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  Re: [Aroid-l] Alocasia tigrina vs zebrina
From: "Julius Boos" ju-bo at msn.com> on 2006.11.24 at 21:26:14(14854)
Hello Alistair,

Thanks for your valued opinion on these plants.
For those who are still in doubt as to the 'true identity' of the Alocasias
mentioned by Dr. Hay (below), as he suggests, for the time being, and until
the professionals in the Philippienes make a final determination, all should
be refered to as 'forms' or clones of one presently 'good' species, A.
zebrina.
I know that it is difficult for some folks sitting at home and examining two
plants that may, at face valu,e look pretty different one to the other, to
realize that IN THE WILD, in the field over many miles, a single species can
be collected in MANY variations, and human nature being as it is, that only
a very few of the most attractive plants from amongst THOUSANDS within a
population that a collector may see in nature, are brought back to
'civilization'/cultivation, and from these few plants a 'new' variety given
some cockamany new name may be distributed/sold to all the collectors in the
world. This explains why there are perhaps three different-LOOKING
Alocasia plants, perhaps all the same species, but being called by different
names. A final examination of the sexual parts of their individual blooms
may FINALLY give us the answer, if there may be three different species, OR
just three or more variations/clones of the same species of Alocasia from
within a huge and perhaps very variable population, spread over a vast area
in nature.
We on Aroid-L are so very fortunate to have the world experts like Drs. Hay,
Croat, Peter Boyce, Wilbert Hetterscheid and other experts in this field at
virtually our fingertips to answer most of our querries. Thanks guys!

I hope this helps in understanding this problem.

Julius

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