Cryptocoryne hudoroi

Care at a glance

Overview

A striking midground to background crypt that can reach 20 to 50 cm, so give it room. Reflect its river origin: good flow, clean water and a nutritious substrate suit it, and unlike the blackwater crypts it takes moderately hard water in stride. Medium light is enough, with CO2 helping the heavily puckered leaves grow out full sized. Expect the usual crypt melt after planting or big parameter swings, and leave the roots undisturbed while it re-establishes. It spreads by runners and a mature rhizome can be divided.

In the wild

Cryptocoryne hudoroi comes from the south of Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo, where it grows in rapidly flowing rivers through limestone country. It forms dense submersed stands in the current, an unusually aquatic life for a crypt, though like its relatives it can also grow emersed on the banks. Coming from limestone rather than peat swamp, its native water carries real carbonate hardness.

Good to know

An aroid described by Bogner and Jacobsen in 1985 and reportedly named after Hudoro, the Indonesian plant enthusiast who brought it to botanists' attention. It belongs to the bullate Borneo crypts around Cryptocoryne bullosa, and its narrow oval leaves are strongly puckered, as if hammered from below. Imported for the hobby in the 1990s, it has stayed an uncommon plant ever since.

Did you know

Most Borneo crypts are soft-water swamp plants, but hudoroi grows in fast limestone rivers and is correspondingly forgiving of carbonate hardness, which makes it one of the easier rare crypts to place in ordinary tap water.

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