Tacca

These are interesting, evergreen, perennial and herbaceous plants that grow wild in many tropical climates. They can be grown in humid, tropical greenhouses. T. pinnatifida (leontopetaloides) contains a lot of starch in its rhizomes, which, when extracted and prepared for food, is called East Indian Arrowroot or South Sea Arrowroot. The kinds in cultivation have creeping rhizomes or rootstocks and large, oval, crinkly foliage. The purplish-brown flowers are produced in bunches atop long, thick stems, 18 to 24 inches high. Long whiskers are suspended from the lovely flowers.

Pot Cultivation

As soon as new growth begins in the spring, remove the old, loose soil from their roots and then repot in a mixture of peat moss, sand and loam. The pots need good drainage. While they are growing vigorously in the summer an abundance of water is applied, but throughout the winter, less water should be given. Established plants that have filled their pots up with roots will benefit from regular applications of dilute liquid fertilizer. The minimum winter temperature of the greenhouse should be 55 degrees; from spring through fall (the time that they're actively growing), the minimum temperature that should be maintained is 60 to 65 degrees.

Propagation

The rhizomes can be divided at repotting time in the spring.

T. Chantrieri

VARIETIES

• T. Chantrieri (the Devil Flower);
• T. cristata aspera;
• T. pinnatifida leontopetaloides.