Although the plant is primarily a terrestrial species in SE Asia according to the field notes of aroid botanist Dr. Thomas ,B. Croat of the Missouri Botanical Garden it can live in at least shallow water. These are his notes on his personal observation of the species which can be found on TROPICOS, "Terrestrial in wet area along road, to 1.5 m tall; tuber ca. 5 cm diam., subglobose; petioles pale bluish green and conspicuously glaucous; sheath to 1/4 length, terete, quite spongiose; blades thinly coriaceous, dark green and semiglossy above, much paler and weakly glossy below; midrib broadly convex and slightly paler above, convex and much paler below; primary lateral veins convex and slightly paler above, much thicker and paler below; tertiary veins prominulous; sterile; flowered late May, 1996, one inflorescence per axil? with one appearing on several consecutive days; peduncle 37 cm long, 7 x 11 mm diam., faintly glaucous; tube 6.5 m x 1.8 cm, medium green and glaucous above."

I've personally seen it growing in water in South Florida and have traded notes with aroid botanist Pete Boyce in Malaysia who sometimes posts here with similar feedback. LariAnn Garner would be a better source of information.

Thank you very much for a quick reply exoticrainforest. It is already standing in my garden pond with its roots in shallow water. Looks lovely next to Colocasia 'Black Magic'. Just wanted to make sure I did right placing it there.

Martin W, please keep us updated on how well it does placed in water. I'm very interested in knowing how it will do. Do you have the whole tuber under water or just the roots?

Well, its a young plant with 2 leaves and a very short /1 ich/ "trunk". It grows in a clay pot completely submerged but the base of the trunk is above water level. So it seems like the whole tuber is under water. I've had it for like 2 weeks now and no new leaves appeared but I noticed fresh white roots. Maybe my plant has been thru a proper shock cuz when I took it from my neighbor it had totally dry roots and not much soil in the pot.

Had to take it outta my garden pond. We get very cold nights now, temperature drops down to 6-8 Celsius and during the day we get circa 25-30 Celsius. I've read somewhere that EE's dont like such daily temperature differences. Besides I noticed that the roots don't grow donwards but some of them started coming up as if they wanted to run away from water. And soil in the pot smells like rotten mud from a fishpond.
I think I'll give it a try again next year in Spring when I get another plant, so if I loose one I won't be crying of a terrible loss. Unfortunately EE's are not widely available in my country so every little plant counts.

I would think A. Odora would rot if left in water for more then a few weeks. But thats just might thoughts, I've been proved wrong before. Please keep us updated next year if it works. I might give it a try next year on a few Alocasia's too.

Although it is possible that A. odora could survive with some of the roots in water, I do not recommend that type of culture for a "domesticated" plant. I plant all my Alocasias, including A. odora and the hybrids I've produced using it as one parent, in very well draining soil mix that is never allowed to dry out. My plants grow exceedingly well and the only time I have some trouble is when the weather is dry and temps are high. That is when spider mites have their heyday.

LariAnn

Here is a link that might be useful: Aroidia Research