This year the annual meeting of the European Cryptocoryne Society will be held in Wolvertem, Belgium, from 21-23 September. Wolvertem is ca.10 km N of Brussels and close to the famous Botanical Garden in Meise.
Registration is from the end of May when the full details will be presented.
The ECS is a virtual organisation from hobbyists, professionals and scientists who had her first meeting in 2000. Admission is on invitation, we very like to have people who are seriously interested in these plants and can contribute to the group. Please email me when you would like to come or contact another participant.

20 May 2012
A new Cryptocoryne from Sri Lanka is described : C. waseri.The plant is already more than 20 years in cultivation and has always been regarded as belonging within the concept of C. alba. In the review of C. alba it was made clear that the rough limb of the spathe (smooth in C. alba and C. thwaitesii) and the pronounced collar deserved to name it as a new species.
The bad news is that several attempts to find the plant again in its natural habitat failed because of the logging of the forest. And as no other localities are known, the plant may be extinct before it was described. See the page and download the article from the Document service.
photo Bastmeijer

20 May 2012
In 2001, J. Kawashima published an article in the Japanese Fish Magazine on a new discovered Cryptocoryne from Sri Lanka, under the name C. alba. Probably because of the white (= alba in latin) limb of the plant. The short limb also remembered to the slight forward bend limb of C. bogneri.The leaves of this plant however are typical like these from C. thwaitesii: rough like 'sandpaper' with a pronounced undulated margin.
The plant is regarded as within C. thwaitesii, with a longer tube of the spathe and without a tail. See the C. thwaitesii page
photo Bastmeijer

27 March 2012
December 2010, Lagenandra undulata was rediscovered after nearly 50 years in the Arunachal Pradresh state of India, probably for the first time after its discovery by Sastry in 1966. Idei found the plant on the slopes of the Himalayas at ca.1200m where it grows as a rheophyte on the mossy rocks around the numerous cascades in the stream.
L. undulata proves to be easy to cultivate and flowered several times in 2011.

Idei's article in Aqua Planta is available in the Document service of this site.

4 January 2011
A new species Cryptocoryne loeiensis is described in the Thai Forest Bulletin. Collected by Takashige Idei in the Mekong river near Chiang Khan in the Loei province, N Thailand. It differs from C. crispatula in having a short, half twisted, rough limb of the spathe, but the leaves are almost like this species. The Mekong Cryptocoryne have a seasonal character with terete leaves during high water (up to 10 m !) when they are dormant. In the dry season they are exposed to full sun in an unsheltered position. See also C. mekongensis and C. crispatula var. decus-mekongensis. They are not suited for the aquarium.
photo Bastmeijer

30 December 2010
Again Cryptocoryne dewitii, found by Takashige Idei in Papua New Guinea. The article in Aqua Planta 35(1) is now available in the Document service, with an English translation. The plant proved to be easy to cultivate in a slight acid substrate as shown in the picture left, where it is grown semi-emersed in a Fagus leaf mould.

photo Bastmeijer
click to enlarge