I have several....Lime zinger, black stem, violet stem, rhubara,chicago harliquin, coffee cups, Fallox, upright EE, green ruffles,cuculata, and Odora(all of which are actively growing)..and my frydeck and Mickey mouse should be coming back to life soon.....I would love to try Black Marble.... Lawanna

Martina my email acct, is down I will post your plants monday 2 diamond head one large thai giant, and jacks giant, these will be large plants look forward to reciveing yours and to a future trade,I do not have agave antenuata I do have whales tongue,agave arizona star and agave lophantha quardricolor bouhgt it from plants delight and one pup in four years,I also have a great plantwinters over in zone 8 and gives off pups and has a really great candelara when it blooms African Soap aloe,reall grat if you dont have it goes great with agaves LOL Walt

They are all aroids, and all considered "elephant ears". The real differences are mainly morphological, you can find a good discussion of it somewhere on the web, its been discussed many many times. Some are edible (mainly colocasia and xanthosoma). All of the colocasias, most of the Xanthosomas, and a few of the alocasias can be grown either aquatically or as bog marginals. The alocasias are the most diverse. There are some that are truly tropical zone 10-11 plants and some that will freeze the tops and come back as perennials from the bulbs/tubers in lower zones. It depends on which one you choose. There are also some that can literally sit in water and thrive, and some that will rot if you water them more than you would a cactus. In your area the ones that would probably be most likely to survive would be Xanthosomas and perhaps colocasias, if you plant in a protected area and mulch HEAVILY in winter. The ground can and does freeze in Dallas. If you want to kind of "try it before you buy it" you can go to the Asian market, the Indian market, or the regular old grocery and buy either Malanga, or Eddo roots. These are Xanthosoma. Plant them and you will get very nice plants very quickly for a very cheap price. See how they do over the winter, and if they do well, buy something more expensive. My sister in law lives in Dallas and I have gone to nurseries while there several times. I have spoken with nursery owners and was surprised to find that they consider large expensive plants like Ensete maurellii (red Abyssinnian banana) and ALocasia plumbea nigra "Metallica" to be ANNUALS and they sell them as so. People will pay $30-40 for a plant (that would cost $12-20 here) and plant it expecting it to die and never return after winter. I guess folks in Dallas have more money than me. If you would like to try a colocasia the cheap way, I will be happy to trade you some CHicago Harlequin, it is a lovely lightly variegated colocasia with green and white striped stems that gets about 4-5ft tall.

Even here in South Florida, where we've not had a freeze in at least 7 years, we get die back when the temp drops below 40 degrees. Xanthosomas are considered a native plant throughout most of the southeast. Colocasia and Alocasias are, for the most part, exotics. I've got 5 or 6 Colocasia and Alocasia spp. in the ground here. You can see 3 different ones in All of them grow best in full sun. And to tell you the truth, I can't tell the difference between the two species. That's a job for the Aroid experts. The link below is a superb article on the 3 species. Here is a link that might be useful: to read about Colocasia, Alocasia, Xanth.