maidu Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 The one with the girl standing alongside (Franzie from Germany) is colloquially called 'Bai Bon' by Thais, but what is its proper name? I found it in northernmost Thailand, alongside a road to Mae Sai village (not the border town, but rather a small hill tribe village). The plant is near five meters tall, and the leaves are close to 2 meters long and over 1 meter wide. The other sports a 50 cm high X 35 cm wide brown flower which pops out at ground level, and smells like aged meat (to attract beetles and flies). Its seed stalk is up to 2 meters high and 10 cm wide with raisin sized seeds in bright yellow, orange and red colors. The main plant (shown) sprouts out of the ground each spring at a very fast rate of several cm per day. Altogether a fantastic plant, but don't grab its stem, as it's itchy - and it's tuberous root gets to the size of partially flattened basketball and, though fleshy, is not edible. These two plants, plus a bunch of the largest trees in Thailand, are showcased at the web page "Largest Trees and Plants in Thailand" Commentaries welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pschef Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 I know the first one the Thai people make geng bon from the stalks, its quite sharp but nice flavour. I think its a relative of Rhubarb? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tywais Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 I posted a topic showing one we have at our house like the one on the left. It has grown considerably since the below photo was taken and is nearly 2 meters tall. Topic here Colocasia gigantea ‘Thailand Giant Elephant ear’ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mobaan Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 Can I please jump this thread! I posted this question on the Cassava thread , but answer so far . I planted a local cassava variety (in July -when nothing else was available) called " E-daeng noi" (spelling is everyones guess ) . There is no such name in the official list of varieties from the Rayong research station . Has anybody any idea what this might be ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David006 Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 I posted a topic showing one we have at our house like the one on the left. It has grown considerably since the below photo was taken and is nearly 2 meters tall. Topic here Colocasia gigantea ‘Thailand Giant Elephant ear’ oh dear is it gonna get that big...planted one I found in a gully on our farm next to/under house in shade...recon I will have to move it..has already had bunches of red seeds like cranberries as flower??..on stalks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tywais Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 A more recent photo of my 'Giant' showing the tubular stalks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinB Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 Folk I'm not a Thai plant specialist but I did do botany at university I think the thread has two different plants being discussed. Big fan like species (depicted in the first of the thread) normally start with the same basic structure at their earlliest stage of growth. They don't start out bushey and random like a Giant Elepahnt Ear (depited later) then morph into a fan structure. Well not normally. By the way the first plant must be really old to be that big. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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