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Cryptocoryne keei N. Jacobsen |
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Probably, plants of the species Cryptocoryne keei were held as Cryptocoryne
bullosa for many years in Europe. They were not recognized. In 1968, Vladimir Sadilek
from Tsjechia wrote an article about C. bullosa (Sadilek, 1968). He mentions that
newly imported plants were found at a 'secret' locality of the Ong family in Sarawak and
actually he describes C. keei. Jacobsen states that Henry Ong from Kuching, the
famous collector and tradesman in Sarawak from the 60s to the 80s, found this plant near
Bau in Western Sarawak around 1978 (Jacobsen 1985). There were no inflorescences known of
this species, but nobody worried about that. Till it was discovered that the chromosomal
number of the plant proved to be 2n=20 in contrast to the expected value of 2n=34 for C.
bullosa (Arends et al. 1982). When Ong collected a spathe after this discovery, it
turned out to be a new species! The species is named in honor to Henry Ong Kee Chuan.
Click on the picture to get the full image (ca. 50 kB) |
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Emersed cultivated plant of C. keei.
Note the brown marmorated young leave.
coll. hort., cult. Möhlmann
photo Möhlmann |
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Hans Ehrenberg from Berlin flowered C. keei in culture. A length section of the kettle. Note the rather short spadix.
coll. hort., cult. Ehrenberg
photo Ehrenberg
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Another by Ehrenberg cultivated plant. Note the
small size of the spathe, ca 5 cm and the short leaves.
coll. hort., cult. Ehrenberg
photo Kasselmann |
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The limb has small red dots in the throat. The
surface is quite rough and the top is like a twisted tail.
coll. hort., cult. Ehrenberg
photo Kasselmann
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Imported specimen of C. keei. Note very
dark green leaves. The lower part of the petioles are white, apparently they were deeply
buried in the soil.
coll NJ 78-73, cult. B 309
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Submersed grown, C. keei can develop
bright brown spots on the leave: the vertical leave at left. Note that this is true color
of the leave and not dirt. The leave at right is C. hudoroi.
coll. & cult. CK 69
photo Kettner
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The same scene. The leave at the left background
is almost brown. It belongs to C. keei.This is only known from cultivated plants.
Leave blade about 10 cm long.
coll. & cult. CK 69
photo Kettner
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Isotype of C. keei collected by Henry
Ong, in the Wageningen Herbarium in the Netherlands.
Nationaal Herbarium Wageningen
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Yuji Sasaki collected C. keei in
December 1999. Plants flowered soon in Japan. Length of the spathe ca 8 cm.
coll. SS1
photo Sasaki
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Limb of the spathe of C. keei. Note the
tail and the fine red dots in the throat.
coll. SS1
photo Sasaki
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A length section of the kettle. The color of the
kettle wall is white in fact.
coll. SS1
photo Sasaki
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The female flowers with rather long styles. As
usual they bent down a few days after opening.
coll. SS1
photo Sasaki
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A bank with submersed growing C. keei near Bau (Sarawak). Note that some specimen grow emersed.
coll. SS1
photo Sasaki
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Detail of the riverbank with C. keei.
The plants are fully green.
coll. SS1
photo Sasaki
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Jacobsen (1982) gives a drawing of C. keei.
Apparently the limb is not 'tailed'.
drawing Marianne Krøjgaard
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Distribution of C. keei West of Kuching
(Sarawak).
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Cryptocoryne keei was and is a surprise. In contrast to C. bullosa,
this plant is rather easy to cultivate, even in a normal fish tank. To see the
inflorescense, one has to cultivate the plants emersed. But it proved up to now extremely
difficult. Hans Ehrenberg from Berlin succeeded after many years, cultivating the plant
emersed.
Yuji Sasaki from Japan collected C. keei in December 1999. They were
flowering abundantly.
See also the pages on C. bullosa and C. hudoroi.
Updated February 2000 |
Literature.
- Arends, J.C., Bastmeijer, J.D. & Jacobsen, N., 1982. Chromosome numbers and
taxonomy in Cryptocoryne (Araceae).II. Nord.J.Bot. 2 : 453-463.
- Bogner, J., 1989. Cryptocoryne hudoroi Bogner et Jacobsen. Aqua-Planta 1-89 : 12-16.
- Jacobsen, N., 1985. The Cryptocoryne (Araceae) of Borneo. Nord.J.Bot. 5 : 31-50.
- Jacobsen, N., 1986. Deterioration of the habitats of the Cryptocoryne species.
Symp.Bedreiging van het aquatisch milieu, Ludwigia, Wageningen : 33.
- Kasselmann, C., 1995. Aquarienpflanzen. Ulmer, Stuttgart.
- Kettner, C., 1992. Bemerkungen zu einen natürlichen Standort von Cryptocoryne keei auf
Borneo. Aqua-Planta 4-92 : 139.
- Kettner, C., 1997. Cryptocorynen in Borneo. Aqua-Planta 22(3): 100-104.
- Möhlmann, F., 1987. Cryptocoryne hudoroi Bogner et Jacobsen. Das Aquarium 219 : 479-480.
- Sadilek, V., 1968. Neue Cryptocorynen IV : Cryptocoryne bullosa Becc. ex Engler. DATZ 21 :
274-277.
- Wit, H.C.D.de, 1990. Aquarienpflanzen, 2. Auflage. Ulmer, Stuttgart. ISBN 3-8001-7185-6
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