Monterey Bay Nursery plants

robustum (not currently in production) dark foliage young clump an evergreen (frost free!) to deciduous tuberous plant, with very dark blue green, arrow-shaped leaves reaching about 24-30" tall. Use it for a tropical-foliage effect on a modest-sized plant. Best in containers, with at least half a day of sun. USDA zone 9 (zone 8?)/Sunset 8-9, 14-24. Mexico. rev 9/2016

sagittifolium 'University of Massachusetts' TAIOBA, TANNIA, MAFAFA, MALANGA arrowhead leaves mature Huntington specimen flower cluster another Huntington plant, growing partially in water my own small, trial crop - usually all dried out yet still nicely productive! a large, attractive, perennial, tropical foliage shade/part shade plant or full sun row-crop vegetable. In full to half shade leaves can reach 30" long and plants get 3' tall by 4' wide, producing pups from the base to form larger colonies. Much smaller if grown in sun as a row crop. Needs regular watering for best appearance but is surprisingly easy as a container plant, even with full-sized foliage. We first tried this just because we saw it on a TC plug list. The grower knew nothing about it, which is not unusual. Then after more than a decade I stumbled upon a U Mass publication on their Ethnic Crops Program (and here's another article) )which discussed this South American relative of taro (Colocasia esculenta) and has instructions for growing, harvest and post-harvest handling. Here's their video on how to prepare it, and here's their PDF. The root is a popular vegetable as well, it just needs to be cooked in some way first. Why this plant's as useful as the buffalo! It's known as walusa (Bolivia), bore (Colombia), otoe (Panama), yautia (Puerto Rico), tiquizque or macal (Costa Rica), malanga (Cuba), quequisque (Nicaragua) and mafafa (Mexico). If you've eaten the dishes mondongo, alcapurrias, guanime. pom or sancocho you've eaten X. sagittifolium! I'm trying this myself as a crop at home this year, planted in October (2017). I'll be overwintering it exposed and unprotected in a former row-crop field. Central and South America. USDA zone 9/Sunset 8-9, 14-24.rev 11/2017