"If you need ears go and borrow them from the elephant."African proverb
That was what my mother commented when she saw the Giant Upright Elephant Ears (Alocasia macrorrhiza) gallantly growing as accent plants in one corner of the Sky Garden (SM Mall - North EDSA) sometime last year. After shopping for some necessities, Mom and Dad visited the open garden just to get some landscaping ideas. Dad said he knows where to get some.
Cool! So that's how this plant got introduced in the garden. There are other clumps of this Giant Upright Elephant Ear somewhere else, which somehow I failed to notice during my last visit despite their evident size. I'll just rely on my mother's assurance that there are indeed others elsewhere.
Although in fact a common plant, it's not a practical choice for those who have gardens that are space constrained. After all it's not called "giant" for no reason.
For size comparison: a Blood Banana on the left and a Giant Upright Elephant Ear on the right.
There are also other plants called "Elephant Ears" in the genera Caladium, Colocasia and Xanthosoma. Along with Alocasia they all belong to the family Araceae. All these other so-called Elephant Ears, whether giant or not, have leaves pointing downward, this one stands out because theirs point up.
Another so-called Elephant Ear, the Giant Taro, locally known as "Biga" ("Bira" in the north), is both an ornamental and an edible plant. But in our corner of the country, i.e. the rural area, it is valued more for its edible parts than for its aesthetic purposes. Maybe that's the reason why although we have plenty of "Biga" which we could incorporate into the garden they were still left out. I have no idea where to classify this Giant Taro though. Is it Colocasia or Xanthosoma?
A giant "Biga" growing somewhere in the currently unused and weedy side of the farm pretty much untended and ignored.
I'm glad that we have the Upright Giant Elephant Ear in the farm/garden. I've been wanting to get one since I first saw it in some garden photos. And I didn't even have to bother my parents to look for it. They too found it interesting after seeing its aesthetic beauty in a tropical garden setting. Best of all we got it for free.
5 comments:
I love these ears and at one point grew many pots of them. Even grew them in the ground in the back yard and front yard. "I was all ears..."
Then it dawned upon me that I don't have an elephant garden. These ears were just too big and had to go. Now I have no ears left unless they rise from the compost again.
What a lovely plant to have in a large garden.
Your farm/garden is really starting to look good. So many new additions. I'm glad that you are recovering well from the destruction the typhoon caused.
In our area we call the upright ears as 'biga' and they really grow to be giants, they look like the photos above. However, those not upright leaves are called 'gabi'. That last photo for us is not biga but 'gabi' most specifically 'gabing san fernando', the one which can be eaten. There are 2 variants of that, the violet and white stalk. They are not as big as biga. Although they are both tubers, biga is very 'makati' and can't be eaten. However, biga is more aesthetic. We also have lots of biga in our area, but they are normally being destroyed, but they will grow again sometime.
Hello One,
I felt a little (just a little) sad that you let go of all your "ears". But I understand your point. They do eat up a lot of space and eventually some must be sacrificed.
----------
Hello Africanaussie,
I guess this is the plant to have if one wants to fill up a lot of empty spaces.
I imagine that someday when these get to be too overpopulated, I might resort to One's solution. Although I don't think I'd put them all in the compost bin :)
----------
Hello Bom,
The only consolation I got from the destruction was that most of the ornamental plants were spared. On the other hand, most of the cash crops were destroyed.
----------
Hello Andrea,
That's true, some places in our country have different names for the same plants which leads to much confusion at times
In the north the bottom picture is "Bira" and grow tall too. And its corm tastes better than the ordinary "Gabi" which would be those small ones.
Post a Comment