ALOCASIA ‘GAULAINII”
Alocasia cuprea x Alocasia longiloba
PARENTAGE: Alocasia cuprea x Alocasia longiloba ‘Lowii’
SYNONYMS: Alocasia ‘Hybrida’
HYBRIDIZER: François Gaulain, foreman of the greenhouses at Tête D'Or in Lyons in 1874
VARIEGATION: N/A
DESCRIPTION:
“A very vigorous, semi-caulescent plant, dark olive green in the upper part of the stem, as well as the stout petioles, which support a heart-shaped peltate mucronate blade with a deep basilar sinus; upper surface of the leaf of a deep green with the prominent nerves and veins bounded by silvery bands, lower surface deep bright violet, with equally prominent, nearly black nerves.”
Alocasia ‘Gaulainii’ was one of the many plants which resulted from a commonly attempted cross during the late 1800s (see Alocasia ‘Chelsonii’, Alocasia ‘Orchid Jungle’ and Alocasia ‘Sedenii’), of Alocasia cuprea (known as Alocasia metallica in the literarture of the time) and Alocasia longiloba ‘Lowii’.
As noted above, there was only plant which resulted from the cross, and it was damaged during a hail-storm in the Summer of 1874. Given subsequent literary sources do not mention this hybrid, it is safe to assume it has not survived the passage of time and we are listing it here simply for historiographic accuracy and to document how prolific this cross was.
Contemporaneously, a few sources also mention Alocasia ‘Hybrida’, of the same parentage as Alocasia ‘Sedenii’ being grown in William Bull’s nursery, also in Chelsea, London, United Kingdom.
Given that the plant was introduced as Alocasia ‘Gaulainii Hybrida’ in L’Illustration horticole in 1874, it is safe to assume Alocasia ‘Gaulainii’ and Alocasia ‘Hybrida’ are one and the same.
The “Weekly Journal of the Association for the Advancement of Horticulture in the Royal Purssian States for Gardening and Botany” (Wochenschrift des Vereines zur Beförderung des Gartenbaues in den Königlich Preussischen Staaten für Gärtnerei und Pflanzenkunde) is the only source that describes all three hybrids of the same parentage and indicates that Alocasia ‘Hybrida’ predominantly resembles Alocasia longiloba ‘Lowii’ while Alocasia ‘Sedenii’ resembles Alocasia cuprea (so much so that the authors indicated that when they saw it at the 1869 International Exhibition in Saint Petersburg, Russia, they thought it was just a cultivar of Alocasia cuprea)
A singular source from 1873 contradicts the information above, stating Alocasia ‘Gaulainii’ was received by Mr. Gaulain from Singapore
INFLORESCENCE: N/A
ILLUSTRATIVE | No photos or illustrations of this hybrid exist
