[Aroid-l] Cyrtosperma

From: ju-bo at msn.com (ju-bo at msn.com) on 2008.03.06 at 11:00:17(17129) ________________________________ > Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 08:35:09 -0800 > From: honeybunny442 at yahoo.com > To: Aroid-l at gizmoworks.com > Subject: [Aroid-l] Cyrtosperma Dear Susan and Friends, Susan, thanks for sharing this photo with us. It is of an unusually HUGE specimen of Cyrtosperma johnstonii, an aquatic aroid from the Solomon Islands in the Pacific, and is related to the larger, all-green specimen of another even larger (to 18 ft.!) Cyrtosperma species, C. merkusii (which is grown on some Pacific coral atols for its huge edible corm!). A wonderful plant of this species was still growing at the waterfall just down the steps from where this photo of C. johnstonii was taken. In cultivation, C. johnstonii, which as a smaller plant is beautifully marked with pinkish/red blotches and has snake-like markings on its petioles, is said to have originated from a single collection made many years ago on Buka Island in the Solomon Islands group. As can be imagined, it reproduces VERY quickly by suckers or off-shoots, and has never been seen to produce fertile fruit in cultivation. Smaller plants are usually available for sale at the IAS show at Fairchild in September. This and many other valuable and beautiful aroids seem to have been taken off or out of the display areas at Fairchild, and we can only HOPE that many are still in some sort of ''holding area'' at that establishment, and may sometime in the hopefully near future reappear as display subjects. Thanks again, Susan! Julius +More << Or whatever this big leaf is... I think Julius was looking for this photo quite a while back... > Taken at Fairchild Gardens > > > ________________________________ > Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.

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