>> in Costa Rica, while "true" X. violacium which is a beautiful plant has
been
>> purchased in Jamaican stores as "red co co".
>Julius, could you tell more about what is this new species, and what are its
>characteristics?
When I was in Costa Rica two years ago, there was a Xanthosoma occurring in
large numbers in a clearing in the cloud forest near Monteverde, which the
local plant expert Willow Zuchowski told me was a new, undescribed species
formerly thought to be X. jacquinii.. Since this is the only Xanthosoma
species I have ever seen in life, I do not know what distinguishes it from
others, but it had green petioles on a banana-tree-like trunk, deeply recessed
leaf venation, rows of circles ringing the trunk (which I took to be potential
adventitious roots), and white spathes with dark red basal spheres. Since I
had no idea how properly to prepare an herbarium specimen of such a plant, I
did not collect one, but for whatever it is worth, I did write a detailed
description (in Spanish) of one individual plant in the stand.
Jason Hernandez
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