Alocasia macrorrhizos

Wong, Sin Yeng & Joling, Jyloerica, 2021, Checklist of aroids (Alismatales, Araceae) from Sabah (Malaysian Borneo), Check List 17 (3), pp. 931-974 : 939

Alocasia macrorrhizos (L.) G.Don

Material examined. MALAYSIA – Pedalaman • Tenom, Sungai Rayoh Forest Reserve , 5°11′40″N, 115°52′50″E; 53 m elev.; 8 March 2018; Alviana et al. SAN 158800 ( SAN) – Sandakan • Sandakan, Kg. Pukat, Leila Road ; [05°49′52″N, 118°05′10″E]; 6 January 1950; Kadir Abdul A 2698 ( SAN) .

Identification. Alocasia macrorrhizos is a cultigen ( Hay 1998) and is not known from wild. It has evidently been distributed widely in tropical Asia in prehistoric times as a subsistence crop and is now pantropical by introduction as an ornamental ( Hay 1998). The species is a massive pachycaul with the stem is either decumbent or erect. The leaf blades are ovato-sagittate, bluntly triangular in general outline, held more or less erect with the posterior lobes ca. ⅓–½ the length of the anterior lobe. Inflorescences are paired among the leaf bases.

Distribution and ecology. Widespread in Sabah. Roadsides, waste places, gardens, mostly in wet sites at low to medium elevation. It is highly doubtfully native except perhaps in the far east of Sabah, elsewhere it is certainly a long-established ruderal escape.