Alocasia cucullata (Lour.) G.Don

Chinese taro (en)

Species

Angiosperms > Alismatales > Araceae > Alocasia

Characteristics

Herbs, clumping, small to medium sized, somewhat robust, to 1 m, evergreen. Stems erect, hypogeal, basally much branched. Leaves many together; petiole weakly D-shaped in cross section, 25-30(-80) cm, sheath reaching to ca. 1/2 way, margins membranous; leaf blade broadly ovate-cordate, 10-40 × 7-28 cm, base shallowly cordate, apex acute; primary veins 4 on each side, radiating from petiole, arching, interprimary veins not forming a collective vein. Inflorescences rarely produced, usually solitary, sometimes paired, among leaf bases, subtended by membranous cataphylls; peduncle 20-30 cm. Spathe green, 9-15 cm; proximal spathe 4-8 × ca. 2.5 cm; limb narrowly cymbiform, 5-10 × 3-5 cm. Spadix 8-14 cm; female zone cylindric, 1.5-2.5 cm × ca. 7 mm; sterile zone 2-3 cm × ca. 3 mm; male zone yellow, ca. 3.4 cm × 8 mm; appendix yellowish, narrowly conic, ca. 3.5 cm × 5 mm. Fruit rarely produced, a subglobose berry, 6-8 mm in diam., ripening red. Fl. May.
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A herb. It is a plant with a tuber and it keeps growing from year to year. It can grow for only one year. It grows to 1.5 m high. The stem can be 50 cm long and 5 cm wide. The leaf stalk is 1 m long. The leaf stalk joins the leaf blade at the edge. The leaf is glossy and oval to heart shaped. It only has short lobes at the base. It is green. The leaf blade is 40 cm long by 28 cm wide. It forms suckers freely. The flowers have a spathe 9-15 cm long.
Life form perennial
Growth form herb
Growth support free-standing
Foliage retention evergreen
Sexuality -
Pollination -
Spread -
Mature width (meter) 1.0
Mature height (meter) 1.25
Root system -
Rooting depth (meter) -
Root diameter (meter) -
Flower color -
Blooming months
JanFebMar
AprMayJun
JulAugSep
OctNovDec
Fruit color -
Fruiting months -
Nitrogen fixer -
Photosynthetic pathway -

Environment

A tropical plant. It grows in the lowlands in open, wet locations. It is one of the more cold hardy Alocasias. Cairns Botanical Garden. In XTBG Yunnan. In Sichuan.
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Watersides, by fields, wild or cultivated at elevations below 2,000 metres in southern China.
Light 4-6
Soil humidity 4-7
Soil texture 3-4
Soil acidity -
Soil nutriment -
Hardiness (USDA) 10-11

Usage

The corms are eaten as a cooked vegetable. The young leaves are eaten as a vegetable.
Uses environmental use food medicinal
Edible leaves roots tubers
Therapeutic use Antirheumatic agents (stem), Gout (stem), Mitogens (stem), Pain (stem), Snake bites (stem)
Human toxicity -
Animal toxicity -

Cultivation

It is grown by division of the clump or from offsets. It can also be grown from seed.
Mode seedlings
Germination duration (days) -
Germination temperacture (C°) -
Germination luminosity -
Germination treatment -
Minimum temperature (C°) 1
Optimum temperature (C°) -
Size -
Vigor -
Productivity -

Images

Leaf

Alocasia cucullata leaf picture by Stevens Perry (cc-by-sa)
Alocasia cucullata leaf picture by Roberto Lasta (cc-by-sa)
Alocasia cucullata leaf picture by Shane J .Anderson (cc-by-sa)

Distribution

Alocasia cucullata world distribution map, present in Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Honduras, Japan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand, Taiwan, Province of China, United States of America, and Viet Nam

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:84151-1
WFO ID wfo-0000948800
COL ID C2VC
BDTFX ID -
INPN ID 447711
Wikipedia (EN) Link
Wikipedia (FR) Link

Synonyms

Panzhuyuia omeiensis Arum cucullatum Caladium cucullatum Caladium rugosum Colocasia cucullata Colocasia rugosa Alocasia rugosa Colocasia cochleata Caladium colocasia Alocasia cucullata