Berry color of Colocasia esculenta

From: "Dr. Tom Croat" tcroat at LEHMANN.MOBOT.ORG> on 2000.01.03 at 22:43:43(3992) Aroiders: I prepared a description of Colocasia esculenta for the Flora of Veracruz treatment of the Araceae but no collection that I saw, nor any literature that I could find had any mention of berry color. I rarely see it in flower and it may never get pollinated in these escaped from cultivation areas where I have seen it. So if anyone has seen it with berries I would appreciate knowing the berry color. Also if anyone sees anything wrong with the description in other regards I would appreciate hearing back from you. Another point which I would like to clear up is the number of inflorescences that it bears per axil. I have one observation that I made where there was only one inflorescence per leaf axil but I am sure that it probably produces more. Tom Croat +More Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott, in Schott & Endlicher, Melet. Bot. 18. 1832. Arum esculentum L., Sp. Pl. 965. 1753. Large perennial herb 1-2.5 m tall; stem a cormose or rarely rhizomatous subglobular to oblongoid caudex, mostly 15-18 cm diam, with close leaf scars around its circumference and with smaller secondary subglobular cormules in the lower part of stem; roots arising from the lower portion of stem; leaves arising in whorls from apex of stem; petioles (0.7)1-2.1 m long, glaucescent, sheathed 1/3 to about midway, the free part subterete, obtusely flattened adaxially; blades conspicuously peltate, ovate-cordate to ovate-sagittate, 25-85 cm long, 20-60 cm wide, acuminate at apex; posterior lobes fused to about midway, the lobes rounded; major veins concolorous; midrib flat above, thickly convex and paler below; primary lateral veins 3-6(8) pair, arising at 50-70 angle; basal veins 5-8 pair, the 1st pair free to the base, the remainder variously coalesced into a prominent more or less straight posterior rib which extends to near the end of the posterior lobes; surfaces matte & glabrous, upper surface medium green, sometimes weakly subvelvety, lower surface moderately paler, glaucescent. Inflorescences with peduncle 15-30 cm long; spathe 20-40 cm long, the tube 3-5 cm long, green on both surfaces; blades 15-30 cm long, pale sulfur-yellow to orange-yellow outside, slightly paler inside, oblong-lanceolate, arching away from the spadix or reflexed, twisted apically; spadix 6-14 cm long; pistils greenish, ovules unilocular with a single sessile stigma; ovules 37-67 per locule on 2 to 4 parietal placentas with sterile pistillate flowers scattered among the fertile pistils, these lacking stigma and style; staminate spadix cream-yellow, sterile staminate section of spadix markedly constricted, 2-5 cm long; fertile staminate portion about as thick as the pistillate portion, staminodia with 2-6 linear anthers, thecae dehiscent by terminal pores; terminal sterile appendage creamy white, many times longer than the fertile portion of spadix. Berries color?; seeds 1.0-1.5 mm long, 0.7-1.0 mm diam, ovate, pale yellow, longitudinaly ridged, bearing a conspicuous hilum at one end and a delicate, translucent funiculus; chromosome number 2n(. Native to some unknown area of Asia but now widely cultivated in tropics and subtropics of both hemispheres.

From: "Julius Boos" ju-bo at email.msn.com> on 2000.01.04 at 10:01:47(3993) Dear Tom, See Aroideana Vol. 8, No. 3, pg. 83---"Ripe taro fruits are yellow, small". I have seen about three, maybe more inflorescences per leaf axil, and I will keep my eyes open around where I work next summer, there are escaped populations that ferquently bloom. You describe one of the forms that do produce a tuber/tubers, but many do not, and they only produce these long, thin stolons. There is also a tuberous form which has started to turn up here in Florida imported from Jamaica (I believe it is the same as the rare one we have in T`dad that we refer to as 'Biche dasheen' [Biche is a small Eastern Village] or 'blue metal', as the tuber cooks to a blue-gray color). It has tubers that look like portions of a smooth tree trunk, and are sometimes 'forked' so that the plant would have had two tops on one lower tuber, quite different from the globular tubers with prominent circular leaf scars that are more common in Super Markets around here, and which cook to a white color and are inferior eating to the 'blue metal' tubers. There is some good information on wild populations of Colocasia in the most recent issue of Aroideana which has just arrived here, an excellent issue by the way!! +More Hope this information is of help. Sincerely, Julius

From: Eric Simpson crat at cris.com> on 2000.01.11 at 15:11:49(3997) Julius, I have two 4 year old plants that I originally received as C. esculenta. They are tuberous rather than bulbous. Last year these were extremely floriferous (at least as far as these plants have been) having at least 15 blooms per plant. As I have read that C. escuelenta was not good about fertilizing, the pollen was collected from each flower as available. By storing the pollen dry until another bloom just opened, mixing the pollen with water and pouring through the bloom, I was able to get about 100% fertilization. The berries I got were red and are now awaiting planting. I didn't send the seeds to the AEG exhange as I'm not 100% sure these are C. esculenta anymore. Any way to determine if this really is C. esculenta? Eric Simpson +More Washington, DC Julius Boos wrote: > -----Original Message----- > From: Dr. Tom Croat > To: Multiple recipients of list AROID-L > Date: Monday, January 03, 2000 5:43 PM > Subject: Berry color of Colocasia esculenta > > Dear Tom, > > See Aroideana Vol. 8, No. 3, pg. 83---"Ripe taro fruits are yellow, small". > I have seen about three, maybe more inflorescences per leaf axil, and I will > keep my eyes open around where I work next summer, there are escaped > populations that ferquently bloom. > You describe one of the forms that do produce a tuber/tubers, but many do > not, and they only produce these long, thin stolons. There is also a > tuberous form which has started to turn up here in Florida imported from > Jamaica (I believe it is the same as the rare one we have in T`dad that we > refer to as 'Biche dasheen' [Biche is a small Eastern Village] or 'blue > metal', as the tuber cooks to a blue-gray color). It has tubers that look > like portions of a smooth tree trunk, and are sometimes 'forked' so that the > plant would have had two tops on one lower tuber, quite different from the > globular tubers with prominent circular leaf scars that are more common in > Super Markets around here, and which cook to a white color and are inferior > eating to the 'blue metal' tubers. > There is some good information on wild populations of Colocasia in the most > recent issue of Aroideana which has just arrived here, an excellent issue by > the way!! > Hope this information is of help. > > Sincerely, > > Julius

From: "Julius Boos" ju-bo at email.msn.com> on 2000.01.12 at 19:54:40(3998) Dear Eric, If poss. check on the Aroid I.D. page, there is/was good photos of a Colocasia esculenta plant (leaves were atypical in having a beautiful yellow area in the center) and inflorescence, if not post a pic. of your plant`s leaves and if poss. a bloom and we will be able to tell. It may well be that Colocasia has both yellow AND red berries. I have seen red berries in several Alocasia sps.. Cheers, Julius

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