Colocasia 'Black Magic'

From: "Alan Galloway" <alan at unity.ncsu.edu> on 1997.08.12 at 18:11:47(1047) I tend to agree with all those that seem to think that this plant is a sport of Colocasi esculenta. I obtained my original plant 5 or 6 years ago as C. 'Jet Black Wonder' and it has done superbly out in the garden ever since. A couple of years ago I saw a picture of this plant in a book and it was mislabeled as well, but it also listed the person's name that brought it in to this country. With a little detective work I tracked down this person and he gave me the low-down on how it came into existence. Since I haven't obtained permission from said person, I don't think it would be courteous for me to publish his name in this forum, but here's what he said: +More An aquatic plant collector of an Australian Botanical Garden ( probably the same one that Eric visited) was on a collecting trip in the swamps of the Phillipines and discovered this dark-leafed sport amongst a patch of C. esculenta. Anyway, the Australian collector shared some of this plant with a fellow aquatic plant collector in this country and that person further distributed it to collectors in FL and CA. Somehow, the names, 'Jet Black Wonder' and 'Black Magic' seem to arise about the same time, although 'Black Magic' seems to be the more prominantly used name. ..you know, this would make a great bedtime fable on how the sharing of plant material benefits us all...... :) Per Steve's inquiry about the flower, yes it does resemble that of C. esculenta, but in my own opinion, who cares about the flower when you have 3 ft.by 2 ft black leaves hanging from 7 ft. petioles. OK, you taxonimists can go ahead and bring out the big can of whoop-ass. Another unique feature of this plant is to watch how rain drops dance on the leaves. >From the interest that people have shown upon seeing this plant in my garden and its increasing availablity, I expect this plant to get nominated for plant of the year very soon. For a real show stopper, plant C. 'Black Magic' next to the chartreuse-leafed Xanthosoma. Alan -- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Alan Galloway alan_galloway@ncsu.edu Computing Services, Information Technology Campus Box 7109 North Carolina State University (phone) 919-515-5483 Raleigh, NC 27695-7109 (fax) 919-515-3787

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