ABSTRACT
Leaves are produced in a whorl with long petioles and broad sagittated lamina. It is commonly confused with another aroid, Colocasia sp., which also produces edible corms and cormels, but instead of sagittated leaves has peltated leaves. All species have mucilaginous and acrid sap [3]. Flowers are unisexual and protogynous, the stigma is receptive before the the pollen is shed, thus severely restricting seed set. Flowers are spicate on a spike (spadix) and enclosed in a large bract (spathe). The staminate flowers are at the top of the spadix, the pistillate flowers are at the base, and abortive and sterile flowers are between them. The spike in X. violaceum is pink or purple in the section of the sterile flowers, while in X. sagittifolium it is white [4]. The opening of the spathe is considered anthesis. Maturity of the pistillate portion on the spadix is indicated by it being sticky, and once the stickiness becomes slimy the female flowers are considered not receptive [5].
