A lot of people are more familiar with the fact that elephant ear is a foliage plant (meaning that it is leafy type of plant), so not many of them know about the elephant ear plant flower. When their elephant ear plant not flowering, they aren’t really concerned or worried because they aren’t expecting one, anyway. They are more focused on the leaves; making sure that they go big and wide as expected. So, what should you know about the flower in general?
About the Flower and the Bloom
As it was mentioned before, a lot of people know more about elephant ears producing leaves; not flowers. So, it’s quite understandable if they are confused when they found out about their elephant ear plant flower and blooms.
You see, elephant ears are grown for their attractive and unique flowers. However, you should also know that these tropical beauties would bloom when they are mature enough – plus, if they get the ideal growing conditions. Just like other varieties and plants, these kinds of plants would bloom. However, most gardeners would remove the flowers, so the energy and nutrients the plant gets can focus more on producing more (attractive) leaves. If you leave the flowers stay, they will grow to orange or red berries clusters. It depends on your personal preference, really. You can remove the flowers or keep them stay so you can have a combination of unique flowers and leaves.
Botanical Term for the Flower
Although it’s possible to grow the plant from elephant ear plant flower seed, the plant is commonly grown from the tubers or the corms. If you browse around the net, you will see that the elephant ear plant flower of Alocasia Macrorrhizos and Colocasia Esculenta are almost similar. Elephant ear is basically included in the flowering plants species producing aroid-type flower. Aroid refers to the name of Araceae family member; typically known as Arum or Philodendron family. The flower generally has green (or white) spadix surrounded by the spathe leaf. Spadix is a botanical term referring to inflorescence type with small flowers on the fleshy stem. Spadices themselves are the typical term of Araceae family, the aroids or the arums.
Elephant ears don’t really bloom indoors; in fact, it’s quite rare. And it’s also uncommon for the plant to flower when growing outdoors. Because the flowers are relatively small, they are typically not noticeable and can be pretty hidden under all of those vast and huge leaves.
