- Family:
- Araceae Juss.
- Genus:
- Leucocasia Schott
Leucocasia gigantea (Blume) Schott

[CATE]
CATE Araceae, 17 Dec 2011. araceae.e-monocot.org
- Distribution
- Native from southern China and Indochina to West Malesia. In Malesia: Malay Peninsula, Sumatera and Java; absent from Borneo. Sastrapradja & Hambali (1979) note the occurrence of this species in Kalimantan, but we have not seen any material from Borneo, where Alocasia robusta may be confused with it.
- General Description
-
Very robust herb, c. 150–250 cm tall, solitary to clump-forming;
Stem condensed, creeping, c. 10 cm diam., lacking stolons.
LEAVES several together; petiole to 150 cm long, light green with conspicuous to somewhat obscure waxy-white-glaucous coating, sheathing in the lower c. 1/3–1/2; wing of sheath c. 1 cm wide, inrolled
; blade very broadly cordate-sagittate, peltate, green, membranous, margin slightly undulate, almost erect, to 150 cm long, to 110 cm wide; anterior lobe c. 2/3 the length of the blade, the tip bluntly acute minutely apiculate; midrib with up to 6 primary veins diverging at an angle of 40°–70°, prominent abaxially and adaxially; sub marginal vein c. 0.5 cm from the margin; secondary veins flush with the lamina; interprimary collective veins inconspicuous; posterior lobes somewhat overlapping, to 56 cm long, peltate for 1/3 of their length; posterior costae diverging at c. 30°–50°.
INFLORESCENCES several together; peduncle c. 55 cm long, greenish, elongated during fruit stage.
Spathe c. 17 cm long, constricted at level of sterile zone of spadix; lower spathe 3–6 cm long, narrowly ovoid, green; limb erect, narrowly ovate, to 11 cm long, white, deciduous.
Spadix almost the same length with the spathe; female zone c. 3.5 cm, with c. 150 pistils; interpistillar staminodes absent; ovary subglobose, greenish, c. 0.25 cm long, 0.2 cm in diam., with many ovules; stigma on very short style, almost sessile, cream, 4–6 lobed, rounded; sterile zone c. 3 cm long, white, attenuate, with c. 5 whorls elongated synandrodia; male zone white, c. 8 cm long, c. 2 cm wide; synandria irregularly rhombo-hexagonal, sometimes somewhat rhomboid, 1mm in diam.; thecae over-topped by synconnective, opening through lateral pores; appendix vestigial, constricted at base, c. 1 cm long, narrowly conical.
Fruit a berry, oblong, c. 5 cm long, c. 3.5 cm wide; seed ovoid-cylindrical, numbering hundreds per infructescence, strongly ridged longitudinally, c. 0.1 cm long.
Herbs, large to gigantic, evergreen, with massive, stout epigeal stem. Leaves very large; petiole pale green, strikingly pruinose, to 2.5m, proximal half sheathing; leaf blade white pruinose abaxially, especially when immature, green or pale green adaxially, ovate-cordate, 25–250 × 17–150cm, membranous, base cordate, peltate, margin undulate, apex shortly acuminate. Inflorescences 5–13 arising from leaf axil (actually terminal on shoot and displaced by new shoot); peduncle pruinose, cylindric, 30–80 × 1–2cm, each with a membranous cataphyll nearly equaling length of peduncle. Spathe 12–24cm; tube green, ellipsoid, 3–6 × 1.5–2cm; limb erect, white, oblong-boat-shaped, distinctly constricted, 8–19 × 2–3cm. Spadix 9–20cm; female zone white or cream-colored, conic; sterile zone 3–4.5cm, slender; male zone 5–14cm; appendix very short, 1–5mm, apex acute. Berry oblong, ca. 5 mm. Seeds many, fusiform, with many distinct longitudinal striations. 2n = 28.
- Habitat
-
In the Malay Peninsula mainly, but not exclusively, on limestone; lithophytic to terrestrial, sometimes a pioneer after fire. In Java and Sumatera it is a common weed in disturbed places. Backer & Bakhuizen (1968:121) note its occurrence in mixed and teak forests, swamps,
Imperata fields and in cultivation.
Valley forests, limestone-associated, usually on moist but well drained sites, also cultivated.
- Phenology
-
Fl. Apr–Jun, fr. Sep.
- Vernacular
-
da ye yu
[CATE]
- Use
- In Thailand and Indochina and, less frequently in Malaysia, the sliced petioles are added to soups or served curried.
Native to:
Bangladesh, Borneo, Cambodia, China South-Central, China Southeast, Jawa, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Myanmar, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam
Introduced into:
Maluku, Taiwan
Leucocasia gigantea (Blume) Schott appears in other Kew resources:
Date | Reference | Identified As | Barcode | Type Status | Has image? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jul 1, 2010 | Kerr, A.F.G. [11576], Thailand | Colocasia gigantea | K000524410 | Yes | |
Jul 1, 2010 | Garrett, H.B.G. [1229], Thailand | Colocasia gigantea | K000524412 | Yes | |
Jul 1, 2010 | Rabil [202], Thailand | Colocasia gigantea | K000524413 | Yes | |
Jul 1, 2010 | Kerr, A.F.G. [11576], Thailand | Colocasia gigantea | K000524411 | Yes | |
Jun 1, 2000 | Zollinger, H. [1857/6] | Colocasia gigantea | K000524417 | Yes | |
Jun 1, 2000 | Zollinger, H. [1857/6] | Colocasia gigantea | K000524416 | Yes | |
Jul 1, 1970 | Lau, S.K. [490], China | Colocasia gigantea | K000524404 | Yes | |
Jun 26, 1962 | McClure, F.A. [20587], China | Colocasia gigantea | K000524403 | Yes | |
Bogner, J. [427], Thailand | Colocasia gigantea | 34491.000 | No | ||
Colocasia gigantea | 46113.000 | No | |||
Bogner [427] | Colocasia gigantea | 57567.000 | No | ||
Bogner [427], Thailand | Colocasia gigantea | 58103.000 | No | ||
Bogner [427], Thailand | Colocasia gigantea | 58126.000 | No | ||
Scortechini, Revd. [s.n.], Peninsular Malaysia | Colocasia gigantea | K000524405 | Yes | ||
Scortechini, Revd. [s.n.], Peninsular Malaysia | Colocasia gigantea | K000524406 | Yes | ||
Nguyen, V.D. et al. [HNK-1751], Vietnam | Colocasia gigantea | K000524414 | Yes | ||
Bogner [427], Thailand | Colocasia gigantea | K000524409 | Yes | ||
Nguyen, V.D. et al. [HNK-1751], Vietnam | Colocasia gigantea | K000524415 | Yes | ||
Nur [11916], Peninsular Malaysia | Colocasia gigantea | K000524407 | Yes | ||
Ridley, H. [8156], Peninsular Malaysia | Colocasia gigantea | K000524408 | Yes |
First published in Oesterr. Bot. Wochenbl. 7: 34 (1857)
Not accepted by
- Govaerts, R. & Frodin, D.G. (2002). World Checklist and Bibliography of Araceae (and Acoraceae): 1-560. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. [Cited as Colocasia gigantea.]
Literature
Kew Backbone Distributions
- Ara, H. & Hassan, M.A. (2006). Three new records of Aroids (Araceae) from Bangladesh Bangladesh Journal of Plant Taxonomy 13: 83-91.
- Boyce, P.C., Sookchaloem, D., Hetterscheid, W.L.A., Gusman, G., Jacobsen, N., Idei, T. & Nguyen, V.D. (2012). Flora of Thailand 11(2): 101-325. The Forest Herbarium, National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department, Bangkok.
- Wu, Z. & Raven, P.H. (eds.) (2010). Flora of China 23: 1-515. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis.
-
Art and Illustrations in Digifolia
Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew
-
CATE Araceae
Haigh, A., Clark, B., Reynolds, L., Mayo, S.J., Croat, T.B., Lay, L., Boyce, P.C., Mora, M., Bogner, J., Sellaro, M., Wong, S.Y., Kostelac, C., Grayum, M.H., Keating, R.C., Ruckert, G., Naylor, M.F. and Hay, A., CATE Araceae, 17 Dec 2011.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
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Herbarium Catalogue Specimens
Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
-
Kew Backbone Distributions
The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2022. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
© Copyright 2017 World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
-
Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone
The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2022. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
© Copyright 2017 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
-
Kew Science Photographs
Copyright applied to individual images