Cryptocoryne ponterderiifolia & Cryptocoryne usteriana ‘Red’ spathe

The genus Cryptocoryne consists of  60 plus species of plant which can be found from India all the way to Papua New Guinea. I have been fascinated by this genus ever since I started in this hobby. About eight months back I started my emersed Cryptocoryne set-up just to save the extra plants I had from a tank I had taken down. Over the time my collection kept growing from a few odd pots in a small 10G to over 20 different species.

Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia flowered for me approximately four months after planting. The spathe on this plant started developing after I spotted the spathe on the C .usteriana ‘Red’ but the C.pontederiifolia spathe opened within a span of week.  The  collar and limb was beautiful yellow with a white throat.

C.usteriana ‘Red’ spathe took about two weeks to open up. The spathe was 8cm in length. The limb of spathe was deep yellow with a brownish uneven edge. This plant has be growing rigorously for me  putting out plantlets regularly.

This plant was simultaneously putting out another spathe when the first one flowered. It is visible in the picture above.

Hygrophila sp. ‘Araguaia’

I have been growing a few stems of Hygrophila sp ‘Aragaia’ emersed for about six months now. The stems were initially planted in a small 5gallon cube which has a 1.5” layer of old Aquasoil Amazonia II and Bright Sand. I had a 26 W 6700K CF bulb on it. The stems I initially got were grown submerged. I cut the top of the stems to approximately 2” and planted them. After not seeing any significant growth for about 3 weeks I moved them to my emersed Cryptocoryne set up. Initially the stems were planted in a pot with some Cryptocoryne willisii. After a couple of weeks I could see some improvements in the growth. The plant was putting out new leaves but the growth was very very slow. In December, 2008 I decided to plant the stems in their own pot and moved the pot directly under the 65W CF light I had over this tank.

Over the next few weeks the growth increased significantly but I would still consider it slow for a Hygrophila sp. Finally after six months it flowered for me confirming it was a Hygrophila sp.

Beautiful lilac flower with sprinkle of lavender.