Re: Colocasia

From: "D.J. Leedy" djleedy at netex.quik.com> on 2001.02.13 at 00:50:05(5936) The following is on page 18 of the book TARO - A Review of Colocasia Esculenta and Its Potentials, Edited by Jaw-Kai Wang and published by the University of Hawaii Press, copyright 1983. "There are probably thousands of cultivars of Colocasia in the world. More than three hundred named varieties have been listed in Hawaii; some of these are undoubtedly synonyms, but there can be little doubt that perhaps a hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty cultivars were known in prehistoric days. Colocasia cultivars are differentiated on the basis of siz; leaf shape and size; color of petiole, leaf and corm flesh; flower shape and size; and their various uses. The most comprehensive attempt to clasify and describe Colocasia cultivars was carried out by Whitney, Bowers, and Takahashi (1939) in Hawaii........" +More ----- Original Message ----- To: Multiple recipients of list AROID-L Sent: Monday, February 12, 2001 1:30 PM Subject: Colocasia > Dear Aroiders, > > Anybody out there has some kind of solid knowledge with Colocasia > esculenta varieties, cultivars, etc? Sometime ago Peter told us that there > was three varieties: C. esculenta var. esculenta (small, slustering tubers), > C. esculenta var. antiquorum (large, solitary tuber) and C. esculenta var. > aquatilis (long stolons). Are those varieties published anywhere? (i.e. with > authors, etc) What happened with variety illustris? What about that form > with an yellow blot in the middle of the leaves? The only complete treatment > I have (my Precambrian 'Das Pflanzenreich') cites lots of varieties and I > wonder most of them became synonims. Other interesting thing is that Engler > never use tuber characters (except for the description of the variety > aquatilis) so this is a new approach. Who did start to use tuber information > on the classification? Engler's classification uses the proportional lenght > of the sterile appendix. Is this still important or was it proven to be > highly variable (like almost anything in aroids)? I am sorry if these > questions were already answered before, but I couldn't find any satisfatory > answer in the aroid-l archives. > > Very best wishes, > > Eduardo. > > > _________________________________________________________________________ > Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. > >

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