Amorphophallus paeoniifolius aka Elephant Foot Yam

[miamicuse]

Taking a stroll in a local garden (Flamingo Gardens in Davie, FL) I saw a strange plant under a tree amongst a thick clusters of ginger.

Looks a bit out of place and looks more like a vegetable.  Google Lens told me this is an Elephant Foot Yam.  I doubt this was planted there with intention may be from a bird dropping?

Pretty interesting variegated stems.  Anyone has this in their yard?

[tropicbreeze]

They flower at the start of the season before they put out a leaf. If a leaf comes up first then there won't be flowers. But there's lots of 'pups' so they are often in a clump (of individual plants) and while one might be mature and produce an inflorescence, other plants around it will produce leaves at the same time. The inflorescence is stunning and often mistaken as a flower. As usual with aroids, there are hundreds of tiny male and female flowers on the column surrounded by the spathe.

The inflorescence

Grasshoppers seem to like to eat them making a bit of a mess.

 

[aabell]

Not something a bird would distribute but sometimes you can lose track of the tubers when they are dormant and they get kicked around or moved in dirt to unintended locations. The inflorescences get a lot of attention with this genus but I love the leaves too, very architectural and an unusual addition to the garden. This one (paeoniifolius) in particular is an easy grow in the ground in FL and not too hard to come by, some of the other species can rot or get attacked by nematodes. 

[Barry]

Yes, I bought this at a sale from Fairchild a long time ago. Lost the official name of it, but it has survived multiple moves from east coast to west coast of Florida. Comes back every year, been blooming pretty regular for me. But I bought it for the leave, didn’t even know about the bloom when I bought it, LOL. It has fully opened since these pics were taken.

[greysrigging]

Reasonably common in Darwin gardens.... I have quite a few.... they produce small bulblets on the leaves and are easy to propagate.
In fact can grow from leaf cuttings, using the same technique as used to propagate its giant cousin, the Titan Arum. I tried it out on my paeoniifolius plants with a 90% success rate striking.

[PalmsandLiszt]

4 hours ago, greysrigging said:

In fact can grow from leaf cuttings

How do you do that? I never imagined there were any nodes on the leaves. I'd love to know how this is done.

[tropicbreeze]

11 hours ago, greysrigging said:

Reasonably common in Darwin gardens.... I have quite a few.... they produce small bulblets on the leaves and are easy to propagate.
In fact can grow from leaf cuttings, using the same technique as used to propagate its giant cousin, the Titan Arum. I tried it out on my paeoniifolius plants with a 90% success rate striking.

It's Amorphophallus bulbifera that produces the bulblets on the leaf. That's what makes them very weedy. A. paeoniifolius produces bulblets off the main tuber, so they're all underground and don't spread around. That's what makes them end up as a clump of plants.

Never tried to propagate A. paeoniifolius from leaflet cuttings, they multiply so rapidly there's no need. Others that I've tried it with haven't worked, except A. titanum. Just take the leaflet, dip it in rooting powder and put it in sphagnum. Need to keep it damp but not soggy.

[PalmsandLiszt]

2 hours ago, tropicbreeze said:

Others that I've tried it with haven't worked, except A. titanum. Just take the leaflet, dip it in rooting powder and put it in sphagnum. Need to keep it damp but not soggy.

I'll try this on my titanum once it's finished putting out this year's leaf. When you say leaflet, how much is it necessary to remove? Anything with a decent few inches of rachis/rachilla?

[tropicbreeze]

Dug through my photos, the only one I could find. A small tuber forms on the bottom of the leaflet. The leaflet has to feed the tuber (photosynthesis) so the longer it can go the better the tuber grows. The same should apply for any of the other Amorphophallus that can be propagated this way.

[realarch]

Interesting plant, the tight bunch of leaves exploding from the stem is extraordinary. Thanks for the posts.

Tim

[greysrigging]

On 6/1/2023 at 4:50 PM, PalmsandLiszt said:

How do you do that? I never imagined there were any nodes on the leaves. I'd love to know how this is done.

This is the way I do it ...
https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/how-to/an-unusual-edible/11049492

Edited June 3, 2023 by greysrigging
addition to post.

[PalmsandLiszt]

On 6/2/2023 at 10:18 AM, tropicbreeze said:

Dug through my photos, the only one I could find. A small tuber forms on the bottom of the leaflet. The leaflet has to feed the tuber (photosynthesis) so the longer it can go the better the tuber grows. The same should apply for any of the other Amorphophallus that can be propagated this way.

But a very docent photo, however, thanks. Shall certainly give this a go.