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Remusatia vivipara
Hitchhiker elephant ear is a small, tuberous perennial aroid that grows on rocks or on the bark and leaf litter of trees in warm, seasonally dry forests. It is grown mainly by specialist collectors, and its key feature is the tiny bulbils that cling to passing animals and spread the plant.
Remusatia vivipara also called hitchhiker elephant ear is a perennial herb growing up to 50 cm tall in the genus Remusatia. It is widespread throughout the world, growing in temperate climates.
Remusatia vivipara can be found in Central and Western Africa, from Tanzania and Ethiopia to Sierra Leone; Oman, Yemen, Taiwan, Tibet, Yunnan, India, Indochina, Java and Northern Australia. Remusatia viviparais can be found in subtropical forests, on rocks, cliff edges around 700m-1900m above sea level. It is epiphytic in leaf litter traps on large trees such as Ficus vasta.
Tubers are edible when cooked very thoroughly either by roasting or boiling to deactivate the oxalate crystals. They are eaten in Dhofar with clarified butter or buttermilk and eaten in India added to curries.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Remusatia vivipara by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
