Caladium 75-14, a Spotted, Fancy-leaved Cultivar for Containers and Sunny Landscapes

Abstract

As a common pot and landscape plant, caladium (Caladium ·hortulanum Birdsey, Araceae Juss.) is valued for its colorful leaves and low maintenance requirements (Evans et al., 1992). Commercial caladium plants are grown from tubers. Central Florida growers produce greater than 95% of the tubers for the worldwide market (Bell et al., 1998; Deng et al., 2005). Tuber yield is one of the primary factors determining a caladium cultivar’s production value and whether the cultivar will be acceptable to growers and viable in commercial production. Poor tuber yield has been one of the main reasons why many early cultivars were removed from commercial tuber production and many new breeding lines with novel colors or coloration patterns have not become commercialized. Developing caladium cultivars with good tuber yield has been one of the main breeding objectives for the University of Florida’s caladium breeding program at the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center since the program began in 1976. Caladium 75-14 (Figs. 1 and 2) is a new spotted, fancy-leaved cultivar with superior tuber yield. Plants of caladium 75-14 are vigorous and can quickly fill a landscape space. Its leaves are resistant to sunburn, allowing this cultivar to perform well in full-sun landscapes. With its multiple branching habit and plant vigor, caladium 75-14 produces high-quality plants in container forcing.