Cryptocoryne griffithii

The name Cryptocoryne griffithii has been known in the aquarium hobby for many years. Plants so named were frequently exported from Singapore to Europe from the 1950s onwards and were also described in aquarium literature. Later, however, it turned out that these plants mostly belonged not to the species C. griffithii, but to Crpytocoryne × purpurea or also C. cordata var. cordata.

The true C. griffithii, on the other hand, has hardly played any role as an aquarium plant and is probably not to be recommended as such. According to Bastmeijer (2003)¹, it is difficult to cultivate and not suitable for standard aquariums. Some hobbyists keep various locality forms of this species, mostly emersed or semi-emersed, in acidic substrate such as beech leaf mould, e.g. in “cup culture”, which has proved its worth for demanding cryptocorynes.

Cryptocoryne griffithii was described in 1856 by Heinrich Wilhelm Schott and named after the British botanist William Griffith. The species has two ranges. One comprises the south of the Malay Peninsula (Malaysia: Johor), Singapore and some islands to the south of it; the other lies on the island of Borneo in the south of Kalimantan (Indonesia) and was only discovered in recent times by Yuji Sasaki. Griffith's water trumpet crosses with Cryptocoryne cordata in the wild, forming the hybrid C. × purpurea. The wild sites are streams in the rainforest with acidic water and humus-rich soil, but also ditches in rubber plantations. There the plant grows mostly submersed to semi-emersed in shallow water and often forms dense stands.

Griffith's water trumpet looks very similar externally to Cryptocoryne cordata and C. × purpurea and differs from these in inflorescence characters. The leaves have petioles 10 to 15 cm long, the leaf blade is broadly ovate, has a heart-shaped base and is 5.5 to 7 cm long and 4 to 5 cm wide. The upper side of the leaf is dark green to purple, the underside purple. The entire spathe (inflorescence bract) is 5 to 15 cm long. The spathe limb is inclined backwards, normally spread out flat (not twisted) and shortly tailed at the tip. The inner side of the spathe limb is purple and has a warty structure. At the transition to the throat a narrow collar is formed, which, like the throat, is purple in colour.²