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Alocasia reginula; photograph Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BYForest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Alocasia reginula A.Hay

Black Velvet Alocasia

Araceae · Borneo · listed by its genus as a tropical foliage plant

No habitat climate
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Alocasia reginula, photograph Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsAlocasia reginula, photograph Forest and Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0 us, via Wikimedia CommonsAlocasia reginula, photograph Obsidian Soul, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsAlocasia reginula, photograph Obsidian Soul, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsAlocasia reginula, photograph Obsidian Soul, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsAlocasia reginula, photograph Obsidian Soul, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons 11 photographs ›

Summary

Alocasia reginula, black velvet, is a species of flowering cormous aroid (family Araceae), native to Sabah state in Malaysia. This plant, often referred to as one of the "jewel" Alocasias (along with several other diminutive Alocasia types), became increasingly popular among plant hobbyists between the years 2018 to 2020. Until as recently as 2021 though, not much was known about the plant or its origins. Originally described from cultivation, and often sold as "Alocasia 'Black Velvet'", it is not a modern cultivar or hybrid; A. reginula is its own natural species. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Alocasia reginula", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Alocasia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant, listed under the genus Alocasia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial or subshrub”, “wet tropical”.

Nothing derived: no habitat climate for this species.
How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Group. Listed under the genus Alocasia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial or subshrub”, “wet tropical”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

No habitat climate can be derived: Only 1 distinct land cell of the climate grid holds an in-range record placed to within 10 km; three are needed for an envelope. 1 of the 2 in-range records is placed to worse than 10 km, or to no stated accuracy and fewer than three decimals or by something other than a person's observation, and cannot place a climate cell, though it counts for the map and its marker.

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBorneo · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Kew's description“perennial or subshrub” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 2 georeferenced records inside the native range, all openly licensed and shown on the map. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the map. No climate across the range is derived for this species. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stays on the map but off the climate.

Photographs

Alocasia reginula, photograph 1did not loadAlocasia reginula, photograph 2did not loadAlocasia reginula, photograph 3did not loadAlocasia reginula, photograph 4did not loadAlocasia reginula, photograph 5did not loadAlocasia reginula, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Forest and Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0 us, via Wikimedia Commons; Obsidian Soul, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (4).

Other Alocasia 25 in the reference

Alocasia baginda Alocasia baginda Araceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Cs californiaAlocasia boyceana Alocasia boyceana Araceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Felixvaldez2698Alocasia brisbanensis Alocasia brisbanensis Cunjevoi Photo: CC BY, Andy McKayAlocasia cadieri Alocasia cadieri Araceae Photo: CC0, SycedAlocasia clypeolata Alocasia clypeolata Green Shield Alocasia Photo: CC BY-SA, IsiwalAlocasia cucullata Alocasia cucullata Chinese taro Photo: CC BY, 胡正恆(Jackson Hu)Alocasia cuprea Alocasia cuprea Giant caladium Photo: CC BY, Kai SquiresAlocasia fornicata Alocasia fornicata Araceae Photo: CC BY, Ben MachadoAlocasia heterophylla Alocasia heterophylla Araceae Photo: CC0, Obsidian SoulAlocasia indica Alocasia indica Araceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Yercaud-elangoAlocasia lauterbachiana Alocasia lauterbachiana Araceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Rasyid AffandiAlocasia longiloba Alocasia longiloba Araceae Photo: CC BY, pbsg all 26 ›

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Araceae
Described by
A.Hay
Native to
Borneo
Wild records
2 in range · 2 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate nothing to reportasked 2026-10-21only 1 distinct land cell of the climate grid holds an in-range record placed to within 10 km; three are needed for an envelope
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media nothing to reportasked 2026-10-21
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 3 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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