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  Colocasia 'Black Magic'
From: "Plantsman" plantsman at prodigy.net> on 2001.05.20 at 03:20:12(6521)
I've got a pot of these that I managed to nurse through the winter
here in far-from-tropical-in-the- winter East Tennessee after losing
my other two pots the winter before. I mistakenly thought that they
could be left dry like the common C. esculentum. I should have
known anything so pretty wouldn't develop tubers of any size! Does
anyone know anything about the parents of this variety? I assume
it's a hybrid. I remember seeing some all dark purple forms of
Colocasia growing along the Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio, Texas
a few years ago but they were very small plants compared to 'Black
Magic'. I really wanted to find some of them to take back home
with me but didn't have time to look for a nursery.

I was surprised to find that on I-35 north of San Antonio in the
town of San Marcos, TX, the San Marcos River starts out in the town
from a gigantic spring that puts out several million gallons of
water daily. Beginning right past the spring lake dam, the river
banks are covered for miles with a Colocasia that I believe is one
of the Taro types. The two to three foot tall plants are a nice
color of green with peltate leaves about a foot long. They don't
form tubers but are very stoloniferous and grow right in the water.
They really have to be seen to be believed as there are so many of
them. No one seems to know where they came from or when they were
planted and the locals for the most part ignore them. I did manage
to bring home some of these but in my ignorance, eventually lost
them all not realizing that that wouldn't go dormant. If anyone
wanted to collect them in this area, they would be free for the
taking for as many as you could haul off.

David Sizemore

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