ALOCASIA ‘CHELSONII’
Alocasia cuprea x Alocasia longiloba
PARENTAGE: Alocasia cuprea x Alocasia longiloba
SYNONYMS: incorrectly considered a synonym for Alocasia ‘Sedenii’ (please see Notes section)
ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION:
HYBRIDIZER: John Seden | Veitch Nurseries
VARIEGATION: N/A
INFLORESCENCE: N/A
NOTES:
The specific epithet for Alocasia ‘Chelsonii’ is widely used in botany to indicate species and cultivars introduced by Veitch nurseries, which were located on King’s Road in Chelsea, an affluent neighborhood in West London.
Though not thought to be in cultivation anymore, this hybrid appears throughout botanical literature, as early as 1868. While at least one source labels it as a hybrid of Alocasia cuprea and Alocasia macrorrhizos, it is most likely a hybrid of the same parentage as Alocasia ‘Sedenii’ (though likely a different seedling line than Alocasia ‘Sedenii’, as Hortus Veitchii (1906) P.103 lists them both separately, which indicates they did indeed posess different characteristics).
The ‘Wiener Illustrirte Garten-Zeitung’ (Austrian illustrated garden newspaper) wrote in 1886 that Alocasia ‘Chelsonii’ had white spathes, which is quite contrary to the dark purple spathes of Alocasia ‘Sedenii’, confirming that they were likely different offspring of the same cross.
Given that contemporaneous sources, including one written by a Veitch family member (see above), describe both Alocasia ‘Chelsonii’ and Alocasia ‘Sedenii’, it is the author’s opinion that there must have been enough differences between the two plants to validate the two cultivar names.
