# Cryptocoryne cf. griffithi



## Ghazanfar Ghori (Jan 27, 2004)

Last year, a friend of mine went on a collecting trip to the Panti area of Johor state in Malaysia. He found quite a number of plants, and he documented it in his blog. One of the plants he collected was Cryptocoryne cf. griffithi.
A few months after that, I was lucky enough to receive that plant. Soon after I planted it, it melted down to a single leaf. Over the last few months its made a good recovery, and the plant has gotten significantly larger. Last week I noticed it was starting to put out a spathe - very exciting - since I had not yet to date flowered Cryptocoryne griffithi. However, as the spathe progressed and got taller I started to have doubts.............

Read the rest on my blog. 
http://kryptokoryne.aquaticscape.com


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## feeneyjj (Mar 1, 2009)

(My first post here -- or on any aquarium forum.) When I was a kid growing up in NY in the 1950's and 60's, they sold a cryptocoryne under this name ("griffithi"). As I recall, Cryptocoryne griffithi was also one of a standard handful of cryptocorynes described in the few aquarium books available at that time. On several occasions, I bought magnificent specimens at a place called "Aquarium Stock Company" in downtown Manhattan near City Hall. They cost $1.95 each -- a stiff price in those days. One of the salesmen once told me they got them from a lady in upstate NY. Never had any luck growing them; they always melted on me. But that was a time of air stones and air-driven filtration, including under-gravel filtration, and long before Das Perfecte Aquarium and the discovery of the role of CO2, etc. 

In my memory, the specimens had a large, broad, more-or-less heart-shaped and dark green leaf on a long stem. The stem had some purple-red highlights. The leaf shape was not too dissimilar, mutatis mutandis, to Ghazanfar's first picture, though, given the length of the stems back more than a half century ago, I presume those were grown submers.

In more recent decades, I have read (Kassellmann?) that real griffithi is a rare and difficult species. Also think I read somewhere that what had been called griffithi in the trade was probably a form of cordata -- just as Ghazanfar concluded above. (During my military service during the Vietnam War, I ended up in Bangkok (!), Thailand -- 1970-72 -- instead of Vietnam, where instead of an M-16 I had several aquariums and visited some of the fish farms in the area. The cordata I grew there were huge: over two feet long and with oval leaves, olive green leaf surfaces, reddish underneath. Nothing like the old "griffithis", at least in leaf form -- but we all now know how the forms of crypts of the same species can differ so dramatically.)

Anyhow, the question is: does anyone, by any chance, remember what, at least in America, were called Cryptocoryne griffithi more than 50 years ago and, if so, what they were in reality? They gave a different impression than most (popular) crypts, which tend very much to be lance-shaped in the leaf. My curiosity about this is undoubtedly driven by nostalgia and regret over an unrequited childhood crush -- on an aquarium plant.


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

I'm too young to remember back 50 years, but I've been doing this hobby about 10 years now and have not seen the real griffithii yet. I had one that was sold to me as such and it turned out to be x purpurea.


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