From time to time, I have some Crypts available for sale / trade. I’ve been getting numerous emails regarding plants I have available. Instead of trying to reply back to each inquiry, I’ve setup a mailing list. If you’re interested in obtaining some of these plants, please click on the Available Crypts link on this blog to join the list.
Frequently, Cryptocoryne are collected from new locations and without flowers present, are simply labelled with a code. In this case, its JP0501, and I received this plant on my trip to ECS a couple of years ago. I brought it back with me along with several other plants. The plant did not fare the journey well – it simply melted into a pile of goo. All that was left was a tiny bit of rhizome, barely 2mm in size. That little bit of rhizome, with a lot of TLC, has now grown to this:
Gorgeous isn’t it?! Took two years to get here – but that’s all part of the fun – the challenge!
Over the last few months, this mother plant has been producing runners non-stop. I probably have 4-5 of these plants in various stages of growth now. That’s good news – since I’m probably the only one with this one in the US. I need to give some out to a few friends to ensure that it remains in culture.
Additionally, it’s started to send up a spathe!
..unlike any I’ve seen to date! Very exciting!
I cannot wait till it opens up to reveal its identity – or will it? 
Stay tuned….
Earlier this year I’d posted a number of blog entries documenting my efforts of trying to propagate Cryptocoryne via tissue culture. It’s been quite a learning experience so far and I really do enjoy doing tissue culture at home. Although it seemed tedious at first, with practice and experience, I can go through a set of exercises pretty quickly now.
One of my more successful efforts was trying to propagate C. nurii invitro using seeds to initiate the culture. The seeds proved very easy to sterilize and I had zero contamination and near 100% successful germination of the seeds. However, I did manage to destroy a number of seeds when trying to insert them just under the surface of the gel – which by inexperience I’d prepared to be a little too hard. Lesson learnt!
Below you’ll see some pictures – they’re NOT of the same jar. They’re just some pictures I took that represent the progress of the plantlets.
Here you can see one of the small explants just starting to get larger and divide.
Here I’ve moved some of the plantlets to a fresh medium, and you can see they’re getting larger and division continues.
After a number of weeks, the plants are almost ready to be divided again and placed in fresh media. You can see, some of the plants are dividing up quite nicely.
After further division, you can see the plantlets are really starting to get large now.
This is a good specimen, however, the plant seems to have trouble unfurling its leaves. It’s probably a nutrient deficiency of some kind. However, I’m not too worried about it. This plant will soon be transferred to another medium to try and induce roots (Stage 3). I hope that goes well.
The rest will be subdivided in about 4 weeks into individual jars – roughly 24 plants. The idea is, that another 6 weeks after that, they will be again subdivided – into almost 200 jars! If I continue doing that, the next set of jars would total 1600, and almost 10,000 by the end of this year! You can see how rapidly I’d be able to propagate C. nurii! I’m NOT planning on doing that – I don’t have the space 
Here’s one last image – Lagenandra meeboldi ‘pink’ invitro. I started off with a single meristem and currently have about 4-5 jars just like this one. I’ll be dividing them up in 4 more weeks into 8-14 jars.
A little while ago I’d posted about an unknown crypt that a friend of mine had collected in the wild. When it flowered, it was surprising to note that it was C. cordata since the leaves were so different from any cordata I’d ever grown. This plant apparently still has a few surprises left. Today, as I was cleaning up some of my crypt setups, I noticed something strange – looking closer – its was a spathe – reaching to the very top of my growing container! It hasn’t opened up yet, looks like it will tomorrow – but will you look at the length of that spathe!
I’d emailed Jan Bastmeijer about this plant, and he was certainly curious about it. Reading the descriptions of C. cordata var.Grabowskii – and noting the long spathes of that variety, I really think what we have here is exactly that – C. cordata var. Grabowskii. What do you think?
UPDATE:
Here’s a close up of the open spathe:
There are only a few crypts that I regard as standing out from the crowd, and Cryptocoryne thwaitesii is certainly one of them. The leaves have a rather leathery look to them and a sand paper like texture which is quite unique and distinctive. Besides the surface texture, the edges also are denticulate, in a rather regular manner – almost like little rectangular notches. Leaves also seem to have a metallic sheen, which really has to been seen to be appreciated.
Cryptocoryne alba and Cryptocoryne bogneri are closely related to this species. Of these three, Cryptocoryne thwaitesii is considered to be moderately difficult to cultivate. It requires water with low TDS and electrical conductivity, but not a very low pH.
I received a plantlet from a friend of mine back in January of 2008. After a short period of growth, much to my dismay it promptly melted away. I kept the pot, hoping that it would come back, and sure enough, about a month later, I saw the tiniest of growth – a small leaf – no longer than 2 mm. The plant grew slowly at first, but as the leaves got larger, the growth rate increased dramatically. Last week, I noticed two spathes starting to come up. This is the first one. Enjoy the pictures! I know you’ll agree – its a beautiful plant!
Uprooting a plant and shipping it in a box across the country causes the plant to stress out. Heat, temperature variations and rot can take their toll on it. Here are some tips on how to give your new plant the best possible chance of recovery.
Culture Information
Cryptocoryne xPurpurea
Considered a natural hybrid between C. griffithii and C. cordata var. cordata, C. xPurpurea is generally a pretty easy to grow cryptocoryne. There are several variations in the leaves and spathes known today, occuring as a result of numerous natural hybridizations.
Submersed grown plants are very beautiful and can grow quite large as compared to immersed grown plants, but do require fairly acidic water and a rich substrate.
In culture, this plant can easily be grown in a medium grit sand with leaf compost or peat added as organic matter. My success with this plant has been using a 50/50 mix of ADA Amazonia and leaf compost. Knowing where this plant originates from, it probably enjoys water on the softer side. Weekly doses of 1/4th strength Miracle Grow encourage robust growth and flowers. Once established, this plant is very prolific, creating runners and daughter plants freely.
Cryptocoryne of Peninsular Malaysia
by Ahmad Sofiman Othman, Niels Jacobsen, Mashhor Mansor
Review by Ghazanfar Ghori
There are only a handful good reference books available today on aquarium plants and even fewer when it comes to one of my favorite aquarium plants; species from the genus Cryptocoryne . The recent publication, ‘Cryptocoryne of Peninsular Malaysia’ by Ahmad Sofiman Othman, Niels Jacobsen, and Mashhor Mansor is a much welcomed addition to the sparse number of books on Cryptocoryne.
Plants from the genus Cryptocoryne are still under researched. With new species discovered every few years and ongoing research of the known species, the reclassification of existing species occurs fairly frequently as the complex genealogy is untangled. This book is by no means the final word when it comes to Cryptocoryne, but is the most current reference available on the research done on the subject to date. Comprising of many years of exploration, research and collaboration, this book serves as a reference of the natural distribution, habitat and a means of identifying species found in this region.
Currently, there are about 55 known species of Cryptocoryne, with roughly a third of them found in Peninsular Malaysia. In this book, each of these species is described in botanical detail, though for a person with no ‘botanical’ background some of the words used did require me to flip open a dictionary. The description of the habitats is a lot easier to read, as are the excellent notes on each individual species. Summarized from years of cultivation and observation, they provide valuable information that can be used by you in growing these plants successfully.
The book is well illustrated, with pictures of the plants, flowers, fruit and habitat of the 19 or so species. Although in some cases, the quality of the pictures leaves room for improvement, they do provide key information to the observant reader, showing the lighting conditions, water level and even the composition of the soil of the natural habitat. With the wide variation in the morphology of the leaves, the detailed pictures of the flowers serve as reference on identifying the species, with accompanying notes on the variation of the flowers themselves.
Also documented, is the effect of the destruction of the natural habitat on several species. As forests are razed and swamps are drained to make room for rubber and palm oil plantations, some Cryptocoryne populations prove to be resilient and establish new homes in the drainage ditches of these plantations. Unfortunately, that’s not the norm. Most populations die out, lost forever, except for the lucky few living on in private collections.
Whether you’re a novice in the hobby, or a veteran looking for a new challenge, I encourage you to join the ranks of the few who are dedicated to the preservation of this species. Reading this book will bring you up to speed with the current status and provide much needed information that can be used to successfully cultivate and preserve plant from this fascinating genus.