[Aroid-l] Elephant ear

From: pugturd at alltel.net (Brian Williams) on 2008.03.09 at 18:02:57(17137) Steve I find that just about all plants labeled commercially as Elephant ear are Colocasias esculenta. The Xanthosomas are a bit harder to find and I have rarely seen them commercially available. Yet many times I have seen photos of Xanthosomas being used to sell Colocasias as well as Alocasias. Caladiums are usually marked a bit better. The colocasia in question though is very interesting. It maybe a tetraploid possibly a triploid as it grows much larger and very rarely produces flowers. I have only seen flowers one time. The tubers can get extremely large 1 foot long or more and 6 to 8 inches across. I have seen a few photos of the plant grown to 10 feet tall or more. I am not sure if this form is used in any taro production, it would be interesting to find more on it's origins. I have some good photos of on around 8 feet tall or so.

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