Xanthosoma violaceum [Schott ]

Xanthosoma violaceum

General description:

Plant up to 1.6 m tall. Stems hypogeous in young plants, epigeous and decumbent in old plants, up to 16 cm in diameter, covered by brown fibers from old leaf sheaths, cormels occasional, stolons usually long and abundant. Leaves 4-6 per plant; petioles 80-134 cm long, violet, conspicuously waxy, sheathed up to 1/2 of its length, sheath margins convolute, reddish; leaf blade 69-113 x 45-67 cm, sagittate to subhastate, ovate to triangular in outline in both young and adult plants, usually reflexed, occasionally patent in plant in full sun, semi-matte medium green adaxially, paler matte green abaxially, margins violet, primary lateral veins 7-8 per side, arising at an angle of 70-850, strongly discolorous adaxially, discolorous violet abaxially, apex acuminate; basal ribs denuded for 2-3.0cm, basal lobes acute to cuneate. Inflorescence 1-3 per axil, peduncle 35-50 x 3-4 cm, spathe 39-42 cm long, tube ovoid, 12-14 x 5.5-7 cm, clear green tinged with purple and strongly waxy outside, whitish green inside, lamina 27-28 X 12-14 cm, yellowish green at both surfaces, margins tinged with purplish, spadix 35-39 cm long, fertile male portion 14-16 x 1.5-2 cm, tapering to the apex, sterile male portion 11-13 x 1.8-2.8 cm, white, female portion conoid, 10-12 x 1.8-2 cm, pale yellow.

General Description Reference:

Eduardo G. Goncalves, 2011. The Commonly Cultivated Species of Xanthosoma Schott (Araceae), including Four New Species

Distribution Reference:

Eduardo G. Goncalves, 2011. The Commonly Cultivated Species of Xanthosoma Schott (Araceae), including Four New Species

Distribution:

This species has been considered from an unknown origin until a recent collection in the wild by me in Costa Rica.

Taxonomy

Taxonomic Notes:

This species is one of the easiest to identify. It is the only broadly cultivated species that has pure violet parts (petioles, major nerves, peduncles, etc) that stay violet even after the wax is scratched from its surface. Schott (1853) already noted this aspect in his original description. It is also one of the four cultivated species with pink staminodes (together with X. blandum, X. taioba and the forms of X. mafaffa). Wild material from the plant recollected recently in Costa Rica is more variable in color distribution and saturation, but it is also always violet.
It is known in Brazil as 'taioba roxa' and it is widely used, mainly as an ornamental plant. It is also common in European conservatiores, probably all from the original introduction. In USA it seems to be much rarer and most material I have seen identified as X. violaceum is, in fact, Xanthosoma mafaffa or Xanthosoma atrovirens. It has been broadly cited that X. nigrum (Veil.) Steuf. belongs here as a synonym (e.g. Croat & Mount, 1988), but in its original description (see Vellozo, 1829)' X. nigrum is cited it as a wild species occurring around Rio de Janeiro. In this context, probably X. nigrum is a synonym of X. maximilianii that is native in eastern Brazil and has nothing to do with X. violaceum.

Vernacular names: inhame roxo, taioba roxa (Brazil); malanga lila (West Indies).

Taxonomic Notes Reference:

Eduardo G. Goncalves, 2011. The Commonly Cultivated Species of Xanthosoma Schott (Araceae), including Four New Species

CATE Araceae

Araceae

Xanthosoma violaceum Schott

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