Alocasia x novodora (Giant Shield)

The two pictures here are of mature seedling variants of a hybrid between Alocasia odora (female parent) and Alocasia macrorrhizos (male parent). The A. macrorrhizos, when young, had reddish, slightly mottled petioles, and the progeny of the cross came in two "flavors", which we called "Novodora Red" and "Novodora Green". The plants in the pictures are "Novodora Red". The cross was performed in the late 1970s. This cross only took in the one direction, and all progeny appear to be sterile, although extremely vigorous under the proper growing conditions.

While we accomplished the objective of producing a hardier, larger plant similar to A. odora, at this point we are not able to do further work with it until we attempt chromosome doubling in order to obtain viable pollen.

Update!

We have obtained pollen from one of our selections of Alocasia x novodora and, therefore, will be doing further work with this plant in the current season. Results will be published here when available.

© 2005 by Aroidia Research