Cryptocoryne Blog

Here’s why it’s called Cryptocoryne longicuada:

Longus is Latin for “long”, cauda is Latin for “tail”.

I’ve added a scale (in cm) to give you an idea of size – the spathe is almost 10 inches tall, with almost more than half of that being the tail itself – and its still got a couple of days worth of growth before it opens up. I expect it to put on another 2 inches before its all said and done.

I took the picture now vs. later for two reasons:

1) Once the spathe opens, the tail goes almost horizontal.
2) It’s almost touching the lid of the tank its in, no doubt it’ll touch it tomorrow and bend.

I finally managed to get some pictures of the Cryptocoryne longicauda ‘brown’ spathe. It’s bloomed for me a few times before, but for one reason or another, I never got pictures. So, here it is.

This is an ‘Aquarium’ strain of Cryptocoryne longicauda. Its the same plant I almost killed last year when it flowered. Due to a nutrient deficiency, the plant had collapsed as it started flowering. This time around, the plant is very robust and the spathe is huge!

Finally bloomed. big flower – about 7″ tall – maybe a little more.

I sold my macro lens to buy another one – so currently I’m macroless. Sorry – no close up shots.

Note the poor state of the leaves on this plant. Once the spathe started getting
larger, the leaves started melting quite rapidly. I suspect that low nutrients in the water probably led to some nutrient being deficient and the plant sucked those out of the leaves in order to flower. Now that the spathe is gone, the plant is making a rapid recovery.