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Asian taro

Alocasia odora

A massive evergreen aroid from southern and eastern Asia, native from India and the eastern Himalaya through Indochina to southern China, Taiwan and southern Japan, grown for its huge, glossy, upright, arrow-shaped leaves. UF/IFAS Extension gives it 4 to 8 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet wide in the garden, and the RHS says it can reach 4.9 feet as a houseplant. Its flowers are scented, most strongly at night, and Wikipedia gives night-scented lily as another of its names. Outside USDA zones 10 and warmer it lives indoors. Every part is poisonous: it is full of needle-like calcium oxalate crystals, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare records food poisoning when its stems were mistaken for taro, and the ASPCA lists Alocasia as toxic to dogs, cats and horses.

Climate fit: narrow (21/100)

Focal point

Container

Light

Part shade

Water

Consistent moisture

Mature size

4-8 ft tall · 4 ft apart

Hardy in zones

10a-12b

mild to frost-free winters

Native in Illinois

No

Do not eat it.

°C

°F

Cold hardiness

These values are location-based: this location's current hardiness is the baseline, and the 2050 value is a projected future climate for this same location.

Now

Zone 6b

Plotwright

USDA Zone 6b

-5°F to 0°F

Won't grow here

2050

2100

Zone 7a

Plotwright

0°F to 5°F

Won't grow here

In plain terms: This location has cold winters. Its winters are projected to keep warming through 2050.

✕

Out of range today and still out of range in 2050.

Heat tolerance

Heat tolerance values are location-based too: heat days today are observed at this site, and the 2050 value projects this same location under a future climate.

Loading AHS heat-zone data for this location...

What it needs

Conditions

Light

Part shade

Water

Consistent moisture

Spacing

4 ft

Habit

Massive evergreen herb with a thick stem, upright or leaning, carrying huge, glossy, arrow-shaped leaves on long stalks; offsets from the base build it into a clump

Care tips

•

Give it room: UF/IFAS Extension gives 4 to 8 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet wide, and the RHS says it can reach 4.9 feet even as a houseplant, so use a heavy pot that will not tip.

•

Keep it warm, humid and in bright but indirect light while it grows, then let it rest cooler and drier in winter, still above 50°F, as the RHS advises.

•

Wear gloves to cut, divide or repot it, and keep it away from children and pets: the sap irritates skin, and every part is poisonous if eaten.

Lifecycle

Planting

Indoors, grow it in a heavy pot with drainage holes, in peat-free compost with grit added at about three parts compost to one part grit, as the RHS advises for alocasias, and in bright but indirect light: strong sun scorches the leaves. Outdoors, in a frost-free climate, give it a partly shaded, sheltered spot in rich, moisture-retentive soil, as UF/IFAS Extension describes for the genus; NC State Extension warns that high winds damage the big leaves. Wear gloves to handle it: the RHS and Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare both warn that the sap irritates skin.

Transplanting

Repot in spring when the roots fill the pot; the RHS says compost that dries out very fast after watering is the sign of a pot-bound plant, and suggests a heavy terracotta pot to keep a large alocasia steady. Where summers are warm but winters freeze, NC State Extension says alocasias can go outside after the last frost and must come back indoors, or be dug and stored cool and dry, before the first frost in fall.

Early growth

Keep it warm and humid. The RHS asks for more than 61°F through the growing season and medium to high humidity, with watering from April to October whenever the top 2 inches of compost has dried and a general liquid feed over the same months. NC State Extension says alocasias grow best where daytime temperatures run 68 to 77°F. In winter the RHS lets it go dormant, cooler and drier but still above 50°F, with watering cut to a minimum, because wet compost then rots the roots.

Maturity

Flora of China describes a massive evergreen herb up to 8.2 feet with leaf stalks up to 4.9 feet and heart- to arrow-shaped leaves up to 4.3 feet long and 3.3 feet wide. UF/IFAS Extension gives 4 to 8 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet wide, the RHS up to 4.9 feet for a houseplant, and Japan's health ministry more than 3.3 feet with leaf stalks 2 to 3.9 feet long. Watch for spider mites, aphids and mealybugs, and for root rot and leaf spots from overwatering (NC State Extension, UF/IFAS Extension).

Propagation

Separate the offsets that form around the base in spring, cutting them away with as much root as possible and potting them up singly in gritty compost, as the RHS describes; NC State Extension also propagates alocasias by division of offsets. Flora of China notes short runners from the base that end in small tubers. Wear gloves throughout.

Native range

Climate notes

•

Indoors except in USDA zones 10 and warmer. No source gives a hardiness zone for Asian taro itself, so the range here, zones 10a to 12b, is an editorial reading taken from NC State Extension's page for the genus Alocasia. UF/IFAS Extension's fact sheet for the genus gives zones 8a to 11, saying frost kills the leaves but the plants regrow from the base in zone 8a and south; that is a figure for the hardier garden alocasias and is not used here. The RHS grows alocasias as houseplants in Britain, above 61°F while they grow and never below 50°F in winter.

•

The native range here is taken from Kew's World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), the dataset POWO publishes: from India, the eastern Himalaya, Assam and Bangladesh through Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam to south-central and southeastern China, Hainan and Taiwan, north to Japan and the Nansei-shoto (Ryukyu) islands, and south to Borneo. Flora of China adds Nepal and records it in tropical rain forest, bamboo thickets, on riverbanks, in swamps and on limestone below 5,577 feet; Japan's health ministry places it in lowland evergreen forest from southern Shikoku and southern Kyushu to the Ryukyus.

•

Where it has spread: WCVP records it as introduced on Ascension Island, in Spain and in Sri Lanka, and USDA PLANTS lists it as introduced in the lower 48 states, with no invasive or noxious status. It is on neither the Florida Invasive Species Council's 2026 invasive plant list nor its watch list, and UF/IFAS Extension calls alocasias aggressive, spreading plants that are not known to be invasive in Florida. NC State Extension says some Alocasia species are considered invasive in the United States, particularly along the Gulf Coast, without naming them.

•

The sources give different sizes. Flora of China describes plants up to 8.2 feet with leaves up to 4.3 feet long, UF/IFAS Extension gives 4 to 8 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet wide, Wikipedia 1.6 to 5.2 feet, and the RHS up to 4.9 feet for a houseplant. The size here follows UF/IFAS Extension, the only source with a figure for garden plants, and the spacing is the narrow end of its spread; UF/IFAS spaces alocasias in general 3 to 5 feet apart.

•

Light: NC State Extension lists dappled sunlight to partial shade for the genus, UF/IFAS Extension partial shade, and the RHS bright but indirect light indoors, warning that strong sun scorches the leaves and that in low light growth is much slower.

Plant this, not that

Better fit for this place

For Chicago, IL, these are replacement suggestions: similar plants with a stronger hardiness fit now and/or in 2050.

Ligularia dentata

Leopard Plant

Ligularia dentata (leopard plant, summer ragwort) is a bold, moisture-loving herbaceous perennial native to China and Japan, grown for its enormous, glossy, heart-shaped toothed leaves and bright orange-yellow daisy flowers on dark red, near-leafless stalks in mid- to late summer. It makes an outstanding focal point beside water or in a shaded border, where its tropical-scale foliage dominates from spring through autumn. There are two honest catches: water - in full sun or any drying wind the giant leaves wilt dramatically by midday (they recover overnight, but the spectacle is ruined), so consistent moisture and afternoon shade are non-negotiable; and toxicity - like its Senecio relatives it contains hepatotoxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids and is not edible.

Perennial

Part sun / Part shade

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Hylotelephium 'Herbstfreude'

Autumn-joy stonecrop

A clump-forming herbaceous perennial grown for its showy late-season flower heads: masses of tiny star-like flowers borne in flattened cymes 3 to 6 inches across that emerge rosy pink, deepen to rose-red, and fade to coppery-rust as they die. Gray-green, fleshy, succulent-like leaves form upright clumps to about 24 inches. Easily grown in dry-to-medium, well-drained soil in full sun, it is drought tolerant and attracts butterflies, and its foliage and dead inflorescences persist into winter for added interest.

Perennial

Full sun / Part shade

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Lilium longiflorum

Easter lily

Easter lily reaches most people the way almost nothing else in this catalog does: as a forced gift plant in a foil-wrapped pot, in full white trumpet in March or April, months before its real season. Left to itself in a garden Lilium longiflorum flowers in July and August, and Missouri Botanical Garden files it under the plainer name trumpet lily. Everything about the pot version is engineered - bulbs lifted in autumn from a narrow strip of the California and Oregon coast, cooled, potted, held under a temperature schedule that lands the buds on a date that moves by up to five weeks a year, and kept short with growth retardants. That is why the plant you were given is 16 to 20 inches tall and the same plant in the ground is 2 to 3 feet. The single most important sentence in this record is not horticultural. This is the species behind the veterinary literature on feline lily poisoning: every part of it, including the pollen and the water in the vase, causes acute kidney injury in cats, less than one leaf can be enough, and untreated cases die in 36 to 72 hours. It is also the lily that enters houses in quantity, which is the whole problem. If there is a cat in the house, this plant does not come in the door. Beyond that, be clear about what it is not. It is not a hardy garden bulb in the way the regal lily in this wave is - Missouri Botanical Garden rates it zone 4 to 8, which is the most generous number in circulation for a subtropical island endemic, and much US extension guidance says 5 to 8. It is not a widespread wild species either: Kew's native range is the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, southern Japan and the Philippines, and nothing else. A globally traded flower with a natural range you could drive across in a day.

Perennial

Full sun / Part shade

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Similar plants

Browse lateral options with similar roles, light needs, size, or native-range overlap; these are not filtered for a better climate fit.

Alocasia macrorrhizos

Giant taro

A massive evergreen aroid grown for leaves that the RHS says reach 3.9 feet long, carried more or less upright on stalks up to 3.9 feet tall. Outside frost-free climates it is a big houseplant or conservatory plant, which the RHS sizes at 4.9 to 8.2 feet tall and wide; planted out in USDA zones 10 and warmer it grows much larger, and UF/IFAS gives it 12 to 15 feet. It has been grown as a starchy food crop across tropical Asia and the Pacific for so long that the Flora of China says it is not clear where, if anywhere, it still grows wild. Every part is toxic raw: the ASPCA lists alocasias as toxic to dogs, cats and horses, and the RHS warns that it is toxic if eaten and irritates skin and eyes, so where it is a food the corm and stem are eaten only after long cooking. It has naturalised along streams in Hawaii and rivers in Fiji and is cited as invasive on many Pacific islands; UF/IFAS does not consider it invasive in Florida and recommends it in place of invasive wild taro, but no elephant ear should be planted beside a natural waterway.

A large aroid of India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Vietnam and Java whose standing as a species is disputed. Kew's World Checklist and GBIF accept Alocasia indica, but the Flora of China, PROSEA and Plants For A Future treat it as a synonym of giant taro (Alocasia macrorrhizos), and the RHS lists the name as misapplied to giant taro; Aroidpedia reports that the 2019 Fascicles of Flora of India keep it as a separate species. Flowers of India, which calls it Indian taro, tells it from giant taro by its light green, slightly heart-shaped leaves with rounded basal lobes, against giant taro's arrow-shaped ones, and says it is widely grown in Manipur as a vegetable. No source rates its hardiness as a species, so this record keeps it indoors except in USDA zones 10 and warmer, the range NC State Extension gives the genus. It is toxic raw: the ASPCA lists alocasias as toxic to dogs, cats and horses, and NC State and UF/IFAS describe calcium oxalate crystals that irritate the mouth, skin and eyes.

Ligularia dentata (leopard plant, summer ragwort) is a bold, moisture-loving herbaceous perennial native to China and Japan, grown for its enormous, glossy, heart-shaped toothed leaves and bright orange-yellow daisy flowers on dark red, near-leafless stalks in mid- to late summer. It makes an outstanding focal point beside water or in a shaded border, where its tropical-scale foliage dominates from spring through autumn. There are two honest catches: water - in full sun or any drying wind the giant leaves wilt dramatically by midday (they recover overnight, but the spectacle is ruined), so consistent moisture and afternoon shade are non-negotiable; and toxicity - like its Senecio relatives it contains hepatotoxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids and is not edible.

Perennial

Part sun / Part shade

Red ginger is a tall, upright, evergreen tropical perennial native to Maluku and the islands of Melanesia - New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu (the former New Hebrides) and New Caledonia - grown for its long-lasting, cone-like spikes of overlapping bright red to magenta bracts. The showy red parts are bracts (modified leaves), not petals; the true flowers are white and sit tucked between the bracts, easy to overlook against the color of the display. Clumps of leafy stems rise 3 to 10 feet from a spreading rhizome. It is frost-tender: grow it outdoors year-round only in USDA zones 10a-11b, and everywhere colder treat it as a container or indoor plant, brought under cover well before the first frost. It has also spread well beyond its native range: USDA PLANTS lists it as introduced in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, and Wikipedia records it growing across the Caribbean, in Suriname, and in Belize and Panama. It is not the culinary ginger of the spice rack - that is Zingiber officinale, a different genus - and it is grown as an ornamental and cut flower, not as food. Older references may list it under its original name, Guillainia purpurata.

Perennial

Part sun / Part shade

A bold tropical aroid from the rainforests of southern Mexico through Panama, grown almost everywhere outside the frost-free tropics as a foliage houseplant. It is a climbing epiphyte: it sends adventitious aerial roots to scramble up tree trunks, and its huge glossy heart-shaped leaves develop the deep cuts and oval holes (fenestrations) that give it both common names. Mature plants in the tropics flower with a creamy aroid spathe and produce a cone-like fruit that is edible only when fully ripe. Indoors it rarely flowers and is prized purely for its dramatic, architectural foliage.

Anigozanthos flavidus

Tall kangaroo paw

Tall kangaroo paw is an evergreen, clump-forming perennial from the southwest corner of Western Australia, grown for its upright fans of strap-like leaves and its tall, arching flower stalks topped with velvety, tubular yellow-green blooms - the unmistakable 'kangaroo paw' shape, sometimes shading to red, orange, or pink. Plants reach 3 to 6 feet tall and 2 to 4 feet wide and bloom from spring through fall in full sun to light shade. In its native range the flowers are pollinated by nectar-feeding birds, and the species has also naturalized outside that range in New South Wales. It is frost-tender and hardy as a garden perennial only in USDA zones 10a-11b. It hybridizes with other kangaroo paws and is used in breeding garden cultivars; this record covers the true species itself.

Perennial

Full sun / Part shade

Educator packet

Plant packet

Asian taro educator packet

A massive evergreen aroid from southern and eastern Asia, native from India and the eastern Himalaya through Indochina to southern China, Taiwan and southern Japan, grown for its huge, glossy, upright, arrow-shaped leaves. UF/IFAS Extension gives it 4 to 8 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet wide in the garden, and the RHS says it can reach 4.9 feet as a houseplant. Its flowers are scented, most strongly at night, and Wikipedia gives night-scented lily as another of its names. Outside USDA zones 10 and warmer it lives indoors. Every part is poisonous: it is full of needle-like calcium oxalate crystals, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare records food poisoning when its stems were mistaken for taro, and the ASPCA lists Alocasia as toxic to dogs, cats and horses.

Scientific name

Alocasia odora

Plant type

perennial

Hardiness

10a-12b

Light

part-shade

Moisture

consistent

Spacing

4 ft