Cryptocorynes

The cryptocoryne is a great aquarium and terrarium plant that can be grown well emersed or submerged.  Emersed grown plants tend to grow faster than those underwater submerged plants do but don’t color up as brightly as their underwater counterparts do.

The versatility of the cryptocoryne allows it to be used in an aquarium, a terrarium, or a paludarium.  As long as there’s moist soil and humidity it will grow and most times thrive.  Planting the crypts is best done by pushing the rhizome into the substrate to just below where the leaves start to spread from the rhizome shoot.  This is a good way to plant cryptocorynes whether they are in a terrarium, a glass jar on the counter, or an aquarium.

When you buy a cryptocoryne you have to look at it as buying a rhizome pretty much. They don’t always melt but its how they deal with rising or lowering seasonal rainfall and river stages. The water gets low it sheds it leaves and builds new emersed foliage that can stand dry air (or drier humid air anyway). The river rises again in the rainy period and the leaves now start growing underwater. It loses the old leaves so that it doesn’t waste energy on leaves that aren’t going to benefit the plant.