Crypts pages

Cryptocoryne cruddasiana Prain

home

Cryptocoryne cruddasiana is endemic in Myanmar (Burma) where it was collected only a few times in the last century. It proved to be very hard to recollect it, several attempts failed, but just at the end of 2005, Jin Murata from Japan was able to find it. Bogner cultivated it and these are the first pictures of the flowering plant.

Click on the picture to get the full image (ca 50 k)

Cryptocoryne cruddasiana has narrow lanceolate to linear leaves with a prominent mid vein.
coll.: Murata
photo: Gerlach

The limb of the spathe is very rough with near the margins even protuberances.
coll.: Murata
photo: Gerlach

 The limb is not spirally twisted as often seen in the related (?) crispatula group.
coll.: Murata
photo: Gerlach
 The lower part of the tube (kettle) has a typical constriction.
coll.: Murata
photo: Gerlach
       
Drawing made from various herbarium specimens in de Wit (1990).
drawing Ike Zewald		 The original drawing of C. cruddasiana in Prain (1901).
coll. Mokim s.n (1898)		 Drawing in Rataj (1975, as C. burmensis). This plant originates from near the Tibet frontier.
coll. Kingdom Ward 9045 		Distribution of C. cruddasiana in the Kachin hills in northern Myanmar.
       

This species looks very close to some members of the albida - crispatula group but differs by the not twisted and very rough limb of the spathe.
See for comparison the pages for C. crispatula.

Jan D. Bastmeijer, update January 2006

Literature:

Engler, A.,1920. (Cryptocoryne, Lagenandra in) Das Pflanzenreich IV.23.F. Araceae - Aroideae : 232-249, Leipzig.
Jacobsen, N., 1982. Cryptocorynen. Alfred Kernen Verlag, Stuttgart.
Prain, D., 1900. Some new plants from Eastern India: Cryptocoryne cruddasiana Prain. J.As.Soc.Begal, Vol LXIX : 174.
Prain, D., 1901. Cryptocoryne cruddasiana Prain. Ann. Roy. Bot:Gard. Calc, Vol IX, part 1, plate 90.
Rataj, K., 1975. Revision of the genus Cryptocoryne Fischer. Studie CSAV, c.3.Praha.
Wit, H.C.D.de, 1961. Het genus Cryptocoryne (15), Cryptocoryne cruddasiana Prain en C. elliptica N.E. Brown. Het Aquarium 31(8): 180-181.
Wit, H.C.D.de, 1970. A key to the species of Cryptocoryne Fish.ex Wydl.(Araceae). Misc.papers LH Wageningen 6 : 257-280.
Wit, H.C.D.de, 1990. Aquarienpflanzen, 2. Auflage. Ulmer, Stuttgart. ISBN 3-8001-7185-6

home