Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Elephant Ear

Elephant ear plants all around our house has been producing inflorescenes in the leaf axils these past few weeks. Its cousin Taro has edible tubers but be careful the elephant ears are poisonous to be consumed. Different parts of the elephant plants has different level of oxalic acid. This plants causes severe burning in the mouth and throat if eaten. This plant are easily grown here in the tropics.
The elephant ear plants can grow very quickly for example the photo above was taken end January last year and photo below are recently taken. So an example how the elephant ear plants can grow in a year without any fertiliser given. I foresee 2 plants needs to be relocated as it will be quite crowded on that spot.
Withered inflorescenes. One plant can produce average about 3 inflorescenes in one season.
 This ear elephant plant is near our mail box. I was trying to find some space to plant gladioli bulbs and just noticed that there are hippeastrum blooming obscured by the huge elephant ear plant leaves. I think the bulbing hippeastrum was desperate searching for light that its stalk grown more than 50cm tall. So I chopped off some of the elephant ear plants for the poor blooming hippeastrum.
Hippeastrum blooming. Hopefully other bulbs will also bloom too.

From my previous post, the sengkuang seeds will find a new home to :

Rainfield 61 ~ My Journey.

Lena ~ Frozen Wings.

James Missier ~ Garden Chronicles. 

Please send me your address to (kebunkmg@gmail.com)





13 comments:

Anonymous said...

dulu2 KA ada tanam pokok keladi ni

Sue Garrett said...

Pt's fascinating to see how what we would call house plants grow in your environment and how big they grow when not restricted by a pot!

Sunray Gardens said...

Great photos. Very cool plant.
Cher Sunray Gardens

rainfield61 said...

Oh I am so surprise to find my name here.

Thank you very much.

Gardener on Sherlock Street said...

Those are truly elephant ears. I've tried to grow one in the summer but I think it likes humidity and we just don't get that humid. You have quite a task to move it.

kitchen flavours said...

Never knew the name of this plant is elephant ears. I like this plant. Makes a beautiful decorative plant.
Congratulations to the winners!

Unknown said...

I have elephant ears too. At one time the leaves grew very large, almost three feet across per leaf. Later the leaves shrunk, then later, they produce bigger leaves again. I try to remove the flowers in the hope that the leaves remain large.

Kelli said...

The elephant ear is a lovely looking plant.

lena said...

what a surprise! didnt expect to win the seeds, will write to you soon, thanks!

becky3086 said...

I have a nice large elephant ear in one corner of our house where it gets the most sun. It does very well there.

Mama Pongkey said...

Beautiful Ears! I don't really have space for them, but would think of guerrila gardening for these. I think the neighbours won't mind. ;-)

KL said...

Your garden indeed shows that it is in a tropical place - a tropical paradise :-)

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Kesuma Angsana ~ Pokok keladi ni senang tumbuh kan.

Sue~ I used to have them in Adelaide growing in pots and they grow rather slowly. But I guess I neglected them and did not gave enough moisture during dry season.

Cher~ Enormous leaves. Sometime if not watch will obscured other plants.

Rainfield61~ Thanks for the address.

Gardener on Sherlock Street~ Yes it does like moist soil to grow well. They do well in shade too during summer. I don't have any idea currently where to transplant some of the corms.

Joyce~ I just knew the name end of last year. Yes very decorative and good in shade place.

Stiletto~ I actually did not notice whether there are any difference removing the inflorescenes or not. The inflorescenes don't bloom that long.

Kelli~ Needs a large space to accomodate the elephant ear. But it does give a cooling effect during hot dry season.

Lena~ Thanks I received your email will post to you soon.

Becky3086~ Must be very happy with its companion at that corner.

Mama Pongkey~ Yeah just grow them in guerrila gardening!

KL~ It is an old garden that evolved so many times keep changing.