Cryptocoryne sp. 'Lingga Island'

I had the good fortune to be given a few specimens of blooming cryptocorynes collected from Lingga Island. Below are the photographs of 2 of them with spathes of differing apperance.

The first had yellow limb with irregular protuberances and reddish throat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second specimen looked like miniature C. schulzei spathe with dark purple tube.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whether these are considered as new species or a variaiton of existing species, we will leave it to the experts and you to decide on your own.

C. sp 'Lingga Island' spathes

These are some miscellaneous photographs of the spathes of C. sp. 'Lingga Island' collected by my explorer friend from various locations on the island. Note the distinct colour variaiton.

C. sp. 'Lingga 19 - Platinum Line' blooming soon

I suddenly realised today that my C. sp. 'Lingga Island 19 - platinum line' has developed a spathe.

As can be seen below, the new leaves managed to retain their 'platinum' veins under cultivation environment.

I hope the spathe would bloom only during the weekend as I would be going overseas tomorrow morning and would be back home only by Sunday night!

Cryptocoryne sp. 'Lingga 14' spathe bloomed

The spathe of this specimen is typical of cryptocoryne found on Lingga Island. The limb is wide, upright and filled with protuberances. The colour of this spathe is pinkish red in colour. The throat is lightly coloured in red too.

There are 6 numbers of styles which are rather long. The centre olfactory bodies which are yellow in colour could be clearly seen too.

The specimen is planted in ADA amazonia, Ocean Free Super Pro-Peat granule and BE1 organic fertiliser.

Cryptocoryne sp. 'Lingga 6' downstream

Since our crazy encounter in the previous stream where C. sp 'Lingga 7, 8 and 22' could be found growing in harmony within such a short stretch of one same stream, we decided to explore the downstream of the stream where C. sp. 'Lingga 6' was found.

We trekked a few hundred meters into the secondary forest along the stream and found many patches of cryptocoryne which had much greener leaves than C. sp. 'Lingga 6'.

Unfortunately, we were not able to locate any specimens with attached spathes at all to further determine how closely these cryptocorynes were related.

Overall, I felt that Pulau (meaning island) Lingga is really a crazy place with numerous variations in the cryptocorynes found there.

Cryptocoryne sp. 'Lingga 6'

I had posted something about the spathes of C. sp. 'Lingga 6' which my explorer friend found previously. The spathe was yellowish in colour with a deep reddish throat.

This time round, I had a chance to visit the natural habitat. The stream was probably an old man made stream with sandy base. The water level was not too high and the pH of the water was about 5.0.

We found some specimens with fruit as well as unopened spathes. The leaves were brownish green in colour with slightly reddish undersides.

We found out that one of the spathes had opened while we were on our way back at Tanjong Pinang ferry terminal on Bintan Island. Below are some photographs of this spathe.