The Main Plant entry for Elephant Ears (Xanthosoma) (Xanthosoma)

Xanthosomas were recently revised in The Commonly Cultivated Species of Xanthosoma Schott (Araceae), including Four New Species, Eduardo G. Goncalves, Aroideana, volume 34, 2011. A few of the Xanthosomas listed are of particular interest for their ornamental value in the garden.

What we've known for years as Xanthosoma 'Lime Rickey' has been revised as Arrow Leaf Elephant's Ear (Xanthosoma sagittifolium).
The Mickey Mouse Taro is now . Don't forget the U in X. monstrUosum.
Others, such as the , have remained unchanged. This one is unmistakable with its deep purple petioles under a waxy blue coating. Another, X. roseum, has been reclassified as .

I've found the three pictured Xanths to be easy to grow as long as enough water and fertilizer is provided. In Massachusetts they do well in full sun. They can be grown as pond marginals as long as the temperatures don't dip too low.

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This variegated plant has pushed up 3 new leaves in the last month. All have one half of the leaf almost non-existent. I was hoping it would grow symmetrical leaves as it became established but this "deformity" may be inherent to it. It's too bad because the variegation is stunning and it's shrugging off the cool summer nights we've been having this year.

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"Xanthosoma is a genus of flowering plants in the arum family, Araceae. The genus contains about 50 species that are native to tropical America. Several are grown for their starchy corms, an important food staple of tropical regions, known variously as malanga, otoy, otoe, cocoyam (or new cocoyam), tannia, tannier, yautía, macabo, macal, taioba, dasheen, quequisque, ʻape and (in Papua New Guinea) as Singapore taro (taro kongkong). Many other species (including especially X. roseum) are used as ornamental plants, and in popular horticultural literature are known as ‘ape or elephant ear (from the purported resemblance of the leaf to an elephant's ear), although the latter name is sometimes also applied to members with similar appearance and uses in the closely related genera Caladium, Colocasia (i.e., taro), and Alocasia. The leaves of most Xanthosoma species are 40-200 cm long, sagittate (arrowhead-shaped) or subdivided into three or as many as 18 segments. Unlike the leaves of Colocasia, those of Xanthosoma are usually not peltate- the upper v-notch extends into the point of attachment of the leaf petiole to the blade."

Taken from wikipedia's page at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X...

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