Cryptocoryne albida Brown

Care at a glance

Overview

An easy, compact crypt for the front of the midground. Give it a nutrient-rich substrate or root tabs, plant it once and leave it alone, since crypts resent being moved and can melt after replanting or a sharp swing in parameters. It manages in quite low light, just very slowly; medium light and CO2 speed it up and strengthen the brown tones. Trim melted leaves at the base and wait, the roots almost always resprout. It spreads by short runners into a slowly thickening group.

In the wild

A brown leaved colour form of Cryptocoryne albida, selected from a naturally variable species rather than collected as a population of its own. The species grows in southern Myanmar and Thailand on sandy banks of streams and small rivers, emersed on the margins in the dry season and submersed when the water rises.

Good to know

A water trumpet in the family Araceae, sitting in the Cryptocoryne crispatula group. The species name albida means whitish, which makes the 'Brown' label mildly ironic; the brown, narrow leaved plants in the trade were traditionally sold under the synonym Cryptocoryne costata. Leaves reach about 15 cm long and only 1-3 cm wide, red-brown with darker markings and attractively waved edges.

Did you know

The species name means whitish, yet the form hobbyists actually hunt for is the brown one. The mismatch is old: the brown plants were long traded as a separate species, Cryptocoryne costata, before being folded into albida.

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