# Is This a Cryptocoryne Flower?



## Lee_D (Jun 11, 2010)

I've spent the last year or two trying to grow some Cryptocoryne Emmersed (Out of Water) to see if I can identify them. It's my understanding you need to see the flower for correct identification. Is this the flower?

They were labeled Cryptocoryne Cordata when I bought them a few years back at an Auction. The plant is a good 12 inches tall which is 3 times taller than I have ever seen them under water.

Lee_D.


----------



## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

They are members of the huge Aroid family, so if that is a flower, you're going to see something very similar to what a Peace Lily flower looks like. It will have what is often called a pigtail, the spadix, in the centre of a vaguely cone-shaped 'spathe'. The spadix usually has both male and female flowers on it. ID can still be exceedingly difficult as differences that you can't see without extreme magnification may be involved.

Macro pics of some of the details of these extremely minute flowers is probably going to be needed to get a fairly positive ID. I'd guess that's what you've got going on here because a lot of the Aroids will flower with reasonable ease if conditions are good. I've seen the odd Anubias ( another aroid) flower under water, though they can't produce seed that way.

Whether or not you get seeds is hard to say. Spadixes may not be self-fertile and thus may require a flower from another plant to pollinate.


----------

