Xanthosoma is X. sagittifolium

From: ju-bo at msn.com (Julius Boos) on 2007.10.20 at 11:59:06(16559) From: bogus@does.not.exist.com () Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 16:36:43 -0000 Subject: No subject Message-ID: Dear Marek and other aroid ''nuts", Marek and I are in agreement that the probable I.D. on the plant in the photos from AW taken at Cibodas Bot. Garden in Indonesia is Xanthosoma sagittifolia. If anyone cares to do so, there should be on the aroid-l archives a long discussion on photos of a plant that, from memory, looked just like this, Dr. Eduardo Goncalves eventually I.D.`d it as being X. sagittifolia, not X. violacium. To be certain, we must hope that it eventually blooms, and then examine the 'naughty bits', as my friend Wilbert calls them!! One more word on this, we must bear in mind that this plant probably originated from tissue culture. On a previous post, I reported that a large number of these were for sale at a major wholesale plant nursery here in S. Florida, they came out of the tissue culture lab labeled as X. atrovirens, and were being sold as a "Dwarf green Xanthosoma", that was until they outgrew the 1 gal. pots! I I.D.`d them as being X. sagittifolia, which has more or less replaced the edible rhizomes ("chubas"!) of X. robustum in grocery stores, at least in my neighborhood. I now suspect (more than suspect, actually) that the process of tissue culture causes changes to the basic structure of some aroids that have undergone that process, hence the 'new' cultivars of Alocasia, Philodendron, etc. that are on the market, the sellers admit that they are selections taken from large groups of plants from tissue culture. We can therefor expect to see this in this species, so be aware of minor changes in these tissue cultured plants. P.S. In the interest of science, and remembering that "the proof of the pudding is in the eating", I am presently cooking some small 'chubas' (rhizomes) I JUST 'harvested" off a plant I obtained from the above-mentioned Commercial nursery. I want to at least try to eliminate that it might in fact be X. atrovirens. More on what is being called X. atrovirens----very rarely at Hispanic Groceries in this area, a limited number of smallish rhizomes or better, pieces of rhizome appear for sale as a food. They are not the entire off-shoot, smaller rhizomes like those commonly for sale of several cultivars of several Xanthosoma species, but appear to be harvested from the main central rhizome of a plant. They have a dark colored, almost black 'skin' with the remains of roots, giving them a 'hairy' appearance. The flesh is yellow, bordering on orange in color, with a thick 'skin', almost a ''rind''-like covering. When grown, the leaves have a attractive 'silvered' appearance, are sagittitate with a sinus with no bare areas all the way to the juncture with the petiole. When cooked, they have a somewhat 'corky'/woody texture, and a wonderful peanut like flavor, quite different to the other Xanthosomas. When grated and mixed with a little regular wheat flour and other seasonings, then fried, they are great eating, the nutty flavor coming through. Ah-ha! I have just sampled the cooked rhizomes, and they have no sign of the yellow color OR the nut-like flavor, and so to my taste they are X. sagittifolia. Julius +More WPB, FLORIDA >>So I add my two words to the discussion. This isn't X. violaceum which I >>have for many years. X. violaceum has green, a little waxy upper side of >>leaves, when this plant in the photo has bluish leaf blades. X. violaceum >>has always violet petioles and the underside of leaves - this plant has >>not. Besides, the shape of the leaves doesn't resemble X. violaceum. They >>look rather like X. sagittifolium, maybe it even is a variety/cultivar of >>X. sagittifolium. Marek<< ----- Original Message ----- From: anton huang To: aroid-l at gizmoworks.com Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 6:31 AM Subject: [Aroid-l] xanthosoma? >>Dear all, anyone can ID this xanthosoma? i took the pictures from the nursery of cibodas botanical garden. Thanks. regards, AW<<

From: ted.held at us.henkel.com (ted.held at us.henkel.com) on 2007.10.23 at 16:13:56(16590) Folks, Ah-ha! I have just sampled the cooked rhizomes, and they have no sign of the yellow color OR the nut-like flavor, and so to my taste they are X. sagittifolia. Julius has got to be just the best thing on this list. Has anyone ever seen such a demonstration of truly scientific species ID as this? A tour-de-force. Too bad he can't take a bite of them all. No need to wait for an inflorescence. Ted. +More -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/private/aroid-l/attachments/20071023/20143c77/attachment-0001.htm

From: lbmkjm at yahoo.com (brian lee) on 2007.10.23 at 21:53:49(16593) I second the motion...regarding Julius Boos and I move that Ted be the moderate center....good writing from these two. +More Aloha, Leland --- ted.held at us.henkel.com wrote: > Folks, > > Ah-ha! I have just sampled the cooked rhizomes, > and they have no sign of > > the yellow color OR the nut-like flavor, and so to > my taste they are X. > sagittifolia. > > Julius has got to be just the best thing on this > list. Has anyone ever > seen such a demonstration of truly scientific > species ID as this? A > tour-de-force. Too bad he can't take a bite of them > all. No need to wait > for an inflorescence. > > Ted.> _______________________________________________ > Aroid-L mailing list > Aroid-L at www.gizmoworks.com > http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

From: ju-bo at msn.com (Julius Boos) on 2007.10.24 at 17:47:26(16603) From: bogus@does.not.exist.com () Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:33:25 -0000 Subject: No subject Message-ID: Dear Ted and Leland, I sincerely thank you for your too-kind words---I do what I can. If I manage to show or convince just ONE up-and-coming young taxonomist to think and act "out of the box", I believe I would have accomplished something good for aroids. Think for a moment, all I tried (and suceeded in doing!) was to get as positive an ID as I possibly could of a plant being discussed, as no sexual mater was available, and who knows when it might become availble. So you work with what material you have, in this case my experience with the taste/flavor/texture of the cooked rhizomes of some of the species/cultivars of Xanthosoma. The one in question I could easily 'key-out' based on its color, flavor and texture of its cooked rhizome! I only wish others would use the tools we have to assist in ID`s, such as the very different odors of the inflorscences of different species. There is what appears to be for me a very complicated odor collection and analysis system which I have heard and read about, so hopefully before I die some sort of much simpler/cheaper system may become available and this can be used by the layman. Anyhow, thanks again, at LEAST two people ''got it". Good Growing(and 'bon appitete!) Julius +More >>I second the motion...regarding Julius Boos and I move that Ted be the moderate center....good writing from these two. Aloha, Leland<< --- ted.held at us.henkel.com wrote: Folks, >Ah-ha! I have just sampled the cooked rhizomes, and they have no sign of the yellow color OR the nut-like flavor, and so to my taste they are X. sagittifolia.< Julius has got to be just the best thing on this list. Has anyone ever seen such a demonstration of truly scientific species ID as this? A tour-de-force. Too bad he can't take a bite of them all. No need to wait for an inflorescence. Ted.> _______________________________________________ >Aroid-L mailing list >Aroid-L at www.gizmoworks.com >http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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