Alocasia macrorrhizos 'Shock Treatment'

Alocasia 'Shock Treatment' is a 2008 Plant Delights/JLBG introduction that truly had a series of twist and turns in its road to market. In 2005, we were botanizing north of Hanoi and after finding our road washed out, we retreated through a series of uninteresting back roads until sighting this bizarre form of the common Alocasia macrorrhizos in the front yard of a small home. The owner gladly shared a piece that we subsequently named Alocasia 'Shock Treatment'. This mutation of Alocasia macrorrhizos is a 3' tall clumper with glossy green, bizarrely twisted and crinkled leaves resembling a larger version of Alocasia cucullata 'Crinkles'. This has proven both amazingly hardy and vigorous in the garden, forming an attention-drawing patch.