Xanthosoma saggitifolia (malanga) or "Taro"? (fwd)

From: Don Burns <burns at mobot.org> on 1998.06.12 at 00:22:44(2273) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998 18:55:25 -0500 To: aroid-owner@mobot.org +More Subject: Xanthosoma saggitifolia (malanga) or "Taro"? This message was submitted by Judy Bauer to list aroid-l@mobot.org. If you forward it back to the list, it will be distribut= ed without the paragraphs above the dashed line. You may edit the Subject: lin= e and the text of the message before forwarding it back. If you edit the messages you receive into a digest, you will need to remove these paragraphs and the dashed line before mailing the result to the list. Finally, if you need more information from the author of this message, you should be able to do so by simply replying to this note. ----------------------- Message requiring your approval -------------------= --- Sender: Judy Bauer Subject: Xanthosoma saggitifolia (malanga) or "Taro"? Hi Aroiders, I just returned from Harris-Teeter, Concord NC. Their Xanthosoma saggitifolia (malanga) is being sold as Taro for about $2.69 per pound. One of these “Taro’s” had a purple skin around a tiny emerging bud. Another “Taro” had a tiny green bud. While I was examining the differen= t shapes, sizes and bud colors of these two “Taros”, I was getting some strange stares from the store manager and the produce manager. If I weren’t so confused plus embarrassed, I would have bought both of these tubers. The 10 cent Malanga that I bought and planted two weeks ago has softened and has not sprouted. At first I planted it side ways since it looked like it had two pointed ends. Then dug it up and planted what I thought was the pointed side up above the soil. After examining the “Taro’s” today, it looks like I had planted my Malanga upside down. Is the purple skin around the tiny “Taro” bud unusual? Is this any indication that the foliage may be more ornamental? Judy Bauer 8440 Huckleberry Trail Concord NC 28027

From: "Julius Boos" <ju-bo at email.msn.com> on 1998.06.12 at 13:40:42(2279) Dear Judy, As you may have recently read on Aroid-l, there have been many discussions on these commercially available edible Aroids, and there is a page http://www.i2i-2000.com/~lkallus/aroids/plnthome/htm where you can at least get the names used in the ethnic stores, but the Winn Dixies and Publix`s pose a problem, as they are generally staffed by "gringas and gringos" who know nothing about these exotic foods. If you like I could look back at the many letters and forward them to you, let me know. +More The elongate tubers of "malanga" (NOT taro, which will be more egg-shaped and larger) with the pink tip will either be X. violacium, OR a new (to us) species that grows with green leaves; it originates (is grown) in Costa Rica, while "true" X. violacium which is a beautiful plant has been purchased in Jamaican stores as "red co co". The two tubers seem identical, while the plants are very different. The one with the green tip is probably "true" X. sagittifolia (commercially grown in S. Florida) and the tubers are generally more "bumpy", and the areas around the bumps whitish, than the ones with pink tips. I have seen all of them easily grown by potting them point-up with just the tip of the point exposed. >Hi Aroiders, I just returned from Harris-Teeter, Concord NC. Their Xanthosoma saggitifolia (malanga) is being sold as Taro for about $2.69 per pound. One of these “Taro’s” had a purple skin around a tiny emerging bud. Another “Taro” had a tiny green bud. While I was examining the

From: Clarence Hester <hesterc at leguin.acpub.duke.edu> on 1998.06.13 at 01:20:31(2282) O.K., Julius et. al. Based on all this discussion I bought a great big malanga while in South Florida. I plan to name it Xanthosoma "Winn Dixie Dania Beach" if it turns out to be unusual. On a serious note, the malanga has an obvious growing tip, although I cannot tell if it is alive or dead, nor can I discern a color. It is a huge tuber in any case. What about other grocery store items? For example, Yuca or Sugar Cane? Is there any hope of these sprouting? Clarence

From: Mike Bernardoni <mikeb at GlobalEyes.net> on 1998.06.13 at 01:25:10(2283) Http didn't work???? Help!! Mike Julius Boos wrote: > Dear Judy, +More > As you may have recently read on Aroid-l, there have been many discussions > on these commercially available edible Aroids, and there is a page > http://www.i2i-2000.com/~lkallus/aroids/plnthome/htm

From: Lester Kallus <lkallus at earthlink.net> on 1998.06.13 at 05:12:44(2286) Mike, you're right. My website has been moved to a new server at: http://www.kallus.com/aroids/plnthome.htm I should probably load a pointer on that page to the new page. Les +More At 08:25 PM 6/12/98 -0500, you wrote: >Http didn't work???? Help!! Mike > >Julius Boos wrote: > >> Dear Judy, >> As you may have recently read on Aroid-l, there have been many discussions >> on these commercially available edible Aroids, and there is a page >> http://www.i2i-2000.com/~lkallus/aroids/plnthome/htm >

From: "Julius Boos" <ju-bo at email.msn.com> on 1998.06.13 at 14:45:44(2288) Dear Hester, If it was a huge, oval tuber, it most probably will be one of the Colocasias. Because the entire top is normally cut off to be re-propagated by the farmer, this sometimes can be difficult to get to sprout, and can only do so from "a side eye". Keep us informed as to its progress. Sugar cane should sprout if layed at an angle, buds pointing up (the buds are on opposite sides of every joint, and the tips point "up") on its side and 1/2 covered in soil. Yucca (Cassava) probably will not grow from the specialized roots, which the edible portion is. It is propagated by planting 1` cuttings of the branches. Latin friends of mine locally grow it for food, so I could probably obtain cuttings if they were needed. There is also a varigated leafed variety that is (or was) sold as an ornimental that I sometimes run into, though I can`t recall a specific location as I write. On a more serious note, try peeling the yucca, which can be difficult the first time. Cut a spiral 2" apart through the thick skin up the root, then peel skin off in a circular spiral from the bottom (choose a large one with no black viens within the white flesh), boil till it begins to split and its "done" (about 15-20 mins.,) remove the center "vien", put a little garlic butter on it, and pig out! Cheers, Julius +More ju-bo@msn.com O.K., Julius et. al. Based on all this discussion I bought a great big malanga while in South Florida. I plan to name it Xanthosoma "Winn Dixie Dania Beach" if it turns out to be unusual. On a serious note, the malanga has an obvious growing tip, although I cannot tell if it is alive or dead, nor can I discern a color. It is a huge tuber in any case. What about other grocery store items? For example, Yuca or Sugar Cane? Is there any hope of these sprouting? Clarence

From: Krzysztof Kozminski <kk at netgate.net> on 1998.06.14 at 14:29:52(2301) Julius Boos wrote: > The elongate tubers of "malanga" (NOT taro, which will be more egg-shaped > and larger) with the pink tip will either be X. violacium, OR a new (to us) > species that grows with green leaves; it originates (is grown) > in Costa Rica, while "true" X. violacium which is a beautiful plant has been > purchased in Jamaican stores as "red co co". The two tubers seem identical, > while the plants are very different. Julius, could you tell more about what is this new species, and what are its characteristics? +More I am growing a malanga that came with a purple growing tip, and it is definitely not a X. violacium (btw, is it violacium, or violaceum??), but it does not quite look like X.saggitifolia, either. The stems have a faintly bluish cast to them, and the plant seems to have arrived at its final size (for its growing conditions, which here in California seem to cause dwarfism among big-leaved aroids), which is quite smaller than a positively identified X.saggitifolia growing right next to it. ====================================== Krzysztof Kozminski http://www.netgate.net/~kk/ kk@netgate.net "Applying computer technology is simply finding the right wrench to pound in the correct screw."

From: StellrJ at aol.com on 1998.06.15 at 02:53:16(2306) >> The elongate tubers of "malanga" (NOT taro, which will be more egg-shaped >> and larger) with the pink tip will either be X. violacium, OR a new (to us) >> species that grows with green leaves; it originates (is grown) +More >> in Costa Rica, while "true" X. violacium which is a beautiful plant has been >> purchased in Jamaican stores as "red co co". >Julius, could you tell more about what is this new species, and what are its >characteristics? When I was in Costa Rica two years ago, there was a Xanthosoma occurring in large numbers in a clearing in the cloud forest near Monteverde, which the local plant expert Willow Zuchowski told me was a new, undescribed species formerly thought to be X. jacquinii.. Since this is the only Xanthosoma species I have ever seen in life, I do not know what distinguishes it from others, but it had green petioles on a banana-tree-like trunk, deeply recessed leaf venation, rows of circles ringing the trunk (which I took to be potential adventitious roots), and white spathes with dark red basal spheres. Since I had no idea how properly to prepare an herbarium specimen of such a plant, I did not collect one, but for whatever it is worth, I did write a detailed description (in Spanish) of one individual plant in the stand. Jason Hernandez

From: "Julius Boos" <ju-bo at email.msn.com> on 1998.06.15 at 14:42:43(2313) >> The elongate tubers of "malanga" (NOT taro, which will be more egg-shaped >> and larger) with the pink tip will either be X. violacium, OR a new (to us) +More >> species that grows with green leaves; it originates (is grown) >> in Costa Rica, while "true" X. violacium which is a beautiful plant has been >> purchased in Jamaican stores as "red co co". >Julius, could you tell more about what is this new species, and what are its >characteristics? >>When I was in Costa Rica two years ago, there was a Xanthosoma occurring in large numbers in a clearing in the cloud forest near Monteverde, which the local plant expert Willow Zuchowski told me was a new, undescribed species formerly thought to be X. jacquinii.. Since this is the only Xanthosoma species I have ever seen in life, I do not know what distinguishes it from others, but it had green petioles on a banana-tree-like trunk, deeply recessed leaf venation, rows of circles ringing the trunk (which I took to be potential adventitious roots), and white spathes with dark red basal spheres. Since I had no idea how properly to prepare an herbarium specimen of such a plant, I did not collect one, but for whatever it is worth, I did write a detailed description (in Spanish) of one individual plant in the stand. Jason Hernandez<< Dear Jason, This sounds like and may be the plant that produces the "malanga lilac" being sold at local Winn Dixie stores, and which I saw being propagated here by a friend. Also, Kryzsztof Kozminski has grown a plant of this from the commercially available "malanga lilac", thinking he would obtain X. violacium, which I got previously by growing tubers of "red co co" purchased at a Jamaican grocery locally. I am unable to tell the two types of malanga/red co co apart when they are tubers, so have potted one of each to observe their development. Will keep you informed. Cheers, Julius ju-bo@msn.com

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