Tropicals & Tender Perennials: How to ID elephant ears!!!, 1 by bwilliams

bwilliams wrote:
OK I have been asked this alot and here goes my best example on how to ID your elephant ears. To keep it simple we are going to work on these three groups.

Colocasia
Xanthosoma
Alocasia

Colocasias are the most common. Sold as a food in Hawaii as Taro as well as all over the tropical word as a main food source. It has a thin leaf the tip points downward in all species EXCEPT Thialand Coffee cups is the first to have a tip point upward. A main point is that the back lobes are fused together meaning it has a heart shaped leaf rather than a arrow head leaf. So if IDing a colocasias first the tip points downward on the mature leaves. The leaves are not extremely thick but a bit thin. The back lobes are fused together to form a heart. Colocasias are a old world tropical so they believe. Meaning it is from Asia and surounding tropical islands.

This message was edited Nov 11, 2005 10:52 PM