Shade-loving Cryptocoryne White

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Cryptocoryne white carefree lives in water bodies in Sri Lanka. Most often it can be seen along the banks of streams located in the tropical forests of this amazing island. This is a rather rare but incredibly attractive species of Cryptocoryne. Cryptocoryne white looks incredibly original and elegant in the design of aquariums, but, alas, it is not often cultivated in our latitudes

Getting to know the plant

Cryptocoryne white is an unusually graceful marsh inhabitant, whose height often reaches twenty centimeters (and the minimum height will be about five centimeters), and the length of its original leaf petioles is up to eleven centimeters. On the front sides, funny leafy plates can be pimpled or smooth. They are ten centimeters long and three and a half centimeters wide. The edges of the leaflets are smooth, wavy or corrugated, and their shape is lanceolate, narrowed ovate or narrow ellipsoid. Cryptocoryne white also has opaque leaves that grow in length up to eleven centimeters, and the length of their tubes is about one and a half centimeters. Erect plates of bedspreads are painted in pinkish or dark reddish tones. From the inside, they are smooth or slightly bubbly, slightly pointed, completely not wrapped and growing up to seven centimeters in length. As a rule, their collars are formed quite clearly, although sometimes they may be absent altogether, and the cover sheets have a common color with the throat.

Regularly, this bizarre plant has very pretty inflorescences. At the same time, there are much more male flowers in inflorescences (from twenty to fifty) than in female flowers (from four to six).

There are also several varieties of color in White Cryptocoryne - it can be delicate olive green, as well as brownish or reddish marble. Relatively recently, in 1990, a pure green variety was also bred.

Cryptocoryne white is considered to be the closest relative of Tveits cryptocoryne - these two species are characterized by the absence of stable differences.

Still, Cryptocorynes cannot be called true aquatic plants, since in nature they spend only part of the growing season submerged under water, and the rest of the time they grow either half-submerged or entirely above water. These are completely typical amphibian plants. In fact, the life of these unique plants takes place under the conditions of a systematic change of habitat.

How to grow

Cryptocoryne white in most cases prefers to grow in loamy, muddy soil in highly shaded areas. This beauty grows well on slightly acidic and nutritious soils. And for keeping in aquarium conditions, it is considered not particularly suitable. In a slightly acidic environment, this marsh plant is also capable of leading a surface lifestyle. Cryptocoryne white usually grows in bushes, growing well with the appropriate soil. The substrate is essential for its development. The soil should not only be permeable and loose, but also contain the entire range of valuable nutrients. Expanded clay or gravel are perfect as a substrate base. Alternatively, you can take a mixture of these two components. And the average size of the fraction should be from three to eight millimeters. Various useful additives are allowed to be added to gravel. A mixture of gravel with non-acidic high-moor peat in a ratio from 1: 1 to 5: 1, to which a small amount of sapropel is added, has proven itself quite well.

For comfortable development, luxurious Cryptocoryne white needs an aqueous medium with an acid reaction, as well as not too bright lighting (about 0.3 - 0.4 W / l). The optimal parameters for its comfort mean the acidity of the water in the range from 4, 0 to 5, 5, hardness in the range from two to five degrees, and the temperature ranging from 22 to 29 degrees.

This aquatic beauty reproduces mainly vegetatively and it develops rather slowly. And the best place to place it in aquariums will certainly be the background near the end walls.