Alocasia macrorrhizos 'Shock Treatment'
Shock Treatment Upright Elephant Ear
Item #: 7121
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Vietnam
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L) ?

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.