Miniature Elephant Ear Surprise
On a recent morning walk to a corner of the orchard I had not visited recently, I nearly stumbled over a small white flower.
The morning sunlight shone through the hood, making a glow like candle-light.
Hoping it might be easy to identify, I ran to my borrowed copy of the Flora of Panama Checklist and Index and looked up Arum – the jack-in-the-pulpit genus – and found four species. It did not take long to discover that this plant was none of the four species listed. So, being impatient and eager to get on with the ID, I turned to friend Carla, who did a little research and then turned to her friend Marianne, and behold we had a name – Xanthosoma mexicanum, previously known as Xanthosoma pilosa.
Sometimes (maybe I should say often) plant identification is just a matter of knowing who to turn to for help!
