[Aroid-l] Mutations/ Natural Hybrid/ Alocasia cucullata (Lour) G. Don

**&* B* <j*@msn.com>**

From : 	Dan Levin <levin@pixar.com>

Reply-To : 	Discussion of aroids <aroid-l@gizmoworks.com>
Sent : 	Friday, March 30, 2007 4:42 PM
To : 	Discussion of aroids <aroid-l@gizmoworks.com>
Subject : 	Re: [Aroid-l] Natural Hybrid/ Alocasia cucullata (Lour) G. Don

Dear Folks,

I generally never indulde in 'I told you so`s" in my notes,  But---

I have been preaching for years on how quickly (both in geological time AND

sometimes in just a few years!) aroids can and do mutate! Recall the VERY

rapid increase in the number of vars./clones of Colocasia esculenta on

Hawaii, which took just a few hundred/thousand years to mutate or be

increased dramatically by selective cultivation of vegetative mutations. It

has increased to many hundreds of distinct vars., as it is believed that the

earliest settlers brought just a few vars. of this food-plant with them when

they arrived during their epic canoe-journeys across the Pacific ocean.

Today there were/are several hundred recognisable clones of this plant in

Hawaii.

Then there is the Xanthosoma sp. with the little 'frills/lips" under the

leaf blade, it will mutate so that you can not recognize a sucker or

off-shoot as being produced by the 'mother plant".

I`m a little concerned by the number of veins we can observe on the leaf

blade of Tony`s plant in his pic., vs. those on both the 'new' mutation AND

the original A. cuculata in Windy`s photos, Tony`s plant sem to have many

more!

The Best,

Julius

Folks,

I highly suspect you'll find the Alocasia cucullata clone which Tony Avent

has

under cultivation in North Carolina (available thru PDN) to be of great

interest.

Please see: http://www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/Detail/04795.html

Look familiar-?!!

I was so convinced a layout error had occurred when I first came across this
image that I sent Tony an email, about a month ago, suggesting someone had

swapped his images of A. cucullata and A. odora. Here follows Tony's

reply*:

"I checked the images and believe it or not, they are not reversed. Our

oldest clumps of A. cucculata changed appearance dramatically as they

matured to look more like a dwarf clump of A. odora that what we typically

think of as A. cucculata. We were quite surprised, but the two photos of A.

cuculata are the same clone...just several years apart. If you look close

you'll see few immature leaves toward the top and note that even the mature

leaves still have the characteristic twisted tip of A. cuculata. The plant

pictured as A. odora is actually correct also, although it is photographed

early in the season. I wouldn't believe this either unless I'd seen the

plants in person and took the photos. Both id's have been confirmed in

person by quite a few aroid authorities."

Are we witnessing a spontaneous mutation, coincidentally occurring 7,700km

and an ocean apart? Is this particular variation genetically encoded in one

or

more lines of Alocasia cucullata, i.e. do these two individual plants in HI

and NC

somehow share common ancestry? I leave it to finer minds than my own to

decipher.

 -Dan

*TA: my apologies for posting this without your prior permission...

On Mar 30, 2007, at 7:43 AM, Denis Rotolante wrote:

 Could proposed natural hybrid merely be an aneuploid or polyploid

seedling of Alocasia cucullata with thicker, broader leaves and more

pronounced interveinal puckering? Whatever it is it is an improvement over

plain old A. cucullata. See if it gets bigger than the standard cucullata

when it matures.

   Denis
   Silver Krome Gardens

       -----Original Message-----

 From: aroid-l-bounces@gizmoworks.com

[aroid-l-bounces@gizmoworks.com] On Behalf Of alocasia

       Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 1:24 PM
       To: Discussion of aroids
       Subject: Re: [Aroid-l] Natural Hybrid

       The 'thing' is off course interesant,and seem to have both
       part of colocasia gigantea and alocasia cuculata....

 But i don't think that the last pic(but pic number 1) is colocasia

gigantea.Colocasia have more round leaves,in

       all plants that i know.This plant seem more a xanthosoma

 for me.And if i know that some cross were made between colocasia and

alocasia,i don't think that it could be possible between xanthosoma and

alocasia.Mr Hay?Mr Boyce?What are thinking the experts?

           ----- Original Message -----
           From: Windy Aubrey
           To: Discussion of aroids
           Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 10:50 PM
           Subject: [Aroid-l] Natural Hybrid

           Hi,

 I thought this might be of interest to some of you Aroiders out

there, so I thought I would share these images of something I found growing

in the yard, and the two plants I suspect this new plant came from.

 In our yard, here on Oahu, we have a large patch of Colocasia

gigantea growing somewhat wild and we also have two old Alocasia cuculata

'shrubs'.

 While clearing out some white ginger that was taking over, I

came upon a small plant of something that was definitely different appearing

from anything else in the yard. I cleared around it and let it grow.

 It's now been about 8 months since this discovery and it is

turning out to be a really interesting plant.

 The blades are developing an interesting pucker between the

veins. This characteristic is becoming more pronounced with each new blade

as they harden off.

 I'll be interested in seeing if it obtains the proportions of

the Colocasia gigantea.

 My only explanation for this plant is that it must be a natural

hybrid of the two.

 Does anyone know if Alocasia cuculata been crossed with

Colocasia gigantea intentionally before? and what do you call an Alocasia X

Colocasia?

           Thanks,  Windy Aubrey

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