How do you get them to be black? Mine gets a good bit of sun, could that be the problem?
Why are my black magic not BLACK?
Only based on my personal experience the leaves turn green under shade but are deep black to blue under bright light. We grow it in the yard in near direct sunlight as does a neighboring city park. I have a large group in my atrium and the half that is in bright light is dark while the half that is in shade are green. All on the same group of plants.
Steve
This message was edited Jul 19, 2010 3:32 PM
This is a photo of the variation that turns blueish.
Steve
I found this tidbit on Ehow, under care of Black Magic EE's:
Care
# Grow black magic elephant ears in full sun to partial shade, though keep in mind the leaves develop their deepest purple coloration under full sun.
Maybe it's me, but those don't look like Black Magic. Could they have been tagged wrong and be something else? Even the ones we keep in full shade look more black then green.
Not an expert here, but I agree that they do not look like any Black Magic that I've grown. Initially, I thought they might be Black Stem, but I don't think that is right either. Black Stem likes to send lots of runners along the ground.
It looks to be more like Colocasia Cranberry one with velvet crinkled leaves. I have in the past gotten plant liners in that say something like black magic and they would be totally wrong and sometimes sold as such. This happens often when plant are young and grown in greenhouses or in shade. A few years ago I had a few liners come in as black magic and they were not black magic at all but some dark stem form. It seems some liner places screw up the tags and the screw up is passed on all the way to the customer. I have had it happen with bananas as well.
The original one I bought was 'labeled' black magic' and it was black. I kept it in the GH for a year and it stayed black. I finally decided to plant it in the ground, and the first year it had color (see pic), but now they just seem to be mostly green. Of course the trees around them have grown alot, so maybe they are not getting enough sun. They probably get 3 hours of direct sun. I think I will dig some up and plant them in full sun to see.
It seems you have several different Colocasia forms growing in this area. The cranberry is to the right and left of your clump. I believe for what ever reason your black magic died and the cranberry took over.
Well, I only ever planted the one Black Magic in that spot, all the ones you see, with the exception of the one in the very back with stripes (its in a pot). So if one is cranberry, they all are. I had just bought the one in back and set it there with the others.