A. brancifolia on May 1, 2009 shortly after I planted them in the ground in the back yard.
FAMILY: Araceae
GENUS: Alocasia
SPECIES: brancifolia
Alocasia brancifolia has deeply lobed leaves that get more pronounced with age. It also has stripes that run up and down the stems. This one only grows 2-3 ½ feet tall. It prefers to grow in part to full shade. It needs the soil kept evenly moist and prefers you don’t let it dry out between watering. Some information says this Alocasia is cold hardy in zone 9 and other information says 10a-11! No matter, in this zone, they are still not winter hardy.
They are supposed to produce blooms… But, your guess is as good as mine as to what color! I get different colors on different sites… Even Dave’s Garden says pale green, pale tan, or none!
I planted the Alocasias and Colocasias in the backyard under the Crape Myrtle. After the trees fully leafed out, there seemed to be to much shade and they just weren’t growing that well. So, I moved them to the front yard on the west side along the sun room. A. brancifolia didn’t seem to
A. brancifolia on 9-22-09.
appreciate that either. You can see from the pictures that from May till September it didn’t grow much at all!
I transplanted it to a pot for the winter, as with all the Alocasias, and it REALLY took a nose dive! I think it is officially dead! But, I am not sure since they can go dormant at 45 degrees. We shall see!
BUT, I will not give up. I plan on buying more and continue working on Alocasias until I figure out how to grow them!
