Botany Lesson with the Elephant Ear Plant

This past spring, a friend gave me a tuber for an elephant ear plant.

I planted it in a container, covering the soil with stones and a brick - to keep the squirrels from digging in it.

With regular watering, the tuber has been producing large leaves...

For me, watching the plant grow has been a fascinating botany lesson...

First the stem of an existing leaf develops a thickness.

This bulge then separates from the stem...

Before long, it begins to unfurl into a large leaf.

In the picture on the left, the stem on the left hasn't separated yet. The stem on the right has opened up and is unfurling as a leaf.

A week or two later, the new leaf repeats the same process - getting "pregnant" with a new leaf, which, a few days later separates and unfurls.

Fascinating!