Alocasia reginula
The 'Black Velvet' Alocasia: a small plant with thick, dark, velvety leaves and silvery veins. It was popular in the trade long before anyone knew where it grew wild, and it has since been found only on deeply shaded limestone in Tabin Wildlife Reserve, eastern Sabah. The measured lowland climate is hot and humid all year, but the plant's own niche is a shaded, fairly dry rock face, so it wants warmth and very sharp drainage rather than wet soil.
Where it grows wild
Terrestrial or lithophytic at the base of limestone ridges, on limestone or on soil among limestone boulders. It is described as growing on dry, deeply shaded limestone cliffs. Roots run through thin pockets of humus in the rock, so they drain almost at once after rain.
The one wild specimen with an elevation was collected at 40 m near the Tabin River, so it is a true lowland plant. The warm nights in the measured climate agree.
🔒 Growing it like that
The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:
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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY 3.0 licence, unmodified.