Re: Alocasia sanderiana and amazonica

Tsuh Yang Chen wrote:

> I have a small plant from my local club labeled "sanderiana" but althou=
gh it
> has the sanderiana shape, it does not have the prominent white veins, t=
he
> veins being more muted brown.  is it possible that it is a sanderiana o=
r is it
> mislabelled?

Hi Chen,

As the old clich=E9 goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words!"  Try to =
get a few
photos of different aspects of your putative A. sanderana, and either hav=
e them
scanned for posting on the IAS species identification site, or send the p=
hotos
off to Lester Kallus, the keeper of the ID site for him to scan and post =
for
you.  You can find the link to him from the Links button on the IAS site =
at
http://hoya.mobot.org/ias/  Perhaps we can all give you our two bits wort=
h then.

> Also, what's the parentage of amazonica?

There was a thread on this topic late last year:  You can find it in the =
archives
at http://www.mallorn.com/lists/aroid-l/  According to Alocasia expert Da=
vid
Burnett in his very informative and nicely illustrated "The Cultivated Al=
ocasia"
of Aroideana Volume 7, Numbers 3 and 4
(http://hoya.mobot.org/ias/Society/bk-issue.html), the parentage of Aloca=
sia x
amazonica is historically listed as A. lowii x A. sanderana.  However, I =
spoke
with noted aroid hybridizer John Banta today, and he gave me his observat=
ions on
the plant:  Some years ago John had hybridized A. sanderana with A. watso=
niana,
and got progeny that were A. x amazonica in all respects.  This seems ver=
y
plausible to me after noting photos of the plants in question in Burnett'=
s book.
Alocasia watsoniana has distinctively bullate leaves that seem to have ca=
rried
over into to the putative A. x amazonica hybrid.  It is also possible acc=
ording
to John Banta that A. sanderana has such dominant traits that it can caus=
e
hybrids with several species, including A. lowii, to have the A. x amazon=
ica
appearance.

It all sounds like an excellent candidate for DNA analysis at the molecul=
ar
level.  Anyone know of possible grant money?  Just kidding...

Best regards,  Scott

Mr. Scott E. Hyndman
Winter Park, Florida, USA
USDA Hardiness Zone 9b
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