Anyone know of a Alocasia with thorns on the stem?
It kinda has brown leaves and has brown stem with thorns on the stem?
I found this nursery down on a farming road in the town of Malabar. Its Someones home. He has tons and tons of plants on quite a few acres of land. All under a gorgeous canopy of beautifully manicured landscape.
Nothing too fancy( in the way of plants) most of the plants look like every day stuff, But the place is HUGE the plants are huge and Beautiful looks like a Botanical garden. He claims to have the most Bromeliad varieties in all of Florida. From the looks of it I believe him.
I wish I would have taken some pictures but I was overwhelmed with the beauty of the place and the enormous size of it.
Anyhow the guy had some Alocasia's that had thorns on them. I wanted to get one but he didnt seem to know his plants well. Which made me think ? Was he really the owner? He said he was so did his workers, but he knows nothing about plants. I knew more than him and I dont know squat.!! LOL
Anyway I didnt trust his ID of the plant and the health of it. So I passed.
but still want to know Was this an Alocasia? Is there such a thing?
Im going back next week and will ask if I can take pictures.
He's only open to the public on Saturdays.
If anyone knows please let me know.
Thanks,
GG
This message was edited Jan 27, 2007 9:35 PM
Alocasia with thorns?
GG no Alocasias have thorns. The plant sounds like Cyrtosperma johnstonii (which was called Alocasia johnstonii at one time, but it is not at all closely related Alocasia).
OK ,
I will look for a pic of it to see if its the one I"m talking about.
I didnt think so .
Is the plant your refering to brownish?
lol was typing while you posted.
Ok looked at pic ,
the plant I saw had brown leaves. ( perhaps dying? )
Umm the stems on the pic do look the same.
I will go back next week to get a better look
But its funny because he had about 200 of the plants and they all
looked brown. About 12to 18 in height.
Is not the Alocasia
in the same family as the Cyrtosperma johnstonii
Family: Araceae (a-RAY-see-ay) (Info) ?
Plant Files says they are.
Cyrtosperma johnstonii"
is a pretty Aroid oretty foliage !
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/120864/
does not say anything about thors in PF
maybe GG not the plant you saw.
FYI, Cyrtosperma are commonly referred to as bog taro.
They are lovely, but I hear that they are somewhat finicky.
"Cyrtosperma johnstonii is a semiaquatic aroid and is said to have been originally collected in the Solomon Islands, probably at Hapan, Buka Island. The stalks have spiny upward poiting "hooks", and the large lobed leaves are green with fantastic blood red veining. This plant gets huge under the right conditions, easily over 9-10ft. Cyrtospermas are cold sensitive and do not like to go below about 55-60 degrees and prefer much warmer. Perfect for greenhouse culture."
ROX
Ok Sorry I did a search not sure if this is the plant you saw but on Ebay does show thorns on the Cyrtosperma Johnstonii
Standing about 7 feet tall with odd reptilian like stems with small thorns and huge arrowhead like leaves that had red to bright pink veins. I instantly feel in love with this plant.
On Ebay it says Cyrtosperma Johnstonii alocasia cousin Item number: 250066889213
It's a nice looking plant
They are in the same family as Alocasia
But the brown leaves you saw now I can't figure that out. Maybe they were dead going dormant ??
Not sure if this link works it tell about the plant on Ebay , shows a few pictures and one with the small thorns.
Sorta like Crown of thrown
http://cgi.ebay.com/Cyrtosperma-Johnstonii-alocasia-cousin_W0QQitemZ250066889213QQihZ015QQcategoryZ25463QQcmdZViewItem
It is a very beautiful plant. If I saw it, I'd grab it! {Well maybe not literally because of the the thorns...LOL}
ROX
I may go back and get one, he ony wants 6 bucks for it!!
But this plant does not have any green on it.
Its leaves are brown.
Gosh I wish I took a picture. It doesn't look like brown dying leaves
it looks like a healthy brown leaf.
Its stems look like that ones in the pictures above but the leaves are
definitely different . Shape is the same but not the color.
Unless all 200 of his plants are on the verge of death. The 40 ft table was full
with the same looking plant= brown leaves with thorns.
I believe it was marked New Alocasia from Thailand.
I dont know but I will update everyone next saturday.
Maybe Brian will read this and have a clue on what it may be.
I wonder if the plants are sick?
I'd be surprised because all of his plants looked really really good.
healthy and strong. He had may workers looking after them.
This message was edited Jan 27, 2007 9:31 PM
Sorry ,when I said Alocasia and Cyrtosperma were not closely related, I meant within the family Araceae: they are in different subfamilies.
It will be very interesting to see if this really is something new!!
It's possible that he has a new cultivar of Cyrtosperma Johnstonii with colored leaves..........might be something not yet in wide distribution, and a real find at that price........
or it could be something else.
If nothing else please take a picture! I'm dying of curiosity now!
ROX
I promise I will take a picture.
You will see what I mean by brown leaves.
its a funky kind a brown too. Its like the same color as the stem.
I will for sure be at his place bright and early sat morning taking pictures if he lets me.
If not I'll buy it just to show you. LOL
thanks much,
will update post:
GG
Six bucks WOW good price if healthy plants !
The first time I saw Cyrtosperma johnstonii, a juvenile plant growing at Atlanta Botanical Gardens, i walked away with an image of a reddish-brown marked plant with thorny leaves. Of course, the plant has reddish markings, not brown, but I still walked away with that image in my mind. Sure it wasnt red? If not sounds like something really interesting!
Well I asked the man and he says its Cyrtosperma johnstonii I cant explain why it's leaves look brown , but I looked at all the plants and I noticed that the smaller baby leaves looked green. I think these plants are stressed. That's why the leaves look brown. I couldn't bring the camera because it was pouring rain.
But Mystery solved!!! its Cyrtosperma johnstonii
If it has thorns I would say it is also cytrosperma Johnstonii or maybe lasia spinosa. Johnstonii has recently been Tissue cultured and is now much easier to find. Though it hates cold anything below 55f can be fatal. In most cases cold temps will cause the foliage to turn colors. Here are some pictures of it the stems are molted like a reptiles skin. I have many of them growing now but most have some discoloration due to lower night temps.
here is a pic of the stems close up.
Their is a Homalomena species with darker leaves and some spines but much harder to find. I have also seen some south american forms with thorns but they are extremely rare. They were also extremely beautiful but on my next visit to the collection they were dead.
Well it has been cold out ...... that would explain why they looked so weird.
I think they are dying. LOL
Glad I didnt buy any.
The leaf colors also change according to the maturity of the plant. The pink veins become less conspicuous as the plant matures and the chocolate/liver cast to the leaves becomes more dominant, particularly on the underside.