|
Description
Flowering Season: Late Spring - Summer
Height: 1.5m - 3.3m
Native to Southeast Asia, northern Australia and islands of
the Pacific.
Thought to have originated somewhere in the vicinity of New
Guinea and spread through the Pacific by Melanesians and Polynesians,
who valued its starchy rhizomes as food. It grows to about 3m
(10 ft) in its natural habitat, forming quite a strong, branched
trunk, but is more often seen as a 1–1.8 m (3–6 ft)
shrub in gardens or as a house plant.
The thin, lance-shaped leaves are up to 75 cm (30 in) long
and 15 cm (6 in) wide, clustered at the top of the stem. The
30 cm (12 in) panicles of small, scented, white to dull mauve
flowers are borne in summer and followed by red berries.
The many colored and variegated foliage forms are favorite
landscaping plants in the tropics; they vary also in leaf size
and shape:
‘Imperialis’ has dark green leaves streaked
with pink and crimson.
‘Kiwi’ is somewhat smaller (1.2m), has short
erect leaves with close stripes that vary from yellow red and
pink.
‘Rubra’ are several medium sized forms with
dark red foliage.
|
Full sun 
Half sun 
Semi-shade
Shade
