Alocasia 'Calidora'- massive clump of trunking Elephant-Ears

[Eric in Orlando]

About 12 years ago we got a tray of tissue culture plugs of Alocasia 'Calidora' here at Leu Gardens. This was a fairly new hybrid Elephant-Ear at the time. It is a cross between the smaller Alocasia gageana and the larger A. odora. We grew these up to a bigger size then planted a mass of them on a wet hillside. A spring trickles out of here and the soil is wet and black all year. These plants grew like crazy into massive thick clumps. They also seed heavily and we find seedlings occasionally elsewhere in Leu Gardens. Birds, raccoons or rats are spreading them.

They had spread into an area with native plants and we removed several loads of them. One adjacent clump was cleaned up and thinned out. The trunks are amazing, they resemble Serenoa repens, Saw Palmetto. Some of the stems are 8-10 ft tall.

Here is one of the original clumps uncleaned and unthinned;

Here is a clump cleaned up;

The fruit are a bright red

[Eric in Orlando]

A single plant cleaned up

Some others

[Palms1984]

Those are absolutely beautiful!

It's surprising bugs don't attack the trunks. Here in San Diego my plants (the stems and tubers) always get eaten by bugs.

[kahili]

this alocasia is actually hardy up here in zone 7b/8a. Its a great landscaping plant in beds and its common name is Persian palm. I have seen it come back after multiple years. However I don't think that it survived last winter which was especially cold, where one night it went down to 7 degrees, but it is pretty reliable to come back most winters. Interestly, what did come back this spring was Heliconia schiedeana 'Fire and Ice', which I had planted a few years ago and it keeps coming back. I would have never thought that would have survived this past winter.

[The Silent Seed]

Very nice!!! I have had a 10 gallon pot full for about 5 years now. Obviously growth is restricted, but it's one of my favorite plants. I like the un-cleaned clumps best.

[Eric in Orlando]

'Calidora' is a very vigorous hybrid. It is the only Alocasia here that I have seen seed heavily.