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Cryptocoryne
Also called Cryps, Water Trumpets, Watertrumpet
Cryptocoryne is a genus of aquatic plants from the Arum family, native to tropical India, Southeast Asia and New Guinea, and widely grown in aquariums. Most grow submerged in soft or moderately hard water with a nutrient-rich substrate, and the hardier species are the easiest to keep.
Cryptocoryne is a genus of aquatic plants from the family Araceae. The genus is naturally distributed in tropical regions of India, Southeast Asia and New Guinea. The English common name "water trumpet" refers to their inflorescence, a spadix enclosed by a spathe (typical for the whole family), which resembles a trumpet. The genus is commonly referred to as Crypts by aquarium hobbyists.
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.
Some Cryptocoryne 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 (e.g. 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.
Cryptocoryne is either found in peat bogs or on limestone; the latter do well in most aquaria, the former must have soft water to survive and need decomposing leaf litter to do well. C. striolata, while found primarily in peat bogs, has also been found growing on limestone. Borneo is home to many endemic crypts previously thought to grow only in tea-colored soft acid water emulating peat bogs but exploration of habitats from 2005 to 2010 showed about half grew on limestone as well.
Cryptocoryne affinis · Cryptocoryne aponogetifolia · Cryptocoryne auriculata · Beckett's water trumpet · Cryptocoryne cruddasiana · Cryptocoryne dewitii · Cryptocoryne mekongensis · Tiny Cryptocoryne · Cryptocoryne spiralis · Water Trumpet · Cryptocoryne usteriana · Water Trumpet
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cryptocoryne by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
