Balansa's Water Trumpet

Hard water plants are thin on the ground in this hobby, and this crypt is one of them. Its carbonate hardness range runs from 5 to 21 dKH, the upper end of which is harder than most planted tanks ever get, and the reason is its home: the habitat is limestone country in southern Thailand, rivers and streams whose water is hard and rich in calcium. Calcium is not a nicety for this plant. A deficiency shows up as deformed, curled leaves.

The leaf is also how you identify it. Bandlike, 1.5 to 4 cm wide depending on the form, green through to bronze, and bullate, with a hammered surface that becomes more pronounced under stronger light. The similar variety flaccidifolia has narrower leaves, 0.5 to 1.2 cm, without the hammering.

It is easy and highly adaptable, and it has been in the hobby long enough to have proved that. The optimum is 20 to 26 °C at pH 6 to 9, with light anywhere from low to high and medium growth. It can pass 50 cm in height, which makes it a background plant and means a shallow tank will not show it properly. CO2 is a real choice here rather than a requirement: injection enhances growth but is not absolutely necessary.

Two habits to plan for. An established clump sends runners through the substrate well beyond where you planted it; cut them with a knife or a razor blade the way you would edge a lawn, or lift them and replant them closer in. And like most crypts it melts when conditions change abruptly, so it does best where it is left alone. Sold as Cryptocoryne balansae and sometimes as C. somphongsii, it is correctly Cryptocoryne crispatula var. balansae, also called Balansa's water trumpet.