Colocasia

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Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Colocasia (old Greek substantive name). Araceae. Perennial herbs with cordate-peltate leaves, which are often handsomely colored in cultivation; grown under glass, and one of the forms much used for planting out when large-leaved tropical effects are desired; also grown for the edible tubers. Plants tuberous or with an erect caudex: lf .-blades peltate, ovate or sagittate-cordate, basal lobes rounded : blade of spathe 2-5 times longer than tube; spadix shorter than spathe, terminating in a club-shaped or subulate appendage destitute of stamens. Differs from Alocasia and Caladium in floral characters — Species 5. Tropics. Colocasia includes the plants known as Caladium esculentum, which are much grown for subtropical bedding. C. odorata (which is an Alocasia) has very large, thick stems, which may be wintered over safely without leaves, or at most with one or two, the stems, to save space, being placed close together in boxes. C. esculenta rests during the winter and is kept under a greenhouse bench or anywhere out of the reach of frost or damp. All of the tall growing colocasias are of the easiest culture. As they are very rank growing plants they are not much grown in greenhouses, but are chiefly planted out-of- doors for summer display. They do best in damp rich soil. The dwarf species and forms are suited for pot growth, but little is seen of them except in public gardens. Consult Caladium for further treatment. (G. W Oliver.) Colocasias furnish the much-cultivated taro of the Pacific tropics, this edible product being the large starchy roots. From it is made the poi of Hawaii. In Japan and other countries the tubers of colocasias are much cultivated, and are handled and eaten much as we use potatoes (see Georgeson, A. G. 13:81). The young leaves of some kinds are boiled and eaten. The dasheen is of the same group. It has been recently introduced from tropical America, and is receiving considerable attention for cultivation in the South. The tubers may also be forced for the tender shoots. Cf. Bull. 164 Bur. Plant Ind. U. S. Dept. Agric. (1910), and subsequent publications of Off. Foreign Seed and PL Intro. CH The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Cultivation

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Propagation

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Pests and diseases

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Species

• C. bataviensis = Alocasia bataviensis(?).^CH
• C. Caracasana, Engler = Xanthosoma.^CH
• C. javanica, Hort.=(?).^CH
• C. Mafaffa, Hort.- Xanthosoma.^CH
• C. marginata, Hort.= Caladium bicolor.^CH
• C. monorrhisa, Hort. = (?).^CH
• C. odora. Brongn.=Alocasia odora. Koch. Treelike, the st. or caudex 3-6 ft. and 6 in. diam.: lvs. green, cordate, stalked, bearing peduncles in pairs in their axils. K. Asia. B.M. 3935.^CH
• C. odorata, Hort.= Alocasia macrorrhisa. George V. Nash.^CH

Gallery

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References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

External links

• w:Colocasia. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
• Colocasia QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)