Hello Everyone,
I just acquired the plant the other day, & found someone with another color variety of it on the same day. I am still trying to acquire a start of that one as well. here are photos. Please help me ID this plant.

Noel Calvert

The leaves are almost a perfect triangle with some ruffling.

Here is a new leaf pushing it's way out.

If needed, I can take further photos showing the underside of the leaf, & the petiole up close.

Noel,
This plant looks to me like a variety of Caladium. By all means, post a pic of the leaf underside and the petiole up close.

LariAnn
Aroidia Research

Thanks again for helping me ID this plant. It indeed looks to be a Thai Hybrid. The others are different variations of Caladium Bi-Color I think. I am going to post all of the varieties I have on the Caladium forum later. I have about 12 different color variations. Is there a caladium specific forum? LariAnn?

No the other color variation has not been acquired yet. It is a variation of the chocolate Thai hybrid I saw on the link you gave me.

From some of the pages I have read about hybridizing these plants, I have an idea of how to do it, but I have some questions.
If you have a plant blooming, perhaps you could make a photo tutorial, LariAnn?
1-I am wondering how long you can save pollen once you collect it from the donor plant?
2-How can you go about collecting the pollen?
3-How do you know when to pollinate the receiving plant?
4-Do Caladiums' Berries have chemicals to prevent germination as well as the other alocasias & colocasias?
Noel

Noel,
I'll provide some quick answers to your questions - I have written more extensively about Caladium hybridization and what I've learned in articles I've posted on DG. Have you seen them?

Caladium pollen may be viable for only a day or two if kept in a small vial and refrigerated. In almost every case, I use fresh pollen. To collect it, you need to check the bloom(s) in the evening of the second day they are open. The pollen will appear on the upper part of the spadix and will look stringy. Using a small vial and an artist's paintbrush, you can collect the pollen off the spadix and place it into the vial.

As for the timing for pollinating the receiving plant, my latest knowledge is that the ideal time is the evening of first opening (the bloom opens first in the evening, not during the day). It is usually around 8 to 9 PM in the summertime. The blooms also have a fragrance at that time. If you wait until daytime, you are too late, but it is possible to have success if you pollinate a day before the bloom actually opens. I know this from experience, and until last summer, that was my standard procedure for pollinating Caladiums.

As for Caladium berries, I remove the tiny seeds from the berries and place them in distilled or RO water overnight before planting, so I don't have any problems with germination inhibitors. I do the same with Alocasia berries.

Hope this helps,
LariAnn

Thanks for the help!

Hello LariAnn,
The pollen is only viable for two days when stored dry & refrigerated? I have read of pollen of other types of plants being viable for millions of years. Umm That makes this a bit more difficult, right? HEHE! I am still going to collect from each of my plants to try to combine color schemes with later blooms. Can only have 2 outcomes(success or failure), so what is there to loose. Thanks for the advice on how to manage this.
Noel

EDIT: In my continued research of this pollination & propagation, I learned that the pollen of caladiums is wet which would explain its short viability time. I also found your name mentioned on the site LariAnn Garner. Is there a possibility of storing the pollen at lower temperatures to guard the viability of the pollen? Also, it is likely I am going to miss my chance to do this in this set of Inflorescence since I have to leave the country for 3 days, & taking my plants with me just is not an option. Gotta love visa requirements.
http://hortsci.ashspublication...

Edit: LariAnn, I thought you might be interested in reading this study done on the pollen of caladiums which honestly simply confirmed your prior statements. The reading is interesting though, & may offer some ideas of how to increase germination of the pollen on application to your plants. I am hoping mine are still blooming when I return next week. I also got the other variation of what I think is a thai hybrid with a strap leaf. Photos to come in the morning when there is light.

Here are the photos of the back of the leaves as well as the emerging Inflorescence. I am satisfied that this is some sort of Thai hybrid, but anyone have an idea which? Closest I have seen was white wonder, but I do not think it is a match...
Noel

I did my best, but webcams do not have an auto-focus option. Hope these help.

Here are pics of the other variety which I now think is another color of the Thai Beauty hybrid.
Also I am including other photos of the original plant which I hope are better images.
As I have encountered before, the lady that had the mother plants to this had no idea what it was. She let me take several plants, so I am pretty sure I will have a stock to start trying to hybridize with in the coming year. Caladiums seem to bloom here around Christmas time (the dry season here).