Species
+

Alocasia macrorrhizos (L.) G.Don

'ape, Giant taro, ape, ape

Climate known 42 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Alocasia macrorrhizos is a species of flowering plant in the arum family (Araceae) that is native to rainforests of Maritime Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and the Murray Islands group in the Torres Strait of Australia. It has long been cultivated in South Asia, the Philippines, many Pacific islands, and elsewhere in the tropics, in the order of tens of thousands of years. Common names include giant taro, giant alocasia, ʻape, biga, and pia. In Australia it is known as the cunjevoi.

Text from Wikipedia, “Alocasia macrorrhizos”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Alocasia

Alocasia is a genus of rhizomatous or tuberous, broad-leaved, perennial, flowering plants from the family Araceae. There are about 90 accepted species native to tropical and subtropical Asia and eastern Australia. Around the world, many growers widely cultivate a range of hybrids and cultivars as ornamentals.

Text from Wikipedia, “Alocasia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Araceae
Described by
(L.) G.Don
Native to
Borneo, Maluku, Philippines +5
Wild records
208 in range· 69 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Apr, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2424mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 257 mm (CHELSA)
Light
30–37DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Alocasia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 2424 mm a year, wettest October at 257 mm, driest April at 151 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 23.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Alocasia cordifolia (Bory) Cordem.; Alocasia gigas Chantrier; Alocasia gigas Chantrier ex André; Alocasia grandis N.E.Br.; Alocasia harrisii-pulchrum Pynaert and 36 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Alocasia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December at the habitat (not shifted)).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1762 mm of 2424 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 1.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2424 mm a year, wettest October at 257 mm, driest April at 151 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2424 mm a year at the habitat, 1762 mm of it May to December. Wettest month October at 257 mm, driest April at 151 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1537 mm to 3679 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 37 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 23.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 23.0 °C, the absolute minimum 21.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 23.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells 19.3 °C to 25.0 °C), warmest day 28.7 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 23.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 65 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 28 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Apr; mean night from 23 °C in Jan to 25 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2424 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 158 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 21.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°31.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)21.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 30–37RH 65–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 158 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 25–2928 / 25–2928 / 25–3029 / 24–3129 / 22–3129 / 19–3028 / 19–3028 / 20–3028 / 23–3028 / 25–3028 / 25–3028 / 25–29
Night °C23 / 19–2523 / 19–2524 / 19–2524 / 17–2625 / 15–2625 / 12–2624 / 11–2624 / 12–2624 / 14–2624 / 16–2624 / 17–2624 / 19–25
Rain mm187 / 40–426170 / 26–417154 / 40–369151 / 59–297202 / 103–308229 / 74–335223 / 48–402205 / 49–413236 / 46–381257 / 80–370214 / 106–390196 / 99–455
DLI31 / 27–4034 / 30–3736 / 32–3937 / 27–4135 / 22–3832 / 20–3632 / 22–3634 / 27–3735 / 30–3833 / 29–4031 / 27–4030 / 25–41
RH %67 / 61–7267 / 62–7166 / 61–7165 / 61–7166 / 61–7166 / 61–7166 / 58–7166 / 56–7166 / 58–7066 / 60–7066 / 62–7167 / 61–71

Each figure is the median across the 158 grid cells holding the 202 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1933:6713 (-6.675, 155.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 21.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 23.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 158 distinct grid cells holding the 202 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1933:6713 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -6.50_155.625, lapse-corrected +7 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 158 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBorneo, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Queensland· introduced: Portugal, Guinea, Gulf of Guinea Is., Sudan, St.Helena, Chagos Archipelago, Comoros, Seychelles, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Tibet, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Sumatera, Fiji, Gilbert Is., Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tokelau-Manihiki, Tonga, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Hawaii, Arkansas, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Venezuela, Galápagos, Brazil Northeast, Paraguay
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker7.444, 124.949 · in the densest population, 114 records (55% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 208 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 69 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4886 km away. 1356 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 6 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 208 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Alocasia macrorrhizosAlocasia macrorrhizosAlocasia macrorrhizosAlocasia macrorrhizosAlocasia macrorrhizosAlocasia macrorrhizosAlocasia macrorrhizosAlocasia macrorrhizos

Photographs: (c) Steven Bodzin, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Thor-Rune Hansen, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Lisa Bennett, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Jakob Horz, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Leonel Roget, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Marco Mussita, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Cricket Raspet, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Alocasia macrorrhizos, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

A survey of medicinal plants used by kavirajes of chalna area, Khulna district, Bangladesh
Mohammed Rahmatullah, Dilara Ferdausi, AH Mollik, Rownak Jahan (2010) · African Journal of Traditional Complementary and Alternative Medicines
A Comparative Analysis of Medicinal Plants Used by Folk Medicinal Healers in Three Districts of Bangladesh and Inquiry as to Mode of Selection of Medicinal Plants
Mohammed Ariful Haque Mollik, Md Shahadat Hossan, Alok Kumar Paul, M. Taufiq-ur-Rahman (2010) · Ethnobotany Research and Applications
Traditional use and management of NTFPs in Kangchenjunga Landscape: implications for conservation and livelihoods
Yadav Uprety, Ram Chandra Poudel, Janita Gurung, Nakul Chettri (2016) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
The domestication syndrome in vegetatively propagated field crops
Tim Denham, Huw Barton, Cristina Castillo, Alison Crowther (2020) · Annals of Botany
Giant taro and its relatives: A phylogeny of the large genus Alocasia (Araceae) sheds light on Miocene floristic exchange in the Malesian region
Lars Nauheimer, Peter C. Boyce, Susanne S. Renner (2011) · Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants used by the indigenous community of the western region of Mizoram, India
Laldinfeli Ralte, Hmingremhlua Sailo, Y. Tunginba Singh (2024) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Fermented fish products in South and Southeast Asian cuisine: indigenous technology processes, nutrient composition, and cultural significance
Yutika Narzary, Sandeep Das, Arvind Kumar Goyal, Su Shiung Lam (2021) · Journal of Ethnic Foods
Implementing ecological intensification in fish farming: definition and principles from contrasting experiences
Joël Aubin, Myriam D. Callier, Hélène Rey‐Valette, Syndhia Mathé (2017) · Reviews in Aquaculture
Anti- and Pro-Lipase Activity of Selected Medicinal, Herbal and Aquatic Plants, and Structure Elucidation of an Anti-Lipase Compound
Muhammad Abubakar Ado, Faridah Abas, Abdulkarim Sabo Mohammed, Hasanah Mohd Ghazali (2013) · Molecules

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Alocasia 5 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 121 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.