The 1950's Shirley Aquatics "Giant Red Crypt" Some sort of Cryptocoryne cordata (Sold as "C. grandis") Note that "Shirley" is not a women, it's a place in England. "Shirley Aquatics" is a pet shop. Addenda to the articles published in TFH in 2009 & 2010. ...but there is no Cryptocoryne grandis. If you were to run an Internet search on it you would find it barely exists. But it existed in the 1950's when they were sold through a prominent shop in Shirley, England and quickly became extinct in the hobby for all intents and purposes. Save for one lone tank, in of all places, Canada and of all places, the town I grew up in as a kid. The plant is really a member of the Cryptocoryne cordata species complex considered by some to be impossible to grow. Not. For at least two reasons. Manure and leaf mould. Read on...

This is the plant that Charlie Drew obtained from Shirley Aquatics in 1950 and has maintained in Canada since then, that I wrote about in 2009 and again in 2010 for Tropical fish Hobbyist Magazine. But look what showed up since then:

Kalimantan 2010 - Rediscovery in the wild? In the 1950's Shirley Aquatics in England imported a large Cryptocoryne from Kalimantan, in Indonesian Borneo under the (now invalid) name "Cryptocoryne grandis" We know there were exportations of a giant red form of cordata from Kalimatan around 1950. In 2010 T.S. Wang explored the Central Borneo region for Cryptocoryne and found plants in two locations that appear similar to the plant sold as "C. grandis" so many years ago. This is the larger of the two, found growing submersed in Dayu, Kalimantan, in Central Borneo and in river made deeper by recent flooding during the rainy season but despite the depth of the rover the leaves grow up to the surface and then hang under it and still trail a bit, they is, they're longer than the river is deep. One leaf spans a mans hand and them some, Wang noted this was one of the larger Crypts he'd ever seen. gdr 2012 - Rediscoverey in Germany In 2012 a plant surfaced in a pet store in Germany said to have come from a man who has been maintaining the plant for a long time. Details are still emerging as to it's origin and history but even better, the plant flowered an now we have the worlds first photos ever of these unusual plants spathe and flower structure.

terra typica Maps of Central Borneo, Kalimatan, Indonesia. Known locations where this plant is found.