PlantFiles: Alocasia
Alocasia robusta

For whoever wishes to have a good chance of success with this plant, please consider planting a Nephrolepis fern (fishtail fern, sword fern, boston fern) in with it. I have been trialing this at Aroidia Research and have, so far, had significant success not only in growing larger healthier specimens, but in bringing nearly dead specimens back from the brink. If you try this, we'd all love to know how it works out!

LariAnn Garner
Aroidia Research

ok, I have read how HARD maintaining and keeping alive this type was and started panicking.....(I had already planted my baby plant a day or so beforehand).....that was a month ago. And it is doing well right now (a month later)...meaning it looks the same.....great tugor pressure.....great color (no brown or discoloration of an kind)....but no new growth.....yet....(trying to stay positive) :0) I think I got lucky on my backyard, where this plant is planted. I have a centuries old Willow oak tree canopying the back yard almost 70%. HUGE!!! Which means lots of open areas under the canopy, for obvious reasons. PLUS, since my entire yard is divided up into 2 civil war battle tour stops, there is alot of sand mixed in large sections of the ground (for the underlayment of the numerous old brick walkways I keep finding throughout my yard), along with millions, it seems, of small broken bricks dispersed throughout the yard. This must help the drainage of the soil. Now, being in West Tennessee....well....anyone who has been here knows how infamous the humidity and heat is. All of these factors seem to match (at least to a certain extent) the ones the plants have in the wild in the tropical areas they come from (except the sloping surface, which will be taken care of later today).
Im keeping my fingers crossed and will keep you updated as things progress with my robusta!! :0)

Underside of the leaf has powdery residue and exposed vegatation will appear to "bleed orange" when cut with a knife. Macchorhiza is commonly sold as "Borneo Giant". There has been much confusion about this. Mainly created by people selling Common Macchorhiza under the name "Borneo Giant". - Really a great plant,but is more finicky than the macrorrhiza strains and not reccommended for the novice collector.