Alocasia
Few seedlings are as distinctive as those of cunjevoi, Alocasia brisbanensis.
In wet seasons, seedlings appear on the forest floor wherever birds have dropped their seeds.
The hundreds of individual flowers are sweet-smelling and the whole spike generates heat by metabolic activity. This attracts midges (black specks in the photo) that pollinate the flowers.
After pollination, the flower spike is rolled up within the leaf-like hood, only appearing later to expose the red berries, as in the photo below. These don't last long on the plant, because they are very attractive to birds.
In fertile areas that have a plentiful supply of moisture, cunjevoi grow into huge plants, like the one below which is taller than Eileen.
