Cyrtosperma Merkusii

From: "FLFireman1 at yahoo.com" flfireman1 at yahoo.com> on 2006.09.29 at 14:16:55(14705) I found this beautiful plant growing in the giant greenhouse at Fairchild Tropical Gardens in the fountain/pond area, and was completely amazed by it. Ive found little to no information on the net on it. Other than being labeled Giant Swamp Taro and its use as a food item in its place of origin. Anyone out there care to share some light on how to grow this species and better yet who has any available for sale or trade? Thanks Eric +More __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Aroid-l mailing list Aroid-l@gizmoworks.com http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l

From: "Steve Lucas Exotic Rainforest" steve at exoticrainforest.com> on 2006.09.29 at 21:00:13(14709) Eric contacted me yesterday about this plant. The species he seems to be looking for is Cyrtosperma merkusii. I don't know anything substantial about it but that is the name he gave. That may help to get some responses. Steve Lucas +More ----- Original Message ----- From: FLFireman1@yahoo.com To: Discussion of aroids Sent: Friday, September 29, 2006 9:16 AM Subject: [Aroid-l] Cyrtosperma Merkusii I found this beautiful plant growing in the giantgreenhouse at Fairchild Tropical Gardens in thefountain/pond area, and was completely amazed by it.Ive found little to no information on the net on it.Other than being labeled Giant Swamp Taro and its useas a food item in its place of origin. Anyone out there care to share some light on how togrow this species and better yet who has any availablefor sale or trade?ThanksEric__________________________________________________Do You Yahoo!?Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________Aroid-l mailing listAroid-l@gizmoworks.comhttp://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l _______________________________________________ Aroid-l mailing list Aroid-l@gizmoworks.com http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l

From: "Tom Croat" Thomas.Croat at mobot.org> on 2006.09.29 at 21:24:50(14710) Dear Eric: I have seen this in the Philippines where it often grows in standing water in full sun. Tom +More -----Original Message----- [mailto:aroid-l-bounces@gizmoworks.com] On Behalf Of FLFireman1@yahoo.com Sent: Friday, September 29, 2006 9:17 AM To: Discussion of aroids Subject: [Aroid-l] Cyrtosperma Merkusii I found this beautiful plant growing in the giant greenhouse at Fairchild Tropical Gardens in the fountain/pond area, and was completely amazed by it. Ive found little to no information on the net on it. Other than being labeled Giant Swamp Taro and its use as a food item in its place of origin. Anyone out there care to share some light on how to grow this species and better yet who has any available for sale or trade? Thanks Eric __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Aroid-l mailing list Aroid-l@gizmoworks.com http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l _______________________________________________ Aroid-l mailing list Aroid-l@gizmoworks.com http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l

From: "Steve Lucas Exotic Rainforest" steve at exoticrainforest.com> on 2006.09.29 at 22:14:06(14711) There you go Eric. You just got a response from one of the world's top plant authorities, Dr. Tom Croat. Hopefully Julius will tell you more. I believe he wrote an article about this plant. Steve +More ----- Original Message ----- From: FLFireman1@yahoo.com To: Discussion of aroids Sent: Friday, September 29, 2006 9:16 AM Subject: [Aroid-l] Cyrtosperma Merkusii I found this beautiful plant growing in the giantgreenhouse at Fairchild Tropical Gardens in thefountain/pond area, and was completely amazed by it.Ive found little to no information on the net on it.Other than being labeled Giant Swamp Taro and its useas a food item in its place of origin. Anyone out there care to share some light on how togrow this species and better yet who has any availablefor sale or trade?ThanksEric__________________________________________________Do You Yahoo!?Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________Aroid-l mailing listAroid-l@gizmoworks.comhttp://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l _______________________________________________ Aroid-l mailing list Aroid-l@gizmoworks.com http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l

From: Brian Williams pugturd at alltel.net> on 2006.09.29 at 22:42:31(14712) Julius I am sure will speak up as this is his favorite group. Merkusii may have one of if not the largest solid leaf in the plant world. I have seen photos of monstrous plants 15 to 20 feet tall with leaves 6 to 8 feet long and around 6 feet wide. They are usually grown in the Fiji island and are usually only eaten for special occasions. This is due to how much slower they are to grow than Colocasias and for their extreme size. They do seem to be very sensitive to cool weather and I have found that they can take some cold but they water should be heated if the water is heated they do very well. +More _______________________________________________ Aroid-l mailing list Aroid-l@gizmoworks.com http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l

From: RAYMOMATTLA at cs.com on 2006.09.30 at 02:00:24(14714) Eric, I'd be willing to bet the best way to grow this plant is the method Julius has described on this board and in Aroideana articles in the past. I think the article in Aroideana is titled "Experiencing Urospathas" but I dont have that volume "yet" so dont quote me on it. Anyway, Cyrtosperma merkusii is an aquatic aroid that gets humongous so you will need a pond or shallow dish of water and alot of room. I grow most of my aquatics in concrete mixing tubs of various sizes in my greenhouse. They are sunk into the ground to give a more natural look and are installed with 200 watt submersible aquarium heaters kept at around 82-85F. Usually pumps are installed as well for good circulation but as of right now I dont have any in the "ponds"....need to get that done before it gets colder. I use tall plastic pots filled about 1/4 of the way with lava rock and the rest 50/50 peat and sand. The pots are placed in the ponds so that the level of the water doesnt go above the level of the lava rock in the pot. Be sure to keep an eye on the water level in the ponds because in a warm/hot greenhouse the water can evaporate rather quickly and your left with a burnt up 30 dollar aquarium heater! Also be sure to clean out the water in the pond on a regular basis. Thats my experience but Im sure 'more' experienced aquatic aroid growers like Julius can give some more helpful tips as well. Good luck finding one of these extraordinary plants. There were a few for sale at the show in Miami a few weeks ago I believe. Michael +More _______________________________________________ Aroid-l mailing list Aroid-l@gizmoworks.com http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l To: Discussion of aroids <aroid-l@gizmoworks.com> Subject: Re: [Aroid-l] Cyrtosperma merkusii--the story From: Brian Williams <pugturd@alltel.net> Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2006 02:17:27 -0400 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Delivered-to: aroid-l@minerva.gizmoworks.com In-reply-to: <BAY106-F588867B3D694BAAD7FE9FFA180@phx.gbl> List-help: <mailto:aroid-l-request@gizmoworks.com?subject=help> List-id: Discussion of aroids List-post: <mailto:aroid-l@gizmoworks.com> List-subscribe: <http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l>,<mailto:aroid-l-request@gizmoworks.com?subject=subscribe> List-unsubscribe: <http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l>,<mailto:aroid-l-request@gizmoworks.com?subject=unsubscribe> References: <BAY106-F588867B3D694BAAD7FE9FFA180@phx.gbl> Reply-to: Discussion of aroids <aroid-l@gizmoworks.com> Sender: aroid-l-bounces@gizmoworks.com User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US;rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Netscape/7.2 (ax) Here is a link of what maybe Merkusii but it is listed as chamissonls I am not sure if this is another large species in the group in most cases I have seen it usually is Merkusii. I did have a great link to island page with a young woman in front of a huge patch of Merkusii that were around 20 feet tall. Huge plants with massive leaves. It seems this site is no longer up. This was the closest I have seen to it. http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/carr/images/cyr_cha_hab.jpg _______________________________________________ Aroid-l mailing list Aroid-l@gizmoworks.com http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l

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