Key to species of Alocasia occurring in China

1. Plants massive, pachycaul, at least 1 m tall........................................................................................................................................2

– Plants not as above, or if taller than 1 m then never massive.............................................................................................................5

2(1). Sinus between posterior leaves naked ......................................................... A. macrorrhizos (Linnaeus 1753: 965) Don (1839: 631)

– Sinus between posterior leaves peltate ...............................................................................................................................................3

3(2). Plants lacking stolons; spathe deep yellow ........................................................................ A. navicularis Koch & Bouché (1855: 2)

– Plants with short stolons at base of main stems, these stolons with tubercles at tips; spathe greenish white....................................4

4(3). Petiole to 150 cm; leaf blade ca. 130 × 100 cm; appendix conic, 3.0–5.5 × 1–2 cm ............................................................. A. odora

– Petiole 28–30 cm; leaf blade ca. 25 × 13 cm; appendix narrowly conic, ca. 1.1 × 0.3–0.4 cm ........................................................... .......................................................................................................................................................... A. hainanica Brown (1903: 183)

5(1). Plants always seasonally dormant; petiole green; stolons long; spathe purple-pink, not constricted ................................................6

– Plants rarely seasonally dormant, if so then petiole mottled; never with long stolons; spathe white, constricted.............................7

6(5). Leaf blade triangular-sagittate; lateral veins feeble; stolons tipped with tubercles; appendix white, elongate-conic; stigma pale green ................................................................................................................................................................................... A. hypnosa

– Leaf blade not peltate; lateral veins conspicuous; stolons without tubercle terminally; appendix milky-yellow, oblong-conic; stigma purple-black...................................................................................................................................................................... A. ligengiae

7(5). Stems stoutly erect and basally much branched; leaf blade broadly ovate; only known from areas of human disturbance................ ....................................................................................................................... A. cucullata Schott in Schott & Endlicher (1854: 410)

– Stems weakly erect to decumbent, not branching basally; leaf blade various but never broadly ovate; plants of natural forest ........ ............................................................................................................................................................................................................8

8(7). Petiole purple-brown to pink to green, strikingly obliquely mottled chocolate-brown; leaf blade pendent; stigmas conspicuously lobed ................................................................................................................................................. A. longiloba Miquel (1855: 207)

– Petiole green; leaf blade spreading; stigmas not conspicuously lobed................................................................................................. ..................................................................................... A. acuminata (Persoon 1807: 575) Schott in Schott & Endlicher (1832: 18).