Cryptocoryne

water trumpet
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Green'
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Monocotyledons
Order:	Alismatales
Family:	Araceae
Subfamily:	Aroideae
Tribe:	Cryptocoryneae
Genus:	Cryptocoryne Fisch. ex Wydler
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. The two can be easily told apart since the leaves of Cryptocorynes exhibit convolute vernation whereas Lagenandras exhibit involute vernation.

The name Cryptocoryne is derived from the Latin crypto, meaning hidden, and the Greek koryne, meaning club. The common name (Watertrumpet) refers to the shape of its inflorescence, which is typical of the Arum family.

Selected species

• 

  Inflorescence of C. pontederiifolia

• 

  C. wendtii "Green", the most popular Cryptocoryne.

• 

  A form of C. wendtii produced by Tropica Aquarium Plants.

• Cryptocoryne affinis
• Cryptocoryne aponogetifolia
• Cryptocoryne auriculata
• Cryptocoryne beckettii
• Cryptocoryne bogneri
• Cryptocoryne bullosa
• Cryptocoryne ciliata
• Cryptocoryne cognata
• Cryptocoryne cordata
• Cryptocoryne crispatula
• Cryptocoryne dewitii
• Cryptocoryne griffithii
• Cryptocoryne lingua
• Cryptocoryne longicauda
• Cryptocoryne mekongensis
• Cryptocoryne minima
• Cryptocoryne parva
• Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia
• Cryptocoryne purpurea
• Cryptocoryne retrospiralis
• Cryptocoryne spiralis
• Cryptocoryne thwaitesii
• Cryptocoryne undulata
• Cryptocoryne usteriana
• Cryptocoryne walkeri
• Cryptocoryne walkeri 'lutea'
• Cryptocoryne wendtii
• Cryptocoryne x willisii

Cultivation and uses

Some water trumpets are popular commercially cultivated aquarium plants. Submerged plants reproduce vegetatively, emerse plants may flower and reproduce sexually. Many species are cultivated only by dedicated experts and are very hard to grow, or are not present 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 in Florida in North America.

Some of the Cryptocorynes are generally the easier ones to keep (in fact, some species, such as 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. Many modern aquariums may be too well lit for crypts to thrive.

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. Together with the fact that some species show a large variability (C. wendtii) and can only be properly identified by the flowering spathe, this makes it difficult to identify some species solely on leaf habit.

Cryptocoryne plants have been in cultivation in the aquarium hobby since the late 18th century, although it was not until the 1960 s that more than a handful of species were known and became more common in the hobby. New species still regularly crop up as interest in these plants widens and more collecting expeditions by private parties are carried out.

Crypts are of commercial importance in the pet trade and have escaped into the wild in America, Jamaica, and other places. Texas and Florida both have stands of well established populations and these are considered invasive weeds with no known methods of control.

Crypt melt

A phenomenon often encountered when planting new crypts in an aquarium is commonly called Crypt melt, whereby the plant loses all its leaves. There seem to be two possible causes for this.

Rapid environmental changes is thought to trigger this, as these plants don't seem to adapt well to transplantion, and may need thirty days or so to become established and for the leaves to regrow. Experienced growers report that it is better to plant crypts in aquariums that have been established for at least three months^{[citation needed]}.

In the wild, Crypts can grow fully submerged underwater, but in Oriental nurseries they are often grown emersed and crypt melt could then be triggered by the change from emerse to submerse conditions.

There is lately a trend for such nurseries to send crypts as just a rootstock (ie. without the leaves to reduce shipping costs and because the leaves will be lost anyway once planted in an aquarium.

Other reports, eg.

• Howto cultivate Crypts

emphasise the need to change the aquarium water regularly to prevent the build up of nitrates which are thought to trigger this condition (often referred to as a disease)

• Cryptocoryne affinis leaf drop

References and external links

• The Crypts pages
• Cryptocoryne blog by Ghazanfar Ghori
• The Krib
• Tropica
• Cryptocoryne
• Tentative Listing of Genus Cryptocoryne
• The Global Invasive Species Initiative
• History and Current Status of Systematic Research with Araceae
• How to Grow and Decorate with Cryptocoryne
• Documents pertaining to Cryptocoryne
• Crypt Crazy
• Growing emersed Cryptocorynes
• Tentative Listing of Genus Cryptocoryne
• Cryptocoryne Garden

• Huxley, A. (1992). New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. Macmillan.

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• 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.
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