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  Colocasia
From: Jduft at aol.com on 1997.02.09 at 16:51:01(313)
Greetings,

Does anyone have the latest taxonomic information on the genus Colocasia.
Which names in the industry are true species? Also would like descriptions
of each for ID purposes.

Joe Duft

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From: plantnut at shadow.net (Dewey Fisk) on 1997.02.10 at 01:34:58(315)
>Greetings,
>
>Does anyone have the latest taxonomic information on the genus Colocasia.
> Which names in the industry are true species? Also would like descriptions
>of each for ID purposes.

Joe,

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From: Tom Croat <croat at mobot.org> on 1997.02.10 at 19:52:05(322)
Joe: There is nothing recent. The person most likely to know the
current taxonomy is Allistair Hay at the Sydney Botanical Garden who is
working on them for the Flora Malesiana project.
Tom Croat, MOBOT
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From: MJ Hatfield <oneota at ames.net> on 1997.10.27 at 20:21:59(1515)
I dug my Colocasias (bought simply as Elephant Ears) only to find that
two out of four had tuber/rhizome(?)rot. There was nothing on above
ground growth to indicate any trouble. The rot was much like what ate
one of my Amorphophalluses last year. What might this be? And is the
only future preventative to plant them in sterile soil in pots rather
than in the ground?
I am particularly curious because I have had Sclerotium rolsii (Southern
blight) show up in my yard and it has hundreds of host species. (ISU
Plant Pathology says that it is rare this far north) A.rolfsii seems to
attack a plant right at the crown at soil level so I doubt that this
tuber rot is a result ot it.
Please, tell me anything.
Thanks.
MJ Hatfield

From: "Eduardo Goncalves" edggon at hotmail.com> on 2001.02.12 at 19:30:29(5932)
Dear Aroiders,

Anybody out there has some kind of solid knowledge with Colocasia
esculenta varieties, cultivars, etc? Sometime ago Peter told us that there
was three varieties: C. esculenta var. esculenta (small, slustering tubers),
C. esculenta var. antiquorum (large, solitary tuber) and C. esculenta var.
aquatilis (long stolons). Are those varieties published anywhere? (i.e. with
authors, etc) What happened with variety illustris? What about that form
with an yellow blot in the middle of the leaves? The only complete treatment
I have (my Precambrian 'Das Pflanzenreich') cites lots of varieties and I
wonder most of them became synonims. Other interesting thing is that Engler
never use tuber characters (except for the description of the variety
aquatilis) so this is a new approach. Who did start to use tuber information
on the classification? Engler's classification uses the proportional lenght
of the sterile appendix. Is this still important or was it proven to be
highly variable (like almost anything in aroids)? I am sorry if these
questions were already answered before, but I couldn't find any satisfatory
answer in the aroid-l archives.

Very best wishes,

Eduardo.

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From: "D.J. Leedy" djleedy at netex.quik.com> on 2001.02.13 at 00:50:05(5936)
The following is on page 18 of the book TARO - A Review of Colocasia
Esculenta and Its Potentials, Edited by Jaw-Kai Wang and published by the
University of Hawaii Press, copyright 1983.

"There are probably thousands of cultivars of Colocasia in the world. More
than three hundred named varieties have been listed in Hawaii; some of these
are undoubtedly synonyms, but there can be little doubt that perhaps a
hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty cultivars were known in
prehistoric days.

Colocasia cultivars are differentiated on the basis of siz; leaf shape and
size; color of petiole, leaf and corm flesh; flower shape and size; and
their various uses. The most comprehensive attempt to clasify and describe
Colocasia cultivars was carried out by Whitney, Bowers, and Takahashi (1939)
in Hawaii........"

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From: "Eduardo Goncalves" edggon at hotmail.com> on 2001.02.15 at 18:21:21(5945)
Dear D.J.Leedy,

Thanks for your information. I was waiting for more replies, but it seems
that serious classification of Colocasia is an arid topic. I think I will
have to face Engler's classification.

Best wishes,

Eduardo.

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From: "Julius Boos" ju-bo at email.msn.com> on 2001.02.16 at 14:17:48(5950)
Dear Eduardo,

I do not have 'hard' information at hand, so I did not respond, but think
that when you 'get into' the literature you will find that a lot if not most
of the names used for the different forms/cultivars of this species are
mostly 'informal'/unpublished names, and may number in the hundreds,
especially the cultivars from the Pacific region, like Fiji and Hawaii.
Good luck!

Julius

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From: StellrJ at aol.com on 2001.02.16 at 16:05:37(5951)
In a message dated 2/16/01 9:18:13 AM Eastern Standard Time,
ju-bo@email.msn.com writes:

<< but think

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From: "Julius Boos" ju-bo at email.msn.com> on 2001.02.17 at 03:03:22(5952)
In a message dated 2/16/01 9:18:13 AM Eastern Standard Time,
ju-bo@email.msn.com writes:

The 'subspecies' (??)Colocasia e. esculenta, Colocasia e. 'antiquorum' and

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