinis found.

The close up photographs below showed some specimens with pinkish veins on the leaves, which is why my friend termed them as "Pink Rosa". The upper side of the leaves was either greenish or brownish in colour while the under side was reddish.

The emersed form had bullate green leaves.

Below is a close up of the submersed leaves.

The substrate was made up of fine sand mixed with plant debris and the pH of the water was about 7.0.

Although no spathe could be found, I guess that these specimens should likely be C. affinis based on the appearance of the leaves and the location of the habitat.

C. sp. 'Pahang 2' finally flowered after 1.5 years

2011-01-22T04:00:00.000+08:00

Year 2010 was quite a flowerless year for me. However, C. sp. 'Pahang 2' finally flowered this month (i.e. Jan 2011) after more than 1.5 years in cultivation. I believed this could be what some other people termed as "C. nurii with cordate leaves" on the Internet. Below are the photographs of the spathe and interior of the kettle for your reference.

The long limbs actually reminded me more of the C. sp. from Riau Islands (i.e. Bintan, Lingga, Singkep, etc) instead of C. nurii. However, some people felt that those species from Riau Islands could also belong to the C. nurii group anyway.

The tube is slightly twisted as noted when we first found the spathe in the forest.

The throat is dark reddish in colour.

The limb is reddish with irregular outgrows / protuberances.

The flab (valve) of the kettle is pale yellowish in colour.

Another view of the dark reddish collar.

The top of the spadix (appendix) is purplish in colour.

The style is rather irregular and long.

This is the close up of the spadix.

And finally another close up shot of the yellowish flab (valve). After your review of the above, is this C. nurii?

resolving the problem of algae / springtail / fungus / woolly aphid / etc

2011-01-01T18:38:00.000+08:00

I realised that there seemed to be an easy way to treat the plants in one of my problematic cultivation tank which seemed to be infected with algae / spring tails / fungus / woolly aphids / etc.

And the solution is......

I submersed the infected pot of plants into my outdoor metal tub pond filled with platys and guppies and leave them to feast on these unwanted pests. After 3 to 4 weeks, I then remove the cleaned pot from the tub and place them in another cleaner cultivation tank. Below are photographs of 2 of the pots which underwent the above stated treatment and responded well.

I hope that i can improve on my cultivation skills this year so that I can flower many of the cryptocorynes which I collected over the past year, especially those which I had not found any flowers to confirm their identity. Happy new year!

Hydroponics update after 1 month

2010-12-19T12:15:00.002+08:00

Some updates on the hydroponics experiment, the photograph above was taken 1 month ago while the photograph below is taken today for your ease of comparison (need to rotate the photograph 180 degrees).

Overall 2 out of 16 specimens seemed to have perished, namely C. nurii 'Central Pahang' and C. sp. 'Singkep 1'. C. ferruginea 'Sungei kerait' seemed to be thriving well. The rest of the specimens have partially shed their leaves and melted but are still surviving and adapting. Below are the close up photographs in group of 6 holes. The "dirt" in the water are the partially dissolved a capsule of Ferka Rosetta.

Some specimens (4/16) have white roots growing out from the bottom, namely C. ferruginea 'Sungai Kerait', C. sp. 'Belitong 3', C. longicauda 'Johor' and C. striolata 'Gunung Besar'.

Some specimens (6/16) are starting to develop white roots from the top of the rhizome too, namely C. ferruginea 'Sungai Kerait', C. ideii 'West Kalimantan', C. minima 'Pondok Tanjung', C. sp. 'Pahang River', C. sp. 'Bintan', and C. striolata 'Sungai Assan'.

How long more can these specimens survive in such artificial environment?

Hydroponics?

2010-11-17T16:32:00.001+08:00

Fed up with having to deal with algae / fungus / insects / etc as can be seen below in 2 of my tanks, I decided to attempt to end the miseries of some weak specimens of cryptocorynes which I currently have by trying to cultivate them in soil-less environment i.e. hydroponics.

I wanted to design a system which is easy to move around, easy to clean / change plant (since many will probably die :-p) without getting messy, can be used in the existing 2 feet fish tanks which I am maintaining. Therefore, I decided to utilise an expanded plastic board as the base, cut holes in them, insert plastic pots into the holes and use filter sponges to hold the plants in place.

I selected many weak specimens of cryptocorynes of various species to participate in this trial.

After adding distilled water into a translucent container, I added some drops of AZOO brand plant gibberellin and a capsule of Ferka Rosetta before placing the board of 16 pots of plants in too.

I will be going for a week of holiday starting from tomorrow and then followed by another week of overseas training, hopefully the casualty rate will not be too high by the time I come back in Dec 2010.

Revisiting C. sp. 'Sedili X'

2010-11-16T19:43:00.001+08:00

I only managed to plan for a 1 day trip this month so I went to Sedili area again with my explorer friend to see if we would have any luck in locating a blooming specimen. There was no luck. Without writing more, I will just share some photographs taken on this trip with you.

C. sp. 'Sedili 6'

C. sp. 'Sedili 3'

That's all!

C. sp. 'Sedili 2'

2010-10-21T23:40:00.003+08:00

The forest around Sedili river has many beautiful pandanus.

In one of such forest, my explorer friend found some cryptocorynes and he brought me there recently.

I was distracted for a while with surveying what type of fishes could be caught there.

The bed of the forest were flooded with water.

Below are the photographs of the specimens of cryptocorynes found there. As usual, no flowers could be found to confirm the identity of the species. My explorer friend told me there was more specimens found there previously as compared with our recent visit, where had all the cryptocorynes went to, eaten by wild boars?

The forest bed was flooded with a layer of soft debris. However, I suspected that deeper down under these debris the bed should be sandy as the open area around the forest had sandy base instead. The pH of the water was about 5.5 to 6.0.

Many star plants (eriocaulon) could be found on the sandy base of the open areas around the forest.

There were many pretty tadpoles (which species?) there too, notice the whorl pattern on the underside of the belly.

... as well as a snakehead...

This is a photograph of the beautiful Sedili river.

Dinner was squid omelette, otah (grilled spicy fish paste in cocunut leaf) and fishball noodle in one of the open air coffee shop in Johore Barhu near the causeway.

Adding gibberellin

2010-10-17T16:25:00.000+08:00

Faced with a drought in having cultivated spathes for more than a year already and some species are suffering from stunted growth despite fertilisation, I decided to add some commercial gibberellin to my cultivated tank to see if there will be any improvement in the general health and flowering of the cryptocorynes. See these links for more information regarding the effects of gibberellin on cryptocorynes (research paper, Ghazanfar Ghori's blog)

The instructions advised adding 1ml of plant gibberellin for every 50L of water. I am currently adding 5 drops into my tank water (about 3 inches high) plus 1 drop to the root area of those specimens which i hope to see flowering (especially those collected without accurate identification of species) weekly.

Lets wait and see if there will be any effects.

C. sp. 'Sedili 3'

2010-10-16T11:18:00.002+08:00

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.

C. sp. 'Sedili 4'

2010-10-09T13:54:00.001+08:00

Sedili area in Johor state is a very interesting area with many cryptocoryne habitats. My explorer friend bought me to see a rather unique habitat which was a flooded forest with sandy base.

After bashing into the forest, cryptocorynes could be found growing on the wet bed of the forest. The below photographs speaks for themselves.

These are some close up photographs of the leaves of the specimens I found, while a few specimens had long leaves, many of the specimens had heart shape leaves as can be seen below. The colour of the leaves were greenish in colour with slight tinge of red at the underside (as usual)...

The pH of the water was about 5.5 to 6.

My usual question, are these C. griffithii, C. cordata or something new? Well, I guess only the expert cultivators of cryptocorynes can help to solve the mystery by blooming them...... I shall term them as C. sp. 'Sedili 4' in the meantime.

C. sp. Sedili 6

2010-10-03T09:34:00.007+08:00

I was lucky to have a chance to explore Sedili area of Johor State of Malaysia Peninsula again with my explorer friend. I had fond memory of this area as it was where we took a long and futile boat ride (see below) to search for cryptocoryne in heavy rain, i.e. this area was possibly the type locality for cryptocoryne x purpurea.

This time round, we reached a smaller river in a forest where we found cryptocorynes growing both submersed and emersed inside as well as along the banks of the river. Don't be decieved by the gentle looking river, my friend recently went back there and found the entire river flooded.

As usual recently, some videos are added to showcase the habitat.

These are photographs of the leaves of the submersed specimens. They are basically green in colour with faint markings.Note that the leaves had elliptic oval shape and that the base of the leaves ranged from cuneate to round to cordate.

Notice also the very slight bullate of the leaves.

I found a small crab hiding among the roots of some collected specimens.

The bottom of the river was formed by coarse sand.

Pieces of clay were found among the sand too.

Emersed specimens were found growing abundantly along the banks.

These are photograhs of the leaves of the emersed specimens. The leaves are rounder and not as long. Do these emersed specimens belong to the same species or different?

This photograph shows a slightly more bullate leaf.

The emersed portion of the banks were more muddy, rather different from the base of the river. Maybe the sand and clay at the base of the river were washed down from some other sections of the river?

I caught another crab hiding among the emersed cryptocorynes. Is this a freshwater or brackish water crab or both since Sedili river discharges directly into the sea.

As usual, a pH and GPS check was conducted. The pH was found to be about 5.5 to 6 then.

The current recorded species in Johor state are C. nurii, C. schulzei, C griffithii, C. longicauda, C. x.purpurea (considered by some as a hybrid between C. griffithii and C. cordata), C. cillita as well as the famous and possibly extinct (in the wild) C. sp. Kota Tinggi (considered by some as a hybrid too). This accounted for about half the species which could be found in Malaysia Peninsula, and majority of the above stated could be found along the eastern coastal side of Johor state.

Could these specimens we found be belonging to one of the species stated above such as C. griffiithii or could it be something new? My explorer friend compared the submersed leaves of these specimens to those shown on "the crypt pages" and felt that there might even be a possibility that this could be comparable to C. decus-silvae. Due to the high variability in terms of leaves appearance even within the same species, only experts cultivators of cryptocorynes can help to solve this mystery by quickly blooming the specimens to confirm how the spathe looks like. I shall term it as C. sp. Sedili 6 first (don't bother about the numbering, it is just my internal system to tie in with how my explorer friend identify the location).

Unscientific testing of effectiveness of 4 different fertilisers

2010-09-26T12:33:00.000+08:00

I conducted an unscientific test of a few different fertiliser recently. A few reasons why I term the test as unscientific (and therefore will have limitations) are as follows:

cryptocorynes from Lingga Island were used as test specimens but these cryptocorynes were not from the same location on Lingga island
the quantity of fertiliser used varies, with some fertiliser having additional dosage added during the test period so the effectiveness might had been affected by this
no control sample without fertiliser added was present to compare between samples with and without fertiliser added
the after effects (i.e. after 26th Sep 2010) will not be recorded so the fertiliser's effectiveness over extended period of time would not be captured
test not carried out on other types / species of cryptocorynes and therefore the results might not be applicable for other species
test was carried out for my method of cultivation (i.e. emersed with aquasoil in covered tank) and therefore the results may not be applicable to other method of cultivation (i.e. submersed, etc)
the way the fertiliser was applied was different, some on the top of the substrate and some inserted into the substrate and this difference should have impacts on the effectiveness of the fertiliser applied
etc

Test were carried out from 11th July 2010 (i.e. date when fertiliser were added) and ended on 26th Sep 2010. 4 different brands of fertiliser were used, 2 were household plant fertiliser (with additional dosage added in end July 2010) while the other 2 were aquarium plant fertiliser. The pots shall be named pot 1, pot 2, pot 3 and pot 4 from left to right. Before scrolling down further, review the overview photograph of the 4 pots of cryptocorynes first and rank them from 1st to 4th based on which pot of cryptocoryne showed improved growth the most.

11th July 2010 - Overview

26th Sep 2010 - Overview

The details are as follow:

Pot 1: Organic Humus 8-8-8 (about 1/2 tea spoon added on the top of the substrate twice, once on 11th July 2010 and the other during end July 2010)

11th July 2010 - Pot 1 (Organic Humus)

26th September 2010 - Pot 1 (Organic Humus)

Pot 2: Ferka Rosetta (1 capsule added on 11th July 2010, inserted into substrate)

11th July 2010 - Pot 2 (Ferka Rosetta)

26th September 2010 - Pot 2 (Ferka Rosetta)

Pot 3: Dennerle Cryptocoryne Tabs (1 capsule added on 11th July 2010, inserted into substrate)

11th July 2010 - Pot 3 (Dennerle Cryptocoryne Tabs)

26th September 2010 - Pot 3 (Dennerle Cryptocoryne Tabs)

Pot 4: ijo organic worm casting (added 1 teaspoon heap twice on the top of the substrate, once on 11th July 2010 and the other during end July 2010)

11th July 2010 - Pot 4 (ijo organic worm casting)

26th Sep2010 - Pot 4 (ijo organic worm casting)

So, with some many constraints and limitations listed above, I believed that the results should be considered as inconclusive and if that is the case, why did I ever bothered to make this blog entry?!?!?!?!?!?

Searching for hill stream cryptocoryne in Endau Rompin...

2010-09-25T21:50:00.002+08:00

I went with my explorer friend to search for hill stream cryptocorynes in Endau Rompin based on a photograph (below is a photograph of the photograph) I saw on the Internet of a stream which seemed to have its bottom covered with cryptocorynes.

Below is a short summary of our search.
0200hrs - reached home finally after a long night boozing with colleagues...
0430hrs - alarm rang, dragged myself out of bed and commence the long journey towards Endau Rompin, felt like dying
0530hrs - entered Malaysia Peninsula, ate my favourite prata for breakfast, still very sleepy

0945hrs - finally reached Endau Rompin

The many rivers and streams we searched in the state reserve forest, from rocky hill streams to swampy / sandy lower streams to wide rivers.

We even managed to find the exact stream in the 1st photograph but to our dismay, there wasn't any cryptocorynes to be found!!!

All we found were these, blue fern, piptospatha, beautiful moss, orange coral fungus, etc but no cryptocorynes.....

We met our close friend, Mr Lee C. H. in the forest and provided his family with lunch.

1400hrs - gave up on our search for hill stream cryptocoryne and left the forest to the nearest larger city for a late lunch of Nasi Lemak (Coconut Rice). Decided to call it a day and slept early.

0500hrs - woke up early to travel to another far away entrance of Endau Rompin.

0900hrs - reached the entrance to the swampy edge of the forest

We searched a few more hill stream with sandy / rocky base but could not locate any cryptocorynes as well.

1130hrs - gave up on our search in Endau Rompin and went to have lunch. Gave Mr Lee C. H. a lift out of the forest.

Was the failure to locate hill stream cryptocoryne due to us or was it due to Endau Rompin? Cryptocoryne hunting is never always smooth sailing, especially when you decide to hunt in uncharted territories....

C zaidiana spathe

2010-09-13T00:48:00.040+08:00

I was very lucky to be given a chance by my explorer friend to take photographs of the spathe of C. zaidiana. He managed to collect a specimen with attached spathe and met me for coffee at a coffee shop when he came back to conduct the autopsy of the spathe together to take photographs.

The limb of the spathe was very interesting, the base colour of the limb was creamy white in colour with warty surface. The limb seemed to be either lightly burnt or coated on the surface such that only the top portion of the "warts" was dark purple in colour.

The top of the limb recurred to the back.

We were fooled by the kettle shape which were constricted in the middle. Thinking that the kettle was somewhat similar to C. pallidinervia such that the kettle was very small (i.e. only within the small round top portion), we cut the spathe into two half instead, breaking the lower section with the female flower portion off.

The lower section of the inner wall of the kettle was slightly red in colour. The valve at the entrance of the kettle seemed slightly yellowish in colour.

The styles were long and thin with dark purple tip.

The top of the spadix (i.e. the appendix) was dark purple in colour too.

The olfactory bodies were also dark purple in colour too.

Hope you enjoyed the photographs of the spathe of this rare cryptocoryne.

Pelepah falls at Kota Tinggi

2010-09-12T00:40:00.004+08:00

I went with a few old friends to a trekking trip last month to Pelepah falls at Kota Tinggi. This was the location where I was supposed to visit 3 years ago when I planned for my 1st betta and cryptocoryne hunting trip to Peninsula Malaysia. However our guide fell sick the day before we set off, resulting in me landing up in Air Hitam where I met my explorer friend!

This time round, we set off early at 0630hrs in the morning and had breakfast at a Chinese tim sum shop in Johor Bahru first since it was Ramadan period (i.e. fasting) and all the Muslim food stalls were closed.

Pelepah falls seemed to be a rather popular trekking place for avid trekkers in Singapore and some people mentioned on the Internet that the trek is reasonably easy but I don't think so personally after going through it. The falls is stated to have 12 tiers and from the map, it seemed to be located in the valley of 2 hills. The water flows down the multi-tiered waterfall and discharge into Sungei Pelepah Kiri flowing through an oil palm plantation below. We entered the plantation and trek along the river upstream to reach the forest behind to start our ascend up the waterfall.

As I was climbing out of the stream into the oil palm plantation with my friend, we suddenly heard a foreign loud noise. I raised my head to see what was the sound source and was shocked to see an adult black spitting cobra (Naja sumatrana) with its hood opened and head raised sliding passed our path merely less than 5m away. Only then did I realised that what I had heard was the loud hissing noise from the cobra threatening and warning us. We were frozen still until the cobra slided into a heap of dead oil palm leaves and did not had a chance to take any photographs. Be extra careful when you travel in oil palm plantations in the future!

We crossed the plantation land and reached the forest edge where we commenced our ascend up the river. I managed to take photograph of a frog which I believed should be a rhinoceros frog (Limnonectes plicatellus), please correct me if I am wrong.

We followed the general direction of trekking up along the river edge, sometimes having to make a detour or cross the river to walk along an easier path. Soon we reached the 1st tier of the waterfall.

There were many bi-colour piptospatha growing on the rock surfaces.

As it was drizzling the entire morning, the entire path was wet and very slippery, especially since most rocks and logs were covered with mosses or algae. We had to slowly take one step at a time to test whether the ground was slippery and many a times, we had to go down on all fours to ensure that we do not accidentally slip.

When we reached a tier of waterfall where we could not climb up which usually was the case (extremely slippery algae covered rocks with water gushing down and having no foothold), we had to flank the waterfall on either sides and this sometimes involved climbing up vertical steep slopes. Luckily there were ropes left behind by previous trekkers to help other inexperience and ill-prepared trekkers like us :-p

As usual, I received a love bite from my friend, the leech.

There was one particular section of the trek which was rather dangerous. The rocky sides of the waterfall closed up vertically to form a deep valley which was difficult to flank since we did not managed to find any ropes which signified a previous path used by other trekkers. We had to wade through the river in stomach to chest high water to reach the next tier of waterfall. I am sure that during heavy rain, the water level in this rocky valley probably would increase by a few meters rapidly (i.e. flash flood) so do not trek this path in heavy rain!

The top few tiers of waterfalls were quite beautiful. As we had been trekking for about 3 hours already by then, I was quite exhausted physically (from all the climbing) and mentally (from the constant focusing to ensure each step taken was safe). We decided to stop at the tier which supposedly was the main waterfall with water flowing down a long stretch of 45 degree rocky slope. We would leave the last tier of waterfall till the next visit when we bring some camping equipment to stay overnight at the top of the hill which supposed had a white sandy base.

I remembered that someone told me that the shrimps caught at the top of the waterfall were sweet and delicious so I decided to give it a try, errr, no comments...

What goes up must come down. The downstream journey was relatively easier and thus we managed to climb down all the rocky paths which we passed by earlier in less than 2 hours. In total we took about 5 to 6 hours to complete the above stated trek. We went back to Kota Tinggi town for a late lunch of Bah Kut Teh (pork rib soup with rice) before heading back to Singapore.

This was the souvenir I collected, the leech bite with a T shape marking formed by blood flowing down 3 sides of the foot.

No cryptocorynes were found.

C. nurii 'white ring'

2010-09-10T10:55:00.001+08:00

I was given a specimen of C. nurii collected from Central Pahang by my explorer friend last year with a spathe attached. The spathe opened a few days later (refer to the photograph below). The purple coloured limb edge had a regular thin white band around it (i.e. the purple colour did not extend right to the edge of the limb).

The C. nurii found near Mersing had a red limb with a thin white band around the limb edge too.

Earlier this year, my friend found a few shockingly beautiful variations of C. nurii limbs in the wild, see the link here:
http://cryptoandbetta.blogspot.com/search/label/C.%20nurii ,
http://cryptoandbetta.blogspot.com/2009/10/c-cf-nurii-and-nurii-bukit-ibam.html,
http://cryptoandbetta.blogspot.com/2009/10/c-cfnuriibicolor-details.html,
http://cryptoandbetta.blogspot.com/2009/10/c-nurii-bicolor-bukit-ibam.html.
Those spathes had reddish limbs but the white colour around the edge had mutated so much that the red colour was concentrated only around the collar area. My friend conveniently termed them as C. nurii 'white ring'.
Recently, my friend collected a specimen of C. nurii 'white ring' with an attached unopened spathe. It bloomed in my tank a few days later (see photograph below).

The limb was reddish in colour. However, the white edge was not as wildly mutated as seen in the wild but the lower left base lobe of the limb seemed to show some signs. What was the environmental conditions in the wild which could trigger such beautiful mutation?

C. sp. 'Yellow Ring, Pahang 7, Bukit Ibam'

2010-09-05T23:26:00.003+08:00

As usual, I had the great fortune to be brought though a maze of complex roads to this remote river in Pahang near Bukit Ibam area by my explorer friend where he found cryptocoryne with spathes with bright yellow bullate wide limbs and raised collar. He termed them as C. sp. 'Yellow Ring' first, leaving it to the experts to conclude whether they are new species, hybrid or just another variety.

From what I saw, all the specimens were in submersed form. The base of the river was sandy.

The leaves were greenish on the upper side with some faint markings and slightly reddish on the under side, nothing really spectacular.

However, the spathe is so beautiful and striking that I will leave you to enjoy the below photographs by yourself and ponder over what they should be.

C. sp. 'Pahang 6, Tasik Chini'

2010-09-04T22:24:00.001+08:00

Tasik Chini (lake Chini) is the 2nd largest freshwater lake in Malay Peninsula. According to the Internet information, it is formed by damming up a river valley and has a river which flows into the Pahang river. My explorer friend found cryptocorynes growing around this region and brought me over to the habitat to take a look.

It was a river where submersed cryptocorynes were growing therein. At the side of the river, there was a forest with a small stream filled with cryptocorynes.

The leaves of the cryptocorynes were dark green in colour on the upper side and reddish on the under side.

Below are photographs of the submersed specimens found in the larger clay bed river.

reflection of heaven

And as usual, no flowers were found to confirm the identity of the species, I shall leave it to be termed as C. sp. 'Tasik Chini' first. Pahang is really quite an interesting state to be further explored.

C. sp. 'Pahang 5', perfect loop!

2010-08-29T23:44:00.002+08:00

As I stated, Pahang is really a huge state in Malay Peninsula. We found this other stream in a forest in Pahang with cryptocorynes growing on the sandy bed of the stream.

There was a portion of the stream with many roots from adjacent trees growing out of the shallow water. There were many cryptocorynes growing among the roots.

The shape of the cryptocoryne leaves were wide ovate with cordate base. The upper side of the leaves was green in colour while the under side was slightly reddish.

There was a few leaves which was so round that my friend termed the specimens as C. sp. 'perfect loop'! These specimens reminded me of the C. cordata we found at Rompin which was in Pahang state too (but not close to this new location at all) which had rather round leaves too. Could these be C. cordata too?

This is a video to share with you.