ELEGANT LEAF: CHARACTERISTICS, HABITAT, CARE, RISKS - BIOLOGY - 2025

The elegant leaf (Xanthosoma robustum) is a plant in the Araceae family. It is a native species of Mexico and is also known as green elegant leaf, barbarón, capote, white capote, mafafa, malanga, mountain taro, lu, pig quelite, aramicua, malango sweet potato, serra leaf, lampaz, capote de monte, colomo or malvarón, among others.

This plant is often used as an ornamental species, and it is a species that stands out for its use in tropical climates as a non-wood forest product. It is not considered at risk or vulnerability of extinction.

Xanthosoma roseum. Tarunpant

characteristics

Plant

The elegant leaf (Xanthosoma robustum) is a perennial and evergreen herbaceous species. It measures between 1.5 and 2 m in height. Its stem is very short, about 40 cm long, and it has small internodes that are approximately 6 to 20 cm wide.

It has large cataphiles, about 44 to 50 cm long. Its petioles are grayish-green, matte in color, and are between 60 and 106 cm long. Petioles are convex or sulcate on the adaxial side at the top of the sheath, and show a rib that is seen near the apex.

The ribs surround the sheath at its base for approximately 20 to 50% of its length, and between 1 and 2 cm wide in its middle part and 4 to 10 mm wide at the apex. The pod has a decurrent apex, with erect and curved margins towards the inside.

Leaf

The blade has a triangular-sagittal shape, and is large: it measures 33 to 110 cm long, and 22 to 110 cm wide at the base. The blade is up to 2.4 times longer than it is wide. The anterior lobe is about 15 to 65 cm long and 9 to 30 cm wide, and opens at an angle of 60 to 90 degrees.

The posterior ribs are more or less straight between the distance to the apex. The sinus of the leaf is approximately 9 cm deep, and narrowly rounded at the apex. Its sides are almost straight, with a matte appearance and more or less velvety, and its color is dark green on the upper side, and of a paler and matte tone on the underside.

Sometimes the leaf is whitish or bluish-green, slightly thin. When the leaf dries, it is dark yellow or brown on the upper surface, and a little pale and greyish-yellow on the underside.

The main and lateral ribs are concave and pale on the upper surface, rounded and raised broadly, and with striations and a paler tone on the underside. The lateral ribs are 4 to 9 per side, and are formed from an angle of 45 to 55 °.

Xanthosoma roseum. Source: wikipedia commons

Inflorescence

The elegant leaf has erect inflorescences, up to 6 per axilla, with bracts with two ribs that are well defined, with a whitish appearance. The inflorescences show a long peduncle of about 22 to 60 cm with three obtuse sides, whitish and flattened in appearance.

The inflorescence spathe is 20 to 37 cm long during anthesis, and 37 to 47 cm in fruit. For its part, the spathe tube is green and whitish, matte on the outside, and paler and greener that can be semi-glossy or matte on the inside. The tube can be 4.5 to 8.5 cm long by 2.5 to 3.5 wide.

The blade of the spathe has a cream color that may tend to white or yellow. It is 21 to 30 cm long and 7.5 cm wide, and flattens distally to about 13 cm wide.

The spadix is ​​23 to 30 cm long, with a greenish staminate portion, and is 20 to 21.5 cm long by 2 cm wide. The part with pistils is 3.5 to 4 cm long in the front part, and 3.3 cm long in the back part. Its diameter at the base can be 2 cm, and 1.5 cm at the apex.

flowers

The flowers are pistillate with an oblong-elliptical ovary, with sunken stigmas in the central part 0.8 to 1 mm wide, and with a sterile staminate part 3.5 to 5.5 cm long. This sterile portion is wider than the end of the pistillate portion.

It also has sterile staminate flowers that can be pink or yellow-brown in color, and are 4 to 5 mm long, and 1 to 2 mm wide.

Fruitlessness

The infrutescence is 5 to 8 cm long by 4.5 to 5 cm wide, and its color is dark brown.

The infrutescences are berry-like, light brown or yellowish, and measure between 4 and 6 mm in diameter.

Seeds

The seeds are ovoid, marked with thick striations throughout, and 1.2 to 1.4 mm long and 0.5 to 0.6 mm in diameter.

Taxonomy

Xanthosoma robustum is a species that was first described by Heinrich Wilhelm Schott in 1853.

The Elegant Blade is classified as follows:

- Kingdom: Plantae.

- Phylum: Tracheophyta.

- Class: Equisetopsida.

- Order: Alismatales.

- Family: Araceae.

- Genus: Xanthosoma.

- Species: Xanthosoma robustum.

Its synonym is Xanthosoma roseum.

Habitat and distribution

Xanthosoma robustum is a species that grows throughout all of Mexico, and in studies it has been reported that it sprouts spontaneously in the surroundings of Tanchanaquito in Querétaro. There, this species thrives on the banks of streams, submerged in the tropical sub-deciduous and deciduous forest.

The height at which it grows there is between 250 and 300 meters above sea level. Flowering occurs between August and April. This species has been observed to be propagated as an ornamental, and is not common in the wild. Due to its frequent cultivation, it is not a plant susceptible to extinction.

In Mexico, the country where it is mostly distributed, its presence has been reported in Tamaulipas, Tabasco, Sinaloa, San Luis de Potosí, Veracruz de Ignacio de La Llave, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro de Arteaga, Morelos, Michoacán de Ocampo, Jalisco, Mexico, Nayarit, Aguas Calientes, Campeche, Colima, Chiapas, Federal District, Durango and Guerrero.

It is also found in other Central American countries, such as in Belize, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama. It has also been seen in Hawaii.

Care

The elegant leaf belongs to a genus of plants that need a lot of moisture and a lot of clarity. However, they should not be exposed to the sun directly and they have to remain at temperatures no higher than 20 ° C.

They can be sown in a mixture of peat, mulch, and garden litter. It must be transplanted in spring.

The irrigation applied must be abundant, and it is necessary to apply compost every 15 days with a mineral fertilizer during the spring.

Risks and toxicity

The elegant leaf belongs to a group of plants that can cause damage if ingested. This plant has an active ingredient known as calcium oxalate. Children are the most frequently poisoned by accidental consumption.

The manifestations of toxicity that this plant can produce are similar to those of Dieffenbachia sequine, and are irritation of the tongue, lips, pharynx and mucous membranes. It can also cause kidney and lung damage.

References

1. Encyclopedic. CONABIO. Xanthosoma robustum. Taken from: enciclovida.mx
2. Catalog of Life. 2014. Xanthosoma robustum Schott. Taken from: catalogueoflife.org
3. Tropics. 2019. Xanthosoma robustum Schott. Taken from: tropicos.org
4. Zamora, M., Torres, JM 2001. Analysis of the information on non-wood forest products in Mexico. Taken from: fao.org
5. Croat, T., Carlsen, M. 2003. Flora of the Bajío and adjacent regions. Fascicle 114. Taken from: biodiversitylibrary.org
6. Check plants. 2001. Xanthosoma, Xantosoma or Yautia, Care. Taken from consultaplantas.com
7. Vázquez Bautista, P. Poisonous plants. Taken from: reeme.arizona.edu