Elephant ear (Xanthosoma robustum)

Elephant ear (Xanthosoma robustum) is a species of plant in the Araceae, 0.4-1.5 m tall, stemless and not woody, has 2-5 leaves with stems of plain green or purplish stripes, flowers in the middle and grow to form a colony.

X. robustum has ovate or oblong leaves with tapered or rounded tips, green and shiny upper side, sometimes purplish around the stem, bright green or pale underside.

Flowers come in cobs in the axils of leaves and have stalks. The sheath is green or yellow or white and falls off. Leaves, stems and tubers are used as animal feed and carp. Shield-shaped and wide leaves are often used as head protection when it rains, food wrappers and live fish containers.

TAXON

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Alismatales
Family: Araceae
Subfamily: Aroideae
Tribe: Caladieae
Genus: Xanthosoma Schott in H.W.Schott & S.L.Endlicher, Melet. Bot.: 19 (1832)
Species: Xanthosoma robustum Schott in Oesterr. Bot. Wochenbl. 3: 370 (1853)

PUBLICATIONS

Govaerts, R. & Frodin, D.G. (2002). World Checklist and Bibliography of Araceae (and Acoraceae): 1-560. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Hammel, B.E. & al. (2003). Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica 2: 1-694. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis.

Hernandez, J. (2007). In Hawaiian rainforests: exotic aroid ecologies. Aroideana 30: 91-97.

López Patiño, E.J., Szeszko, D.R., Rascala Pérez, J. & Beltrán Retis, A.S. (2012). The flora of the Tenacingo-Malinalco-Zumpahuacán protected natural area, state of Mexico, Mexico. Harvard Papers in Botany 17: 65-167.

Nelson Sutherland, C.H. (2008). Catálogo de las plantes vasculares de Honduras. Espermatofitas: 1-1576. SERNA/Guaymuras, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Stevens, W.D., Ulloa U., C., Pool, A. & Montiel, O.M. (2001). Flora de Nicaragua. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden 85: i-xlii, 1-2666. Missouri Botanical Garden.

VERNACULAR NAME

English: Elephant ear
Indonesia: Kuping gajah
Java: Kuping gajah

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