C. sp. Belitung 3 spathe

 Flowered after 10 years in cultivation but spathe melted when I lowered the humidity. Related to C. fusca or somthing else?

C. sp. Belitung 5 'West Belitung'

The 3rd day in Belitung was quite a leisure day as we only visited 1 other cryptocoryne habitat, which was the one which we passed by during our 1st night. As usual, breakfast was the same Javanese style coffee and jam toast, simple but delicious.

Along the way we caught a few bettas, of which one of them could be a new sub-species / species under the foerschi group.

The cryptocoryne which we found were fully submersed in water. The base of the river was sandy with pH of about 6.0. Again, I am not able to confirm the species as no flowers were found.

It started to rain heavily again during noon time. I took a photograph of a lone boat rocking in the choppy sea beside the restaurant where we had lunch.

After lunch, we went back to the hotel to bathe and then to the small airport on Belitung to catch the flight back to Jakarta to connect back to Singapore. By the time we reached home, it was past midnight already.

This wrapped up our adventure in Belitung. 5 cryptocoryne habitats were located but sadly, no flowers were found at the various habitats to allow us to confirm the species. Lets hope the few specimens which I collected back would survive and flower.

C. sp. 'Belitung 4' North Belitung

We travelled for the next 1 hours plus searching various streams which we passed by. I took some time to scoop some inhabitants to take photographs.

Finally we found a forested area with a flooded forest stream running through it. In this stream we found the cryptocorynes growing submersed, and we suspected that during dry season, the entire bed of the forest stream could possibly dry up and be covered with carpets of emersed cryptocorynes.

The cryptocorynes found here were of rather uniform size and appearance. The leaves were all rather small, with dark green upper sides (covered with faint reddish dots) and slightly reddish under sides.

The stream bed was muddy and the pH of the water was about 5.0.

Again, we could not locate any flowers to determine the species and therefore, I shall record them as C. sp. 'Belitung 4' first until hopefully, I am able to flower the small amount of specimens I collected. Could it be the common C. bangkaensis or something else?

C. sp. 'Belitung 3' South Belitung

Early in the morning before the sky turned bright on our second day in Belitung, the hotel staff delivered our breakfast to our rooms. Breakfast was simple but delicious butter toast with jam infill and Javanese coffee.

As mentioned earlier, we visited Belitung at the wrong time period. It started raining the moment we commenced with our hunt on day 2. We decided to head south on day 2 and found our 3rd cryptocorynes habitat in Belitung soon.

The cryptocorynes were growing fully submersed in the stream. The leaves were rather large, almost 1/2 a palm size. The underside of the leaves were reddish in colour and the leaves were slightly bullate.

We tested the pH of the water, it was about 5.0. What species could these specimens be? C. bankaensis? C. xpurpurea? C. cordata? Any advise?

C. sp 'Belitung 2' West Belitung

I confirmed during this field trip that I am lacking in 'hunting' sense. I would had just walked past this stream without giving a second thought that there could be cryptocoryne found inside it.

It was my explorer friend who pointed out that there were likely cryptocoryne underneath the overhanging plants along the banks. To me, the dark patches seemed to be be just dead leaves or shadows?!?!?!?

In order to verify, someone need to enter into the water to check. Being a "city boy", I told my explorer friend that I did not want to deal with wet clothing (expecially underwear!) for the rest of the day. I do not mind bashing in the jungle and forest, but wading in water was just not my cup of tea! :-P

God will help those who helped themselves. My friend was rewarded with confirmation that cryptocoryne could be found after wading in neck high waters. The leaves all had distinct markings on them, both on the top and undersides.

I found this on one of the leaves!

The side of the banks were muddy as could be seen below and the pH of the water was low.

I managed to scoop out some beautiful residents of the stream for a photograph taking session.

What species could the specimens found belong to? C. bangkaensis? My explorer friend told me that some Japanese web site also published that C. cf. zukalii could be found on Belitung Island too?