I've found that if you really break it down there more than that...
Some run only in fall, all colocasia I've grown pup and run more in fall.
Coffee cup/ Tea cup is a fall only runner, it clumps and runs, unusual!
Others, like Elena, forms runners just at soil level, they pop out, then up, and then plunge into the soil and make an underground runner, very unusual! Sources state it's an underground runner.
Black beauty does the opposite, sort of, runners emerge a few inches from the plant and then ramble around on top of the soil a while and then if it's not too hard, they go back underground too, most of the time...
A few types form short thumb-like runners underground, that only emerge as a plant some distance from the plant, I only have a couple that do this, the unnamed sport that's in my profile pic is one, xanthosoma pup this way.
A few do the very same, thumb-like short stolons, but they form above ground, jacks giant does this...
Then there's the typical runner, like fontanesii, violet stem, Big Dipper and many others, they just grow that long snake like tentacle that sends out roots every few inches, and forms a large knot at the end that turns into a plant, the roots find their way into the soil and away it goes!
My Thai giant emulates alocasias, forming small bulbils at the end of very thin short stonons, they don't grow until detracted, I have a feeling they might go on and grow if undisturbed and given a long season.
I love runners, I realize in a tropical environment they can be pesky to say the least but asterically, it couldn't get much stranger than big long runner squirting out of a big EE!
