# Cryptocoryne Seed? or Barclaya ?



## TorontoPlantMan (Aug 16, 2013)

Hey guys, was recently removing from plants from my tank and I stumbled across this little guy. As I moved the substrate what had caught my eye was something really shiny and I thought it was a piece of fluorite but it turned out to be a baby crypt! Now I don't recall my Wendtii 'Mi Oya' flowering which is what I originally thought this was because it was placed right beside it, but as I think a few weeks ago my Barclaya Longifolia flowered while I was away on vacation and blew up in the tank sending seeds and crap everywhere, was a complete mess.

Anyway, take a look at the picture and tell me if you think this is indeed a plant grown from seed. Thanks


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Usually if it's a seedling, you'll see either a pair of leaves, seed leaves, rising from the seed, if it's a dicot, or a single seed leaf if it's a monocot, with a single root that will start to branch out at the tip when it's long enough. Crypts are monocots, so you'd expect a single seed leaf, and a single root, both exiting the seed at the same place.

That dark bit at the bottom, is it a solid chunk of something or can you see a seam around it somewhere ? Most seeds will have a seam, where the seed coat splits open to allow the first root and leaves to get out. 

I suspect this is a tiny offshoot of the crypt, rather than a seedling but without a very close look at whatever that dark bit is, I can't be 100% sure. I'll have to look up barclaya to determine if it's mono or dicot.

Edit.. Well, according to one site, Barclaya has seeds that are thorny and light tan in colour. So I don't think this is Barclaya.. I think it's a Crypt offset. 

Site also said Barclaya is known to go to seed when it flowers, and is self fertile, producing seed even if the flower never reaches the air. Unless you want the seeds to make the mess you saw, best to cut off the flower stems before they go to seed. They can take a few months to sprout, so you might see some at some point.


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## TorontoPlantMan (Aug 16, 2013)

Fishfur said:


> Usually if it's a seedling, you'll see either a pair of leaves, seed leaves, rising from the seed, if it's a dicot, or a single seed leaf if it's a monocot, with a single root that will start to branch out at the tip when it's long enough. Crypts are monocots, so you'd expect a single seed leaf, and a single root, both exiting the seed at the same place.
> 
> That dark bit at the bottom, is it a solid chunk of something or can you see a seam around it somewhere ? Most seeds will have a seam, where the seed coat splits open to allow the first root and leaves to get out.
> 
> I suspect this is a tiny offshoot of the crypt, rather than a seedling but without a very close look at whatever that dark bit is, I can't be 100% sure. I'll have to look up barclaya to determine if it's mono or dicot.


Thanks for the response Fishfur. I know very little about aquatic plant seeds and how they work but thank you for your explanation I've learned quite a bit. I'm going to try to get a better picture of the solid chunk, I'll also look for a seam while I'm at it. I never knew about mono or dicot until you just told me that, much research will be done tonight  Thank you


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## Bwhiskered (Oct 2, 2008)

It is a Barclaya. I have been growing them for 20+ years or more and raised them from both bulb-lets and seed.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

NP.. You'll find that many familiar plants are in both general classes. A well known monocot is corn.. most of the grasses are monocots. 

Things like beans, peas and the majority of flowering or fruiting plants used in gardens or the house are dicots. These are short forms for the terms monocotyledon and dicotyledon, btw. 

Seeds come in a bewildering array of colours, shapes and sizes. Some are so hard you almost need a jackhammer to break them, some so fragile you can't put any pressure on them. Some are so tiny they are smaller than house dust, or as big as a coconut. Seeds with hard coats tend to be a lot slower to sprout, seeds with soft or thin coats tend to sprout more quickly.

How soon a seed will sprout or even if will at all is often governed by things such as the presence or absence of light or the ambient temperature.

A simple experiment is often done with school kids. You can use a bean, any kind of bean. Soak overnight, keep on a layer of damp paper towel in a jar in a well lit location. It will sprout quite fast and you can see the seed leaves and root come out. 

Grapefruit seeds are another that sprouts easily. If you find one in a grapefruit, carefully snip just the very tip of the pointed end off, which will allow water in more quickly. Same procedure as the bean, but will take a bit longer. Could be grown into a very nice plant. 

But it gives you an idea how seeds appear when sprouting, and the way it works is the same regardless of whether it sprouts in water or earth.

That trimming of the seed coat's point is called scarification and is a old technique for speeding up the sprouting of harder seeds. Sometimes sandpaper is used to remove some of the seed coat on hard seeds too, or hot water is used to soak them for a couple of days before they're planted. 

Some seeds are dormant when first produced and may need a period of time at some specific temperature, often below freezing, or a period of dryness or wetness before they can break their dormancy and sprout. Some sprout best when fresh off the plant, becoming less and less fertile as they age.

Edit. Neat.. that's a barclaya seed ? Very cool.. having never seen one in person, I could only go on what I saw described on a site about growing them from seed. Clearly, barclaya is not too difficult to grow from seeds. Nice to know.


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## TorontoPlantMan (Aug 16, 2013)

Fishfur said:


> NP.. You'll find that many familiar plants are in both general classes. A well known monocot is corn.. most of the grasses are monocots.
> 
> Things like beans, peas and the majority of flowering or fruiting plants used in gardens or the house are dicots. These are short forms for the terms monocotyledon and dicotyledon, btw.
> 
> ...


WOW! Fishfur you just took me back to my plants and society class in college  except this time I was paying attention hahah. I really just learned a lot and I seriously appreciate you taking the time to explain all of that to me. Thank you 

I've been able to confirm it is a barclays seed, it's pretty cool and I actually even found a couple more. I think I was just lucky with this plant because when I purchased it 3 of the plants were sending up flowers and when I went away on vacation they all exploded and made a mess lol. So in terms of it being hard or not hard to grow..I'm not sure  My friends had this plant for over a year and he said it's never done anything for him !


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

I kind of wish now I'd done botany when I was in college instead of horses.. but still, happy to share what I know.


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## TorontoPlantMan (Aug 16, 2013)

Fishfur said:


> I kind of wish now I'd done botany when I was in college instead of horses.. but still, happy to share what I know.


Oh I feel the same way, but I'm happy with marketing  Thanks again !


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