Re: [Aroid-l] Cyrtosperma merkusii--the story



From : 	FLFireman1@yahoo.com <flfireman1@yahoo.com>



Reply-To : Discussion of aroids <aroid-l@gizmoworks.com>

Sent : Saturday, September 30, 2006 11:40 PM

To : Discussion of aroids <aroid-l@gizmoworks.com>

Subject : Re: [Aroid-l] Cyrtosperma merkusii--the story







Dear ALl,



As some of you have 'heard' me say here on aroid-l, aroids are VERY
'plastic' plants, and can and do evolve VERY quickly vegetatively, as we
have seen that even an offshoot from a 'mother' plant can grow to look and
TASTE differently to the 'mother'. The best way to illustrate this is to
consider Colocasia esculenta (taro) in Hawaii, in just a couple thousand
years man has managed to develope several HUNDRED 'cultivars'/clones just by
his selection, NOT by breeding or seed/sexual reproduction, and these
hundreds come from just a very few original clones/varieties that were
brought to the Islands by the first human arrivals.

Presumably the same thing occurs with Cyrtosperma. As I said in my note,
there are many known cultivars of this one 'species', C. merkusii, so we can
expect to see slight differences in them through their range, and this is
NOT taking into account the growing conditions, as the plants at Fairchild
and in Munich probably originate from exactly the same collection/clone, and
both are growing indoors in shade and stillness, while the Hawaiian plant is
growing outside in sun and the wind.



Good Growing,



Julius




Hello Brian, Julius, and everybody else who shared



their info and insight on this beautiful plant.

The C. merkusii that Brian sent a link of from Hawaii
doesnt look "exactly" like the one that is growing at
Fairchild. It may very well be the same plant, since I
am no expert. But it appears that the leaf on the one
that Brian sent a link to has a softer leaf almost
like a Xanthosoma Sagitifollia when compared to an
Alocasia Odora leaf.

Here is a link to the plant that looks identical to
the one growing at Fairchild:

http://dscherberich.free.fr/MUNICH/cyrtomerkusiim.html

Again they very well may be the same plant, or a
variation of the same plant.

Thanks
Eric<<

--- Brian Williams <pugturd@alltel.net> wrote:




Here is a link of what maybe Merkusii but it is

listed as chamissonls I am not sure if this is another large species in the

group in most cases I have seen it usually is Merkusii. I did have a

great link to island page with a young woman in front of a huge patch of

Merkusii that were around 20 feet tall. Huge plants with massive

leaves. It seems this site is no longer up. This was the closest I have
seen to

it.






http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/carr/images/cyr_cha_hab.jpg



>

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