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rubbleshop

Can anyone ID this please?

rubbleshop
18 years ago

hi,

I have just acquired one of the things shown on the link below. The person I got it from has no idea what it is, but it comes from Thailand.

It looks like some form of aroid to me.

Any ideas anyone as I could look after it better if I knew what it was.

http://www.celtlore.co.uk/theplant.jpg

Comments (8)

  • donn_
    18 years ago

    {{gwi:382027}}

    WOW!

  • bihai
    18 years ago

    Ummm,
    that is at Enid's Nursery in Plantation Fl I believe (Natural Selections Exotics). I wouldn;t expect the same plant to get that huge elsewhere where its not as hot and humid year round.

  • keiko2
    18 years ago

    The girl's head is blocking a full frontal view of the sinus to make sure, but I think this is Alocasia macro 'Borneo Giant'. Colocasia gigantea can get as large but the blades aren't so vertical and the sinus is more
    closed.

    The Texas heat & humidity can be deadly to many U.K. favorites, but A. macro thrives & gets huge here.

    Keiko

  • rubbleshop
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    It's not expected to get that big in the UK. The leaf stalks seem more fleshy and easier bruised than Alocasia macro. I am also led to believe it is not as hardy as Alocasia macro, which I think is probable as the plant cells look bigger and more fragile.

  • bihai
    18 years ago

    It is ALocasia macrorhizza Borneo Giant. That is a stock photo from Enid Offolter's website for her nursery, Natural Selections Exotics, where she sells this plant.
    I have 2, I only got them in trade last fall and they are still small, (by small, I mean that they were 3 ft tall and the leaves were 10-12" across when I got them and the trader apologized that they were "so small") but it will be interesting to see what they do here in North FL this summer where its actually hotter and (sometimes) wetter in summer than South Florida. The only problem being things will come to a grinding halt here in November-December when it gets to the 30's. I am going to plant one out and keep on in a container to protect, in case I lose the inground plant.

  • rubbleshop
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Thanks Bilhai,

    I imagine it must be more delicate because it is greenhouse forced and perhaps over-fertilised then.

    Do yours survive outside? It reaches -2C once or twice per year where I live in the UK. I always think of Florida as being far hotter than that but you mention N FL and S FL so I guess it is a big place. I think you get hotter summers than us, but not sure who has the coldest winters.

  • bihai
    18 years ago

    There is a definite difference in temperatures on the Florida peninsula in winter especially. North Florida (considered to be anything above, and including, Ocala) is largely landlocked except Jacksonville and the Panhandle. I live in the exact center of the state, where we are an hour from either the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean, and 6 hours from the Georgia border to the North, 5.5 hours from Miami to the South. We don't get sea breeze here and it absolutely bakes in the summer. Humidity is very high and we get a lot of thunderstorm activity caused from the east coast and west coast seabreeze metting (cool vs hot) and it can trigger violent storms and dump lots of rain. We can have heat indices that top 115F. We do get freezes here in winter, but largely the average nighttime temperture from late November theough February is about 45F. We have many many 70+ degree days in winter and even 80+ degree days. "Winter" means anytime from Thanksgiving to March 10th even though we sometimes get no cold weather til late December. The lowest temp I have ever recorded here at my house in almost 15 years is 20F. The ground never freezes here.

    Central Florida (from Ocala down to a little below the Tampa-Orlando line) is generally only a little bit warmer than us in winter. They get freezes too but they don't like to admit it. In addition, the zones differ on the edges of the peninsula, the Atlantic side is sometimes colder than the Gulf side and vice versa.

    South Florida (about the Palm Beaches down) can also freeze but again they won't admit it and granted it is a rare event. Everyone from about Tamps/Orlando down gets the benefit of the sea breezes and are cooler in summer than we are being land locked. They also get more "regular" rain that is just coming up from the Tropics in waves of moisture, less violent thunderstorms than we get.

    I can grow most other alocasia outdoors, and all xanthosomas and colocasias, I don't expect Borneo Giant will be different. I should be planting it out by mid0 March, just 2 weeks away. Average frost free date is March 10 YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • rubbleshop
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Sounds like your winters are similar to ours in extreme SW UK where I live. It is much colder in much of the UK though. If anything I get less frost than you, but I am so jealous of your summer temperature. UK summers are cooler (65 to 85F) and humid and wet! Just 39F forecast tonight here.

    You say you will put yours out mid March. Does that mean you bring them in around the first frost? We get frosts Late December until mid March here, but like you, the ground never freezes.

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