I have this alocasia rugosa and I was wondering if it needs to be repotted and more soil added?
Your advice..
As you can see in the above photo, new growth is emerging, but should I add more soil...
According to botanist Peter Boyce' A review of Alocasia (Araceae: Colocasieae) for Thailand including a novel species and new species records from South-West Thailand Alocasia rugosa is a synonym for Alocasia cucullata. The Royal Botanic Garden Kew as well as the Missouri Botanical Garden TROPICOS both agree. However, your plant does not appear to be A. cucullata. Can you tell us where you found this name?
http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/qsearch.do;jsessionid=8B2E550FED4231C0F482920617E2F49B
http://www.tropicos.org/Name/2100152?tab=acceptednames
This is Alocasia cucullata http://www.exoticrainforest.com/Alocasia%20cuculata%20pc.html
As a general rule Alocasia prefer a very porous soil and the soil level does appear to be low.
Steve
This message was edited Dec 24, 2010 10:28 PM
I believe your plant may be closer to being Alocasia melo A.Hay, P.C.Boyce & K.M.Wong. I sent notes tonight to Pete and Alistair and asked them to look at your photos since they are the authors of the species. I also found a note from LariAnn that appears to concur posted on her site indicating the name Alocasia rugosa is often misapplied and the correct name is Alocasia melo.
http://www.aroid.org/genera/speciespage.php?genus=alocasia&species=melo
Steve
This is my Alocasia melo
That was what it was labeled when I bought it. Bought it from a nursery in Jacksonville, FL
The leaves are very stiff and rough.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/103889/
Here are some posts on DG also, but looking on the internet, they do say it is A. melo 'rugosa'
Paula, if you have not read this article from LariAnn Garner concerning this particular Alocasia, I suggest that you do. It should aid you where growing this plant is concerned.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/947/
Thanks Rachel, that definately helps.
Larry, your plant appears to be what Dr. Tom Croat calls the "aberrant form" of Philodendron rugusum. The species is noted for having a rough appearance on the upper side of the leaf. The scientific term rugose ( pronounced ROO-gose) means to possess a rough, wrinkled surface or appearance. The term is sometimes used to describe the venation (vein structure) of species with a prominent tightly woven vein structure visible on a leaf surface.
You can see scientific photos of Philodendron rugosum here on the Missouri Botanical Garden site:
http://www.tropicos.org/Name/2105856
I offer more photos and information on the species here:
http://www.exoticrainforest.com/Philodendron%20rugosum%20pc.html
Enid Offolter of Natural Selections in Fort Lauderdale used to sell this form all the time but due to the really bad freeze last year and a near repeat version this month I'm not sure if she still has any. She told me recently she had lost many of her plants.
Steve
Here is the answer to where this incorrect name appears to have originated,
Although there are folks on this forum that feel I try to be a "show off" or put myself on the same plane as the true experts, my only goal is to research for the truth about the plants I grow as well as try to help others understand the truth. Pete Boyce is a friend and we trade email virtually on a weekly basis. Pete just answered my note with this response, "Apologies that we're a bit late replying, we spent the holidays in Brunei, returned back late last night. This is Alocasia melo. I have told Agri-Starts MANY times that the name rugosa is fictitious!"
Agri-Starts is a great company as well as a supporter of the IAS. They have made many plants easily available to growers at a low cost. However, they do have a tendency to use "made-up" names when the correct name is known to science. I suppose this is done in order to market the product. As a result, you are going to continue to see it sold as "Alocasia rugosa" but that is not what it truly is.
As for the name on the net Alocasia melo 'rugosa', that name is not a registered name, simply another made up name. Someone likely did that because they were trying to convey the correct name but included the fictitious name since many people already know the plant by the bad name.
In order to correctly use single quotes around a name the plant must be a registered cultivar and the International Aroid Society is the registry for aroids. As far as I can determine, no one has ever requested to register that name so it simply becomes a "common name". Any grower is more than free to use any tag they wish on their plants, it is simply up to the grower to refer to any plant by any name they choose. But if you wish to be correct the name is correctly Alocasia melo A.Hay, P.C.Boyce & K.M.Wong. The name "rugosa" for this plant should be thrown in the trash.
I have also asked another of the authors Alistair Hay with whom I sometimes correspond to also comment on this thread since he is a regular on other Dave's Garden forums.
I suggest Dave (Metrosideros) make a notation on Plant Files so at least the public knows the truth.
Steve
This message was edited Dec 26, 2010 9:15 PM
This message was edited Dec 26, 2010 9:28 PM
This is the cultivation information taken directly from the published description of Alocasia melo as provided by Pete Boyce tonight . The original material was published in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, 14 (2), pages 82 to 86, in 1997. The drawing was created and copyrighted by Mary Grierson and may not be reused without permission from the copyright owner.
The plant grows naturally around Sabah, Borneo.
Cultivation. Alocasia melo is found in rocky places on the floor of tropical lowland rainforest, so requires high temperatures and humidity and protection from direct sunlight. At Sepilok it has been successfully maintained in pots in ordinary loam under shady conditions. At Sydney it is growing under glass in an open soil mix incorporating 75% perlite and 25% composted pine needles with gypsum, epsom salts, iron sulphate, agricultural lime, dolomite and a little copper sulphate added. The plants are liquid-fed about fortnightly and occasionally dressed with poultry manure. No specific provision is made for the fact that the species grows in ultramafic sites in nature and the plants are healthy, although they have not yet flowered. Alocasia melo A. Hay, P.C. Boyce and K.M. Wong
Steve
This message was edited Dec 28, 2010 5:16 PM
Mine gets morning sun. It has automatic irrigation morning and evening but during the wet season it also gets whatever rain comes. From memory, the soil was just plain potting mix. It gets fish/seaweed fertiliser, though probably not enough. I keep getting caught up with other things and forget to do it. So it's probably lucky to get it once every couple of months. It flowers occasionally but the flowers are small and not noteworthy. They've never set seed, I've never tried pollinating them.
Steve, Thank you so much for your reply and research. I will change the name to melo. I have many plants, just for a hobby, but I have run into the wrong name several times. I guess most people don't care, but some of us do.
Tropic, has your multiplied? How long have you had it? I have had mine for probably 2 years and it is just now putting out another baby. I think I will add some more soil.
Always glad to help. Consider taking the advice from Sydney and use a lot of Perlite and compost.
Steve
Steve's evaluation of the "Alocasia rugosa" is correct - as far as I know, the real name is Alocasia melo. It is one of the plants I refer to as "jewels" and will not tolerate being kept too wet or in too large a pot. It is much better to underpot this plant than to risk losing it by potting it in too large a pot. A large soil mass will hold too much moisture and lead to rot (voice of experience here). They also appreciate well drained soil and warm temps - keep them out of sprinklers and rain as that will also lead to rot or leaf problems.
I've had my melo probably about the same time as you, around 2 years. It only has one pup.
With the watering issue, it may be a cold climate situation where overwatering is a problem. Here the very high wet season rainfall doesn't seem to phase it. I checked the potting mix and I had added gravel to it so it drains reasonable well. The sprinklers are set to come on twice a day, necessary because our dry season (winter) would be too hot and dry for it.
One of my other Jewel Alocasias, A. reginula, I put in a large pot with lumps of limestone and very little soil. Same watering regime but it's growing faster, flowering more and producing more pups.
That's pretty!!
Tropicbreeze, I've had this rotting problem even in midsummer when temps never go below 70 degrees F - this plant does come from the rainforest but it seems that it cannot tolerate roots being constantly wet. It has to dry out somewhat or have the moisture run off very fast. I do know of one nursery that grows these plants in quantity but they have a controlled drip system and their plants are usually on the dry side, otherwise, they'd be unable to grow them to marketable size (again, in summertime, not winter). The same applies to A. reginula - I had a wonderful specimen that I potted up into a larger container - it was protected from the rain but the added persistently moist soil caused this specimen to rot off and die completely no matter what I did to stop it. It was a shame too, because I had ripening hybrid berries on the plant at the time! Lost them all . . .
This message was edited Dec 29, 2010 4:15 PM
LariAnn, I put the reginula in the lumpy limestone as an experiment after reading your article. It seems to have worked really well. Tree leaves fall down on the pot and decompose, forming a layer which retains humidity. But underneath there seem to be enough large spaces to allow air circulation around the roots. Although the melo is doing well I should probably repot it into similar.
The environment here is tropical savannah woodland, not rainforest. So during our dry season RH is low during the day and high at night. Just a fact of temperature change from lows of from 15c to 20C and daytime highs from 32C to 35C. So RH also inversely fluctuates a lot.
For the past week we've had rain each day (monsoonal) with RH ranging between 80 and 100%. Both the jewels are doing well. Even a poly, although I think they're different. I've seen them in nurseries virtually standing in water. In the short term they seemed okay, don't know what it would do for them long term.
i have this plant as well. I let mine get very dry sometimes and just water it every once in awhile. It seems to do better that way. It gets indirect light on the covered patio. It seems to be very tough as long as you don't overwater it.