C. cf. cordata 'Lundu'

There were many forests located along both sides of the road to Lundu. We bashed into the forest on the other side of the road further from where we found C. cordata var. cf. grabowskii in attempt to locate C. x purpurea from Lundu. After a while in the forest, we reached a stream where we found patches of cryptcorynes growing therein.

The pH of the water in the stream was about 6.4. The submersed leaves were green in colour both on the upper and under sides.

We tried searching for a blooming spathe and could only manged to locate an unopened one sticking out of the water.

Below were some inhabitants of the stream.

There were some patches of cryptocorynes growing emersed along the sandy beds of the river too.

The enemy we needed to fight against the most often in the forest were mosquitoes. Some of those commando level ones were not afraid of mosquito repellents and could sting through our clothing. I managed to take quite a few photographs of them while they simply concentrated on sucking my blood.

We collected the specimen with the attached spathe back. Below are the close up shots of the spathe's limb and kettle. We were not able to identify the species just from this spathe but we guessed that it could be related to C. cordata.

Unfortunately, the spathe melted again in my tank (now you know how lousy I am in terms of cultivation skills) and this time,it was the kettle portion which melted.

I managed to cut open the limb and discovered that the collar portion was yellowish in colour while the upper portion of the limb looked as if it could be reddish in colour.

I am confused about what this species could be based on the colour of the spathe. Possible candidates with such yellow + red coloured limb included C. xpurpurea, C. cordata, C. edithiae and C. pallidinervia? My guess is more inclined towards C. cordata, what about you?

C. cordata var. cf. grabowskii 'Lundu'???

The next morning, we woke up early to have breakfast at an Indian cuisine shop near to our hotel. Breakfast was simply 2 prata "kosong" (kosong = zero, and in this context referred to plain without any fillings) with a cup of kopi 'O' kosong ice (kopi = coffee, O = similar sounding to the word "black" in Hokkien dialect, kosong in this context referred to plain without sugar).

Soon we were on our way towards Lundu. Along the way, we saw a huge forested area and decided to park the car along the road and bash into the forest to see what we could find inside.

We were greeted by this beautiful blooming terrestrial orchid (I searched on the Internet and thought it looked like Tainia paucifolia??? Let me know if I identified the species wrongly. Thanks.)

We found out that the inside of the forest was rather undulating with wet grounds on the low level areas. We passed by a few humps and crossed a few small streams in which we only managed to locate some barcalya. This was actually a good sign as from our experiences, locating barclaya in forests usually meant that cryptocorynes should be able to be found too!

After a while, we passed by yet another valley which was quite brightly lit due to the logging activities (illegal?). From this point we crossed another hump and was suddenly greeted by a huge stream hidden in the forest. I scooped in the water with my net to see what I could find in the stream: some shrimps and loaches.

We trekked along the river upstream until the river started to become narrower. However we could not located any cryptocorynes at all. Feeling slightly disappointed, I told my friend that we should perhaps just make our way out of the forest and continue our search elsewhere because if there were any cryptocorynes to be found here, it would definitely be along this river but there were none to be found.

My friend suddenly pointed at my legs and exclaimed: "There lah! You blind arh?"

Under the log which I was balancing on was a patch of submersed cryptocorynes which I had totally missed out. I really don't have enough hunting sense!

We fished out some specimens to have a closer look and found one with attached spathe which was not opened yet.

Below are the close up shots of the leaves.

The spathe was long and had a limb with pointed thin tip. From our recollection, we vaguely remembered that C. cordata var grabowskii had a limb with very narrow thin grey tip and we thought that what we found might be comparable to it.

The river bed was formed by a mixture of mud and dead plant materials but the pH of the water was surprisingly about 5.5 to 6.0. I expected the pH to be closer to 5.0 to 5.5 instead. Perhaps the stream was quite close and connected to a brackish river further downstream?

I collected the specimen back home hoping that it would bloom in my tank but was disappointed when I saw the limb melting after a few days.

I tried to salvage the situation by attempting to cut open the melted limb. It was quite clear to deduce that the colour of the limb should had been yellow base, similar to that of C. cordata.

Luckily the kettle portion was still intact for me to cut open to view the interior. The upper internal kettle wall had purple spots. I could not find a decent photograph of the interior of C. cordata var. grabowskii kettle on the Internet to compare with mine. Whichever variety this cyptocoryne might be, I think it should at least fall under the C. cordata group? I hope it will flower again in my tank for me to confirm.

C. uenoi 'Sabal Kruin'

With the red sun guiding us, we headed west towards Kuching direction and managed to reached Sabal Kruin area say only maybe about 15 minutes earlier than our last visit, just before the sky turned completely dark. Although we did not have enough time to explore the area there, we still managed to take a rather decent photograph of the river there.

The patch of submersed C. uenoi was still there but we did not have time to search for emersed specimens and spathes which could probably be found further upstream or downstream?

I rechecked the pH of the water on the white sandy bank and re-confirmed that the pH was about 6.4 to 6.6.

We ended our search for the day and struggled to drive back to Kuching, feeling quite tired due to being on the road for more than 24 hours already by then. It was after 9pm by the time when we reached Kuching. Our dinner that night consisted of fried rice, "XO" stir fried vegetable and grilled chilli squid.

We discussed about our plans for the next day i.e. drive to Lundu area and back to Kuching, decided on the time to wake up before retiring.

C. longicauda 'Lachau'

Along the way back to Kuching, we stop by Pantu area again to search for C. longicauda with brown coloured leaves. The peat swamp forest around Pantu is quite large and this time round, we entered the forest from Lachau side. We bashed into the forest and found a small stream in the forest with C. longicauda along the stream banks.

The blurry photographs below clearly showed that I have not mastered how to take good photographs using auto point and shoot camera without flash and tripod in a dark forest... :-P The C. longicauda growing on the upper sides of the stream banks had browner leaves as compared to those growing along the bed of the stream.

Below is a shot of the habitat with flash on.

We found an unopened spathe and when I attempted to take a photograph of it, I was taken aback when the face detection frame suddenly appeared on the screen of my Canon A480 digital camera. The camera actually detected the yellow leaf with holes beside the spathe as a face!!!

The pH of the water in the stream was about 4.5 and the bed of the stream was formed by fine whitish sand.

By the time we scrambled out of the forest, it was already sun set time again. Sigh, we were too ambitious trying to cover many locations along Sibu to Kuching and did not have enough time left to explore Sabal Kruin and Sungai Kerait areas again!!!