Volume 11 > Part 2 > Year 2012 > Page 220 > Araceae > Cryptocoryne

1. Cryptocoryne affinis Hook.f.

Fl. Brit. India 6: 494. 1893; Ridl., Mat. Fl. Malay Penins.: 6. 1907; Engl. in Engl., Pflanzenr. IV, 23F (Heft 73): 241. 1920; Ridl., Fl. Malay Penins. 5: 87. 1925; Othman et al., Cryptocoryne of Peninsular Malaysia, 43. 2009. Plate XLV.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Synonyms & Citations :

Description : Rhizome short and rugged, sometimes slender with long internodes. Runners long, slender. Leaves green to brownish purple, upper surface purplish green to green, lower surface red to greenish with reddish veins; leaf blade narrowly ovate, with a truncate to narrowly cordate base, 5–15 by 1–4 cm, surface between the veins smooth to bullate (largest specimens in deep, not quite so fast-running water, small compact specimens in faster-running water; emerged specimens with greenish, crumpled leaves); petiole 5–15 cm long; spathe 10–22 cm long; peduncle 1–3 cm long; kettle 1–2 cm long, white, inside purplish in the upper half; tube 2–12 cm long, white, the upper part dark purplish on the outside; limb 3–7 cm long, spirally twisted, black purple, upper part sometimes greenish, somewhat rough; collar elongate, present but more or less concealed in the spirally twisted limb; pistillate flowers 5–8, purplish to purple or greenish and purple spotted, more or less papillose; stigmas ovate to emarginate; olfactory bodies irregularly rounded, upper surface more or less rough, yellow to purplish spotted; staminate flowers 40–60, smooth. Infructescence ovoid. Seeds brownish, surface somewhat rough; endosperm present, embryo cone-shaped, with an undifferentiated plumula. Chromosome number: 2n = 34.

Thailand : PENINSULAR: Yala.

Distribution : Peninsular Malaysia (Selangor, Pahang, Kelatantan, Perak – type, Kedah).

Ecology : Mostly on sandy to stony, but also muddy bottoms in rather fast-running streams or rivers. At low water level, specimens emerged on sandbanks have smaller, crumpled, green leaves, while submerged specimens are larger with brownish purple leaves. The plants often occur in large numbers.

Notes: Plants of Cryptocoryne affinis have been seen and authoritatively reported from southern Thailand, from the Betong area of Yala province, but the locality has not been verified. Cryptocoryne affinis has been rather well known for a number of years although the full extent of its distribution has only recently been realized. Plants imported to Europe in the late 1940s and named as C. haerteliana have smoother and greener leaves than usually found.

E-version notes : As Cryptocoryne affinis N.E.Br.
Fl. Brit. India 6: 494 (1893)