I am wintering over my Elephant Ears in the house (first time endeavor for me). I've been pleased as I watch new ears unfold every couple of days. However, I was quite surprised this morning to find one of the leaves was really a FLOWER (at least, I'm ASSUMING that's what it is and also assuming it's a good sign & the plant is happy - no?)
Thanks!
Betsy
yes it is a flower. Most colocasias flower multiple times so you will probably have two more flowers after this one. They also have a smell when opening usually a bit of a banana type smell.
Thanks for the info!
I just stuck my nose down by the flower. *sniff*sniff*...banana?...noooo....*sniff*sniff*.....oh my gosh, what IS that smell??? I recognize it......*sniff*sniff*......CLOVES?..YES!
I think it smells like CLOVES!! Ran to the kitchen, opened the spice rack, grabbed the cloves...*SNIFF*..............YEP THAT'S IT!
A VERY POWERFUL AROMA OF CLOVES!
When the smell is strong that is the best time to put pollen on it to produce seed. Colocasias are hard to breed though.
How exciting. I want to make seeds. In the past, I never knew how to pollenate the flowers. Since learning of such things on this thread, I haven't had a bloom. I found a couple of dried up flowers when I was cutting things back, but none had seeds.
Brian, can you cross an Alocasia with a Colocasia?
HOW does one do that? Get the pollen from where? This sounds COOL - I'd love to try it.....if you'd be willing to coach me along, Brian. =0) THANKS Betsy
Betsy, there are some good tutorials. I'll see if I can search them out.
THANKS, LINDA!
I have to say yes on the Alocasia cross with colocasias. It was done once by the famous Dr bognor years ago. I am not sure what the exact cross was but aparently it died. It was a very mutated looking thing. It is extremely hard to cross a alocasia with a colocasia though not impossible I have tried a few times and failed each time this does not mean its impossible just very difficult to do. Its about the same as breeding cat with a lion. They are both in the same genus but totally different species it is very difficult but in some way very possible. When breeding plants not of the same species its usually best to see if the pollen is similar this can determine if the pollen will work. Also their are usually plants that seem to link two genus and species together. These odd ball plants are usually the key to breeding into another species. So if you cannot breed a cat to a lion maybe a cat to a bobcat and then the offspring to a lion. With alocasias and colocasias it is usually best to find the most productive and similar of the two in which to breed together. I have a alocasia that looks much like a Colocasia sending runners and softer leaves this plant could possible breed easier with colocasia than amazonica. Well hope this helped and did not confuse you guys more LOL. I will bring up my breeding thread back up and it shows how to breed aroids.
Well, I found 1 but don't know how to add it to this thread. Look through some older posts and find 'Colocasiz Breending Pics' posted Nov 5 (I think it was).
There are some other good posts, maybe someone will link them here.
Edited to say, good - Brian saw your question.
Thanks Brian, I don't think I'm ready to start breeding cats with lions. Heck, I've never tried a cat with a cat.
This message was edited Dec 13, 2005 4:57 PM
Thanks you guys. I will look through the old posts....
Man, if the "smellier" this thing gets, the better the breeding.........I'VE GOT ONE FERTILE PLANT HERE! It's getting so powerful it's almost TOO MUCH.
LOL it was the first thing that came to mind to try and show how similar and yet different the plants can be.
Sorry to say you would need pollen from another plant now usually it is only able to take pollen on day in the morning or later on cloudy days. Tomorrow and the next day you should see it drop pollen. When it does this the spath tightens up around the spadix and the pollen drops. Once this is done the female section is no longer fertile.
