Name: Anne Summerville, SC (Zone 8a) Only dead fish go with the flow!
Last I heard it was Alocasia .. some called it Caladium but since it doesn't go dormant for a couple of months it was determined not to be Caladium. Here is a link to the following quote about it:
Apparently, the plant makes a short rhizome somewhat like a caladium, not the upright trunk found on Alocasia macrorrhizos (Elephant Ear) or the large fleshy tuber of Colocasia esculenta (also called Elephant Ear). Hilo Beauty is a hybrid, but no one is sure what species were involved in the cross, since the plant doesn’t flower. To accurately identify the plant to genus, flowers are critical.
So, depending on the point of view of aroid experts, Hilo Beauty has been classified as belonging to one of four separate genera. The commercial propagators who have it in tissue culture and are mass producing it for the retail trade have chosen to call it Alocasia, so Alocasia it becomes.
Unless someone maps the genome, we'll never know.
Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
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