I am having Troubles in the Xanthosoma Dept!

I am a little embarrassed to have to start this thread. I do not post here much, but I lurk sometimes.
I appreciate the experienced folks who take the time to post here even though I am sure they are very very busy!
I have had these EE for several years with no troubles before.
They did reside under a beautiful Oak tree with nice filtered light. The neighbor had to cut that tree and there went the shade. I thought these guys could handle some morning to midday sun so I left them there. I moved everything else.

We also have pool equipment over there and Dh just discovered a leak in the pool pump (minor) but the filtered pool water is dripping into the ground next to these guys. Further away there was another very large and old EE the same kind that just up and died last month. It got the most sun in the area, but NO pool water.
Here is how the leaves look at first:

This message was edited Nov 4, 2008 12:02 PM

Then they progress to this

Then this skeleton of a leaf.

The new leaves look fine for awhile.
The ones that get a little more shade seem to get this phenomena on fewer leaves than the one that died.

Now I also noticed this which I have not noticed before.....the white stuff on the stems.

In the same place I noticed a pup of somebody over there that has a different leaf shape. It's about 4 feet tall and has more rounded corners and a much darker green color.

(Sorry the lighting could be better)

One of those weird leaves even has a little bit of variegation on one leaf.This leaf is even starting to turn on the edges now.

Now I am wondering if this could be a viral situation.

That pup looks to me like a different species of Xanthosoma, while the other one is X. sagittifolium. I note you are in west central FL - did you just have a cool snap recently? I noticed a few of my EEs showing a similar burn to yours after that cool snap we had. The pool water wouldn't help either. Too much sun will also have a similar effect, so it could be all three ganging up to produce this damage, or just one or two.

Thanks LariAnn for your imput. Yes we did have a little cooler temps than normal recently.

This has been happening since shortly after the big tree was cut down early this summer. I would have moved these big fellas, but I have no where for them other than that bed until next spring. I assumed it was sunburn since that was the major change, but the pool water probably doesn't help either.

Well looks like I have a new kind of baby in that Pup. It appeared out of nowhere, so I am grateful for Mother Nature's gift!

Have you considered that chlorine from the pool water may be causing some of these issues? I have no clue as to how chlorine might affect an EE, but keep in mind the the normal chlorine level for a swimming pool is generally much higher than used in tap water. Chlorine is highly toxic and many pools maintain between 1-6 ppm chlorine levels. So much could depend on how much pool water leaked into the rootzone of the EE's.

krowten,
It is possible that the pump has been intermittently leaking longer than we think it has. However DH is over in that side of the house tending to the equipment at least once a week and did not notice the leak until this past week. I would think he would have noticed it before, if it had amounted to anything. But who knows...there are plenty of leaves in that bed and it's possible that a very very small leak existed previously and went unnoticed.

For sure I will dig up that new different pup and move him. The other kind grow like weeds here and I can get more easily.