In April of this year, I went to Cambodia to photograph during the driest season and the intense heat.
Due to the dry season, the small streams that are suitable for collecting fish are empty and dry. Even the small streams that had some water left in them were stagnant, and there were no fish due to the poor water quality. Even though I came all the way to Cambodia, this is no fun. As I was thinking about this, I got information that it was possible to charter a boat to go upstream to a waterfall on the banks of a certain river. It is impossible to collect fish in such a large river with a small net. I have no choice but to ask the fishermen. Well, I decided to charter a boat with the idea that the worst I could do was sightseeing.

At this time of year in Cambodia, it's so hot that you can suffer from heat stroke if you stay in the sun for 30 minutes, but it was quite comfortable on the boat as there was a shade from the sun and the wind blowing across the water. Walk upstream upstream while taking pictures of the waterside scenery. After driving for about an hour, large rock faces gradually became more noticeable.
After a while, we arrived at a beautiful waterfall. From here you have to get off the boat and rock climb the rock surface. In situations like this, a large single-lens reflex camera is nothing more than a nuisance.
The rocky area near the water is slippery, and you could injure yourself by trying to protect your camera. I have a bad memory of once slipping in a mountain stream on Ishigaki Island while protecting my camera and getting injured. Lately, I've been making it a point to only bring water and shock-proof compact digital cameras in situations like this. I'm not saying it's the same as a single-lens reflex digital camera, but even a compact digital camera can take enough images to use on a website. So, I put a digital camera and insect repellent in my pocket and went rock climbing next to the waterfall. When we reached the top of the waterfall, it was just a river with water flowing through a flat rocky area. I try scooping up some fish, but I don't see any particularly attractive species.

I took some photos, and as I was about to get back down the rocky shore and get back to the boat, my buddy Ton called out to me. When I went to the place I was called, I saw something green in the stream next to the waterfall! At first I thought it was moss, but upon closer inspection it turns out to be a proper plant. Plants that grow naturally in situations like this have memories.
This is Pogostemon helferii, which I found in Myanmar about 10 years ago. Pogostemon also grows naturally on the rocky areas of terraced waterfalls. When this Pogostemon was discovered, its name was unknown, but it later became relatively well-known in the world of aquatic plants. This mysterious Cambodian aquatic plant grows naturally in areas with even faster currents than Pogostemon. I try to collect it, but the roots are firmly embedded in the rocky area, making it difficult. If you forcefully harvest this kind of grass, it will destroy the plant.

Ton took out a knife and successfully peeled it off the rock. It grows in areas where waterfall water flows down, so just by taking this photo, everything from my shirt to my shorts was drenched. If you look closely, you will notice that some plants have flower buds as well as underwater leaves. Looking at this, it doesn't seem like Pogostemon. The underwater leaves I collected look very similar, but the texture is different. Unlike Pogostemon, which is hard and brittle, this mysterious aquatic plant from Cambodia is much more flexible and durable.

However, the number of this aquatic plant growing naturally is extremely small. There are only about 10 plants growing in the stream of waterfall water. I looked around, but I couldn't see anything else growing wild. In cases like this, collecting all of them would result in overfishing, so I only collect a few plants and take them home. The number of remaining plants will increase again, and you will be able to enjoy it again when you visit next year.

Even so, it is worrisome that the number and locations where they grow naturally are extremely limited. Ton and I search everywhere under the dried up waterfall. After a while, I found a plant that looked like a water leaf. This plant has reddish, curly leaves that resemble the current trend of Bucephalandra. Spindly stems grow from every plant. At the tip of this stem was a different kind of floating leaf, and a flower was blooming.
When you look at the flowers, you can see that they belong to a completely different group of plants from Pogostemon. Judging from the flowers, they look similar to Limnophila. Water leaves also grow naturally in rocky areas. Instead of growing in the hot, scorching sun, it only grew naturally in the shade of rocks near waterfalls, which was a little shady. A small number of samples were also collected.

Once again, we carefully descended the rocky area and returned to the boat, returning to the dock we came from. On the way, he encountered a severe thunderstorm, and his clothes and luggage were soaked through. We returned to the border with Thailand and ended our day-trip collecting in Cambodia. I would like to visit again in a different season and observe it. It would be inconvenient not to have a name when introducing it, so I will tentatively name it Cambodia Rock Plants. Once the details are known, I would like to introduce them again.

These grasses were safely brought back to the hotel in Bangkok. It's a tougher plant than I expected, and I'm still cultivating it in sphagnum moss by the window in my room. White roots are growing from the submerged leaf stocks that are kept floating in the water. Seedlings also began to grow from the stems with flower buds. A thick white root that seems unbecoming is growing out of this baby plant. It probably takes root in rocky areas with its strong roots.

This species is not difficult to cultivate and is a very attractive aquatic plant. Only a few were released in Japan by my buddy Ton through an acquaintance. One day, it will become a familiar presence in the hobby world. Since it is a plant that grows in very few numbers in the wild, we will refrain from disclosing where it was collected to avoid overhunting. I appreciate your understanding.