Colocasia affinis


MS, April,2021/01 Colocasia sp. for id.: 3 images.
Location : Lengte, Mizoram

Date : 23-08-2014
Habit : Herb
Habitat : Wild
Note : The spadix is eaten cooked as a vegetable. It has no large tubers like Colocasia esculenta. Plant size is also smaller than C.esculenta. The tubers are not eaten. The spadix is available in local markets. 

Appears to be the same as in another post: Alocasia sp.(Araceae) for ID(A.fornicata?)
Can it be Colocasia esculenta only ?

For the two pictures of spadix with spathe and part of the third picture (Colocasia sp. (Baibing) (1).jpg) showing part of the plant I would say, yes, this is wild variety of C. esculenta.

And yes, wild variety is slender, yet sometimes a bit taller than the cultivated ones. Here they grow around village “nullah” (drainage or ditch), having blackish to purplish to reddish petioles. Also its tubers (rhizome) are not eaten.
But, in the picture no. Colocasia sp. (Baibing) (1) –
the flower shown at the left hand box is from the same plant, then it is not Colocasia esculenta. It would be Xanthosoma sagittifolium. 
I thank … here, once again, for introducing me to it.

Please, note that Xanthosoma sagittifolium is more robust than cultivated Colocasia esculenta.

Thank you very much for sending this. This is not Alocasia. The mature spathe and the pistillate zone, and the leaf blade all resemble Colocasia in my view.
The dimensions of the spadix, with enlarged sterile interstice, between the female and male zones, very short male zone, and very long, bulging appendage are very weird!
I will need to check, but as far as I can recall, here is no formally-described species of Colocasia that matches this.
I hope the source population is not restricted to just one location and under threat! The fact that people are harvesting and selling suggests that it is at least locally common.
I have some initial questions, if I may ask…
1) Does this plant produce side-corms, or stolons, or only axillary buds (in each leaf base) that appear dormant?
2) Very little is known about Colocasia spp. generally in Mizoram! Is this plant cultivated or planted in suitable places, or only harvested from spontaneous wild populations?
3) Does the plant have a local name, or do the inflorescences in the market have a special name?
4) Is it just the near-mature spadix that is eaten? All parts of the spadix or just the appendage above the mal and female zones? Is the outer spathe not eaten and therefore discarded?
I would be happy to correspond, and see more photos, if any exist, and to help with further checking that this is in fact undescribed. Does MS live in the area, or is it difficult to revisit?
5) Is there any local botanist or research student who would like to look at this and study the plant further?

Thanks, …, Pl. see more images at efi thread

1 . At present, could not answer.
2. This plant is growing wild, not cultivated. Usually found in newly cultivated/jhum areas.
3. The local name is Baibing. Some botanists identified this plant as Alocasia fornicata (you can get some information from Google). This plant is very common vegetation in Mizoram.

Thanks again. (How may I address you?)
Just to confirm, this is really very different from Alocasia fornicata. It is very likely C. affinis, which I have not seen in the wild unfortunately. Deva and Nathani (1985, attached) published the first substantive description of C. affinis, as far as I can tell, and it does match your plant. They show the double constriction in the spathe, the describe in words the long interstice between female and male zones (not well-illustrated in their sketch, unfortunately). Their sketch of the blade largely matches your photos.
They also mention production of long stolons. Your photos show clumping and also spread of the plant as a kind of understory through the long jhum grass… this is consistent with the way stolon bearing Colocasia spp. spread. As a plant with stolons underground, it may well be tolerant to jhum burning over wet ground.
No-one has photographed or illustrated the stolons of wild C. affinis as far as I know.
A variegated cultivated plant that appears under this name is not so robust. I have only seen the latter, and doubt that the plant under ornamental cultivation is the same as the wild species described by Deva and Nathani (1985), although they mention it as a form of C. affinis.
In sum, your photos may be the first good record of wild C. affinis as described by Deva and Nathani (1985), with a distribution given as in foothills and low altitudes from Himalaya to Assam and Burma. You may also have made the first ethnobotanical record of the use of this plant as a vegetable (I have not yet looked for any local botanical literature from Mizoram).
It would be great if you can publish something based on your observations!

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Alocasia sp.(Araceae) for ID(A.fornicata?) :  8 posts by 4 authors. Attachments (7).

Location : Lengte, Mizoram
Date : 23-08-2014
Habit : Herb
Habitat : It grows wild.

Same plant. Attachments (2).

This is not Alocasia fornicata (Roxb.) Schott….. this much I can say.

To me, it is Colocasia, and looks like C. esculenta

Again attaching herewith another same sp. This plant was recorded as A. fornicata in some books and internet.

Experts are requested for identification because this plant is common vegetable in Mizoram. The local name is BAIBING.

I am very sorry …, for creating some unnecessary inconvenience to you. Yes, the net has documents as you claim. Incidentally Calla virosa Roxburgh (spadix 1/4th of subulate spathe) is BISH-KOCHOO in Flora Indica, as is Arum fornicatum Roxb.!

Please wait for experts’ views…………….

Same colocasia (spadix)

I am really sorry …, I have no idea.

You may please see/download this document to know differences between Alocasia & Colocasia.
As per the above document Alocasia (not sure if all species or not) spadix has brain like pattern in its appendix region (please see the attached image).
As for the name ‘BAIBING’ you may please see the following articles –
An article on wild plant used by people of Nagaland can be found at http://www.mutagens.co.in/jgb/vol.02/3/03.pdf which doesn’t feature A. fornicata Roxb.
Also attached herewith the description of A. fornicata by Roxburgh and Haines.
Attachments (4)
I still think it is Colocasia and maybe C. esculenta. As per one doc (I have pasted link yesterday) C. gigantea can be found in your region and the entire plant is edible. But that species is a stout one.
In C. esculenta appendix is narrowly conic. The appendix of your plant is clavate, similar to the illustration of C. fallax in FoC.
Pic DSCN1602 lacks an appendix, which is sometimes a feature of C. fallax, C. antiquorum (leaves glossy adaxially as per FoC) and very short in C. gigantea.

Please check probability of C. fallax.

Colocasia affinis Schott as per discussions at MS, April,2021/01 Colocasia sp. for id.


MS,April,2021/02 Colocasia sp. for id: 1 image.
Location : Lengpui, Mizoram
Date: 09-06-2010
Habit : Herb
Habitat : Wild

Colocasia heterochroma ??

Yes !

I think the same (variegated form of C. fallax) as in MS, April,2014/04 Colocasia sp. for id

This is not C. fallax… this appears to be C. affinis var. jenningsii (with the caveat that it may be a different species than C. affinis Deva & Naithani 1985)
The sinus is very shallow, the green is a brighter shade of green. Also: the number of lateral veins branching from the central rib appears smaller than in C. fallax, the blade is more rounded, and blade lacks the striking pale blush generally seen on C. fallax.
C. fallax often has pale to dark purple colour in the petiole; I have not seen purple petioles on C. affinis var. jenningsii (but I have not seen much of this plant in the wild, so this can’t be taken as a reliable general observation).
This is an important record of the plant in Mizorum!

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Image by Devi Nair – identified by Pudji Widodo, (inserted by Bhagyashri Ranade)

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Caladium for ID : 10 posts by 4 authors. Attachments (1).
Got this recently from a nursery where they have called it Caladium bicolour and also said it’s medicinal. Wanted to reconfirm.

It is Maranta leuconeura kerchoveana.

Thank you very much. Is it medicinal?

No idea …

I do have some Maranta’s and this one looks different. More like a Caladium. 

This is Colocasia fallax Schott.

Appears like Princess Taro ‘Jenningsii’ (Colocasia affinis) as per http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/251029/

Is it Colocasia heterochroma???
http://www.aroid.org/genera/serveimage.php?key=4575

It looks more like Colocasia affinis and Colocasia heterochroma.
Hope somebody can confirm.

I would rate this as C. affinis var. jenningsii, especially since it is circulating as an ornamental in a nursery.
But without floral details it is hard to make very definite statements an comparisons with other variegated species of Colocasia. I’m sure this is not C. fallax, but not sure that it is not C. heterochroma!
Please tell the nursery they have a Colcoasia, not Caladium!

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Araceae ID from Nepal- 1: 1 image.
Segregating clubbed posts due to same subject:

ID PLZ
Chitwan National Park, Nepal

Please check
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=110&taxon_id=10056 !

Seems ornamenta Colocasia Jenningsii or similar

Maybe Colocasia affinis var. jenningsii as suggested by …

But the top view of the image is not sufficient for id.

These variegated Colocasia spp. are really difficult to identify based only on the variegation. This is likely C. affinis as suggested, but both C. fallax and C. affinis are variable in their display of variegation, and we need to consider the possibility of as yet undescribed species also having similar variegation.
I have noticed that the stolons of C. fallax are very wiry, with fibrous inner core that gives them tensile strength. This certainly helps with their attachment to rock crevices in rocky, high velocity mountain streams. The much thicker stolons of C. esculenta are fragile and easily break, and then float, which assists dispersal along streams and in floodplains.

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References:
POWO  The Plant List Ver.1.1  WCSP  Flora of China  Annotated checklist of Flowering plants of Nepal  India Biodiversity Portal  Flowers of India