C. sp. 'Kota Tinggi' flowered

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?

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

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?

Goodbye to C. sp. 'Kota Tinggi'

I hoped everyone would remember C. sp. 'Kota Tinggi' forever. This fragile species could only be found in a small pool in an old oil palm plantation in Kota Tinggi in Johor state in Peninsula Malaysia (at least this is what I know, if anyone out there know another location, please let me know!). Its limb is dark reddish in colour wih distinct crumpled surface.

I can now reveal photographs of how the plantation looked like without fear of over-revealing the actual location of this cryptocoryne. This is because my explorer friend confirmed during his trip to Peninsula Malaysia this week that the entire patch of plantation had been chopped down. 

If I had known that this would happen, maybe I would try to spend some effort to track down the plantation owner to inform him that there is this species of plant which could only be found in his plantation and possibly no where else on earth and hoped that he would preserve at least a 20m x 20m area of  his XX hactares of plantation to protect this species from possible extinction.

Goodbye to C. sp. 'Kota Tinggi', may you rest in peace.

C. sp. 'Kota Tinggi' spathe opened

My C. sp. 'Kota Tinggi' finally developed a spathe after 4 months of cultivation. However, the form and colour of the spathe which opened under cultivation varied quite a bit from that seen in the natural habitat as well as that which was attached to the collected specimen.

Let's take a look at a photograph of the flower in it's natural habitat:


I collected a specimen with attached spathe and this was how the spathe looked like when it opened in my cultivation tank:

Compared to the above, the recent spathe is smaller and the red colour of the limb is not as intense.

Cryptocoryne sp. 'Kota Tinggi'

I had the good fortune to be able to visit the remaining habitat of this dwindling population of cryptocoryne species which is located in the midst of an oil palm plantation in Kota Tinggi in Malay Peninsula.

The habitat is a say less than 5m x 5m sandy mud pool (legs can easily sink in up to calf level) with water maybe about 10cm high and pH 6 to 6.5 (I thought it would be much more acidic but I was wrong!).

Apart from fighting against extinction due to human activities (i.e. redevelopment which would include land fill and cutting down of oil palm trees, etc), it also has to struggle to strike a delicate balance with other aquatic / semi aquatic plants to share the limited space within the mud pool.

Below are some photographs showing the "more emersed" leaves, the matured spathe, a wilting spathe as well as the beauty of its submersed leaves.