Cryptocoryne

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Water trumpet
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Liliopsida Order: Alismatales Family: Araceae Genus: Cryptocoryne Fisch.
Species
See text.

Cryptocoryne (water trumpet) is a genus of about 50-60 species of aquatic monocot plants from the family Araceae (arums). The genus is naturally distributed in tropical regions of Asia and New Guinea.

The typical habitats of Cryptocoryne are mostly streams and rivers with not too rapidly flowing water, in the lowland forest. They also live in seasonally inundated forest pools or on river banks submerged only at high water. Although the proper scientific name of the genus is Cryptocoryne, they are commonly referred to as crypts. The English name "water trumpet" refers to their inflorescence, a spadix enclosed by a spathe (typical for the whole family), which resembles a trumpet.

The first Cryptocoryne species was described in 1779 as Arum spirale by Retzius. The genus was described by Friedrich Ernst Ludwig von Fischer in 1828. However, the scientific classification of Cryptocoryne species is very complicated and there are different opinions about it. Lagenandra is another genus closely related to the genus Cryptocoryne.

Selected species

• Cryptocoryne affinis
• Cryptocoryne beckettii
• Cryptocoryne cordata
• Cryptocoryne crispatula
• Cryptocoryne griffithii
• Cryptocoryne lingua
• Cryptocoryne longicauda
• Cryptocoryne minima
• Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia
• Cryptocoryne purpurea
• Cryptocoryne retrospiralis
• Cryptocoryne spiralis
• Cryptocoryne thwaitesii
• Cryptocoryne undulata
• Cryptocoryne usteriana
• Cryptocoryne walkeri
• Cryptocoryne wendtii

[edit] Cultivation and uses

Some water trumpets are popular commercially cultivated aquarium plants. Submersed plants reproduce vegetatively, emersed plants may flower and reproduce sexually. Many species are cultivated only by dedicated experts and are very hard to grow, or not in a culture at all. Some species are endangered because their natural habitats are disappearing. On the other hand, some water trumpets (eg. Cryptocoryne beckettii) are very hardy aquarium plants, easy to grow to the point that they have become an invasive species after being introduced to Florida in North America.

Some of the Cryptocorynes are generally the easier ones to keep (in fact, some species (Cryptocorynes wendtii) are said to be among the most versatile of aquarium plants); they require low to moderate light (but can grow faster in more intense light), a temperature range of around 20 to 33 °C, and slightly acidic or neutral pH, though they can adapt to higher pH as well. In contrast to accepted aquarium wisdom, it thrives well in calcareous water.

Plants of the Genus Cryptocoryne, which range from India to New Guinea are found in very diverse conditions. Some are true acid loving plants such as C. grabowski, found in peat bogs in Borneo, while others such as C. balansae and C. pontiderifolia are found in streams with limestone beds - hard alkaline water. One species, C. ciliata is even found in semi brackish water in some areas. It is one of the few aquarium plants that tolerates salt concentrations that would almost certainly kill other aquarium plants.

There has been an extensive revision of the Genus by Jacobsen and many names aquarists are familiar with have been changed. Crypts also have an annoying (to taxonomists!) tendency to hybridize freely in nature and there are a handful of "species" found in nature that are hybrids. Add to this the situation where some species have a multitide of natural cultivars (C. wendtii) and the fact they can only be properly identified by the flowering spathe - and they seldom flower in aquaria - it makes it difficult to identify some species solely on appearance.

Cryptocoryne plants have been in cultivation in the aquarium hobby since the late 18th century, although it was not until the 1960s that more than a handful of species were known and they could not be called common in the hobby until then.

As of this writing (2006) there are still a couple of new species found per year for the past few years as interest in these plants widens and more collections expeditions by private parties increase.

They are now of commercial importance in the pet trade and hace escaped into the wild in America, Jamaica and other places. Texas and Florida both have stands of well established plants and are considered invasive weeds with no known method of control.

[edit] References and external links

• The Crypts pages
• The Krib
• Tropica
• Cryptocoryne
• Tentative Listing of Genus Cryptocoryne
• The Global Invasive Species Initiative
• History and Current Status of Systematic Research with Araceae

• Huxley, A. (1992). New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. Macmillan.
• Arends, J.C., Bastmeijer, J.D. & Jacobsen, N., 1982. Chromosome numbers and taxonomy in Cryptocoryne (Araceae).II. Nord. J.Bot. 2 : 453-463.
• Clark, Robert. 1991. Flower and seed production in Cryptocoryne. The Aquatic Gardener 4:1/91.
• Davis, Greg and Mike Kane. 1995. Inducing flowering in Cryptocoryne species. The Aquatic Gardener 8:5/95.
• Jacobsen, Niels. 1992. The Cryptocoryne of the Malay Peninsula, pt. 1. The Aquatic Gardener 5:3/92.
• James, Barry. 1986. A Fishkeeper's Guide To Aquarium Plants. Salamander Books, UK.. 117 pp.
• Gasser, Robert A. 1978. Cryptocoryne retrospiralis. FAMA 2/78.
• Gasser, Robert A. 1978. Cryptocoryne aponogetifolia. FAMA 11/78.
• Gasser, Robert A. 1979. Cryptocoryne tonkinensis. FAMA 3/79.
• Gasser, Robert A. 1979. Cryptocoryne striolata. FAMA 6/79.
• Gasser, Robert A. & James H. 1985. Some interesting and rare Cryptocorynes. FAMA 2/85.
• de Graaf, Arie. 1987. The occurrence of Cryptocoryne (Araceae) on Sri Lanka. FAMA 11/87.
• Greger, Bernd. 1987. Artificial pollination of Cryptocorynes. Today's Aquarium 2/87.
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• Mohlmann, Freidrich. 1988. An exciting find- Cryptocoryne villosa. TFH 12/88.
• Mohlmann, Freidrich. 1989. A useful aquarium plant: Cryptocoryne moehlmannii. TFH 1/89.
• Mohlmann, Friedrich. 1991. The Spiral Water Trumpet (Cryptocoryne spiralis). TFH 4/91.
• Pon, Richard T. 1992. Cryptocoryne usteriana. The Aquatic Gardener 5:1/92
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• Rataj, Karel. 1988. Cryptocoryne siamensis: An enigmatic aquarium plant. TFH 8/88.
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• Raven, Peter H., Ray F. Evert and Helena Curtis. 1976 2d ed.. Biology of Plants. Worth Publishers, Inc., NY. 685 pp.
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• Roe, Colin D. 1967. A Manual of Aquarium Plants. Shirley Aquatics, England. 111 pp.
• Spiers, Dale. 1989. The genus Cryptocoryne (Araceae): Rolls-Royce of the aquatic plant world. The Aquarium Gardener 3:2/89.
• Spiers, Dale. 1991. Cryptocoryne affinis (Araceae). The Aquatic Gardener 4:2/91.
• Stewart, Emmit. 1992. What kind of shade? Pt.1 The Aquatic Gardener 5:6/92.
• Stodola, Jiri. 1967. Encyclopedia of Water Plants. T.F.H. Publications, NJ. 368 pp.
• Tomey, William A. 1969. Cryptocoryne lingua. The Aquarium 7/69.
• Van Hyfte, Dick. 1986. Some help with difficult crypts. The Aquatic Gardener 2:2/86.
• Wit, H.C.D.de, 1975. Cryptocoryne alba de Wit (nov.sp.) en Cryptocoryne bogneri de Wit (nov.sp.). Het Aquarium 45(12) : 326-327.
• Wit, H.C.D.de, 1990. Aquarienpflanzen, 2. Auflage. Ulmer, Stuttgart. ISBN 3-8001-7185-6.