I walked by our trash cans returning from dinner out last evening and saw a surprise mystery plant on my driveway up under an abelia bush that has never been there before. Each leaf is about 8-10" tall or shorter at present. It seems healthy and very happy in it's location under the abelia. LOL


I've lived in this house 6 years now and I KNOW it just appeared for the very first time, because last year I cut a bunch of cuttings off the adjacent Purple Heart in the photo and would have seen this plant. It's like our Arctic February Freeze in Texas 'woke up' a long buried and forgotten corm. It sure woke the rest of Texas up! I have no idea why this plant has taken 6 years to make an appearance.

The leaf looks a lot like an indoor Alocasia Calidora 'Dwarf Elephant Ear' I used to have when I first moved here (that sadly died). I also think the mystery plant looks similar to a few philodendron leaves I see in our database, but didn't really find an exact match.

Any thoughts on this cute little plant are greatly appreciated.

Here are a couple closer photos of leaves without the sun glare on them that may help ID it. Leaves are only about 3" long, but of course may grow larger.

Wow, it does look like some type of Alocasia! I hope someone can identify it for you and I hope you will keep us updated with more photos as it grows!

Oh, I will. I would like to know what it is.

Last surprise plants were some paperwhites that bloomed last year for the first time. I knew they were likely some sort of bulb. My yard man cut the leaves off more than once, so I don't let him get inside the beds anymore. Not until they finally bloomed was I sure they were paperwhites. Lady that used to live here was a Master Gardener, so the occasional surprise pops up. Other than her roses, she seems to have preferred nonblooming plantings. Lots and LOTS of green in her beds and under abelias like this one. She left little room for me to add much of my choosing to the landscape actually.

I have a huge Alocasia Portora. And I have started having occasional popups like this one.
When I took my Alocasia apart last fall, for winter storage, I found a dozen little mini tuber nuggets in the soil. I cant say where they came from ..if they come off roots.. but I guess that is were my volunteers came from and maybe yours. One just popped in this queens tears that I potted up in May

Some type of Araceae species. Can't get any more specific than that since I'm not too much of an expert on this family of plants.

Alrighty then, two months later and this little plant is definitely getting bigger. It's happy tucked among and underneath all the other stuff the former owner planted there. It's about 12-13" tall now with largest leaves about 5-6" long. Color has not gotten one bit darker; no changes in veining. It's starting to remind me of an Alocasia 'Calidora' I used to have 4 years ago that died a slow death, one leaf at a time, before it ever really took off. Don't remember how I disposed of that plant, but perhaps I threw it down on the ground by the trash cans and it actsually took root again!? Now that would be something indeed. I'm going to just let it go, whatever it is, as it's clearly happy there, light and moisture-wise.

This photo (I just dug up on my PC) is the only one I have of the old Alocasia 'Calidora" I bought & lost 4 years ago. My Calidora leaf does look like this mystery plant's leaves, doesn't it? Mystery may be solved folks.

It's certainly in the elephant ear 'group'