...and the generic Malanga tuber I bought at Publix had black stems and turned out to be Xanthosoma violacea (aka Blue Tannia).
Since then I've never gotten lucky again, but I have managed to parley my single tuber into a stand of plants!
Anyone else have this plant, and how did you find yours?
I got mine from a neighbor about a block or so away. Hers is HUGE and had offsets, and since I've given her many plants, she was more than happy to share hers. Have you found that yours goes dormant in winter? Mine does, which is pretty interesting. Even a relatively small plant will produce a pretty large tuber.
If we get adequate rain (and I water on the days that we don;t get rain) mine will reach a height of about 5-6 feet with huge leaves. They are just kinda really getting started now because, yes, they do go dormant every winter, but THIS year, they also were getting WHACKED (unbeknownst to me, until I caught them in the act) to the ground from May to early June by my yard guys with the line trimmer. So they were hugely set back this year. They are trying valiantly to catch up though!
I have found that a lot of plants go dormant even in the face of year round warm temps in the greenhouse. Xanthosoma wendlandii does, and a lot of the more unusual alocasias like Nishihira, Imperialis, Sanderiana, Tigrina, Xanthi braseliensis, Alo advincula and brancifolia...all go dormant.
Some years my huge Alocasia macrorhizza albo variegata that are about 6 ft tall go dormant too...they did this year. Some years, they never do. I think its a light thing, its certainly not a temperature thing in the GH
Goth, that's interesting. My tigrina was fine all winter, sanderiana
did go dormant (scared me to death), and I will get to see about
nishihira this year.
Yeah, they sure know the season. And temp doesn't seem to
be their gauge.
A great deal of food tubers are irradiated now and thus won't
grow when we gardener types buy them to plant. More than
less and lets you know from whence they hail.
