Re: gigantic leaf species around the wor

From: Bob Riffle <71270.3070 at compuserve.com> on 1998.08.13 at 21:45:57(2528) Julius, there are actually TWO photos in Fairchild's GARDEN ISLANDS OF THE GREAT EAST of Cyrtosperma merkusii (I have the book): one taken on a beach in Luzon showing Prof. Hugh Curran holding an 18-ft. leaf-petiole cut from the forest; the other photo taken in the forest itself showing Ned Beckwith standing amidst a grove of them. The leaf itself (the lamina) seems no larger than those on a mature Alocasia odora, nor any larger than those in the photo of A. odora var. robusta in EXOTICA which shows Roberto Burle Marx standing beneath the "canopy" of the plant. The leaf of Philodendron speciosum would seem to be AT LEAST as large and probably larger, and it's unsegmented. I have grown Xanthosoma violaceum and X. sagittifolium with leaves almost 6-feet long. In addition, in the BBS production of David Attenborough's "The Secret Life of Plants" there's a scene with the great popularizer himself standing within a clump of what he calls "the giant arum" of Borneo or Sumatra or wherever he is--the leaves of this plant, if memory serves, seem larger than any of the above. I have it on tape and could find the part if anyone is interested; alas, he gives no binomial or even genus name ..... wonder if he's online? Robert Lee Riffle, author of THE TROPICAL LOOK

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