ALOCASIA AEQUILOBA
ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION:
Alocasia aequiloba was first described in 1895 by Kew Garden, based on a dried leaf, and a small living leaf and inflorescence, which were donated by Henry Frederick Conrad Sander (usually listed as F. Sander & Co.)
Kew Gardens | Bulletin of miscellaneous information (UK 1895) Page 119
SYNONYMS: Alocasia angustiloba, Alocasia dahlii, Alocasia denudatoides, Alocasia gjellerupii, Alocasia magnifica, Alocasia peekelii, Alocasia schlechteri
DISTRIBUTION: Northern and Eastern New Guinea and Bismarck Archipelago
CLIMATE: Hot Humid Tropical (Af climate)
Humidity is moderately high throughout the year, ranging from 70% to 90%
Temperature is relatively uniform throughout the year - within the range of 73°F/23°C to 90°F/32°C during the day. Minimum temperatures never dip below 65°F/18°C
High rainfall during monsoon months (Dec-Mar) and relatively little rainfall during the dry season (Jun - Sep)
ECOLOGY: Lowland rainforest and swampforest floor and in regrowth
SPECIES DESCRIPTION: Small to moderately robust herb; stem decumbent to creeping, rarely erect, to 4 cm diam., usually less, brown, in the younger parts clothed in old leaf bases and conspicuous marcescent cataphylls of the proleptic renewal axes; leaves 1-several together; petiole c. 30-110 cm long, terete, green, sometimes maculate with darker grey, rarely mottled with purple-brown; sheath very short, 1/8-1/4 the length of the petiole, with persistent wings clasping the base of the subsequent leaf; blades hastate to sagittate, very variable in size, sometimes with the margins very faintly undulate, dark green and rather glossy adaxially, paler and dull abaxially, occasionally variegated with scattered, distant, yellow or white flecks, leathery, long-lived, often with epiphyllous bryophytes and lichens on the adaxial surface of older leaves; anterior lobe 15-55 cm long, 8-50 cm wide at base, from about as wide (at base) as long in sagittate forms to c. 1/3 as wide as long in hastate forms, the tip obtuse to acute, shortly acuminate; anterior costa with 3-9 primary veins on each side, diverging at 45-60 degrees, prominent abaxially, on the adaxial side distally impressed, proximally somewhat prominent; posterior lobes more or less lanceolate to ovate, 3/4 to subequalling the length of the anterior; posterior costae diverging at c. 90-180 degrees; secondary venation faintly raised adaxially, flush abaxially and there usually of darker green than the lamina; interprimary collective veins distinct, often zigzagging
INFLORESCENCE: Inflorescences paired or a succession of pairs each subtended by a marcescent cataphyll, physiognomically terminal owing to proleptic renewal growth; peduncle long and rather slender, carrying the base of the spathe well clear of the cataphyll, c. 1/4 to more than 1/2 the length of the petiole; spathe c. 6.5-13 cm long, constricted c. 1 /3rd of the way from the base, the limb lanceolate, shortly acuminate, opening wide, erect to deflected to recurved, pale green to greenish white, falling after anthesis; spadix somewhat shorter than the spathe, 5.5-c. 9 cm long, sessile; female zone obliquely inserted to adnate to the spathe for 2/3rds its length, 1.5-2.5 cm long; ovary unilocular, greenish ivory, multiovulate; style distinct, 1 mm long, upturned, especially in the lower pistils; stigma bluntly 3- or 4-fid; ovules orthotropous; interstice of sterile organs 1-1.3 cm long, somewhat constricted, white, rarely very short and not constricted or even absent; male zone about equalling to 2.5 times as long as the female, to 9 mm diam., white, cylindrical or sometimes constricted level with the constriction in the spathe when the interstice is short or absent; synandria more or less regularly hexagonal, flat-topped, with the anthers opening by apical pores; appendix about the same diameter as the male zone, not or hardly constricted in the transitionalpart, white or rarely pale yellow, tapering gradually to a rather blunt narrow tip, to subclavate, synandrodial to deeply sulcate, about equalling in length the fertile part of the spadix; fruiting spathe opening laterally, not splitting, or splitting slightly at the margins, not longitudinally; berries orange-red; seeds globose, c. 3 mm diam., anatropous, somewhat beaked at the micropyle, minutely strophiolate at the chalaza
VARIEGATED FORMS: GOLD (SPECKLED)
NOTES: Alocasia aequiloba belongs to the 'Coriaceae group' characterized by proleptic renewal growth, modules with an indeterminate number of foliage leaves, short leaf sheaths, long-lived (about two years), coriaceous, usually deep green leaves with prominent posterior lobes. Ovules are orthotropous and spathe limbs open wide and deliquesce. Examples of allied species are Alocasia heterophylla and Alocasia princeps
Alocasia aequiloba is remarkable amongst Australasian Alocasia species for its long-lived leaves the older ones of which bear numerous epiphylls. Other species have leaves which persist for only a few months before senescing and which as a result do not play host to epiphyllous plants. Naturally occurring variegated individuals are found in otherwise normal populations. They have entered horticulture with the cultivar names 'Spotted Papua' and 'Gold Dust'. The petioles often become maculate and eventually black with age, and as with many Alocasia species, some individuals (though very rarely in A. aequiloba) have the petioles mottled with purplish brown
