ALOCASIA ‘KALBAR’*

DISTRIBUTION: West Kalimantan.

DISTRIBUTION NOTE: West Kalimantan (Kalimantan Barat), Indonesia. Known only from plants in cultivation; no wild locality has been published.

ETYMOLOGY:

Not formally named. ‘Kalbar’ is the Indonesian short form of Kalimantan Barat, West Kalimantan, the province the plant comes from.

NOTES:

1. An undescribed Alocasia from West Kalimantan, known in cultivation under the trade name ‘Kalbar’. The asterisk after the name marks a plant that has not been formally described: ‘Kalbar’ is a trade name, not a scientific one, and the plant will have a scientific name only once someone describes it from a specimen.

2. Its silvery, deeply veined leaves have led it to be sold and shown as Alocasia reginae, and these photographs appeared on Aroidpedia’s Alocasia reginae page until October 2026. Alocasia reginae is not known from Kalimantan: its only Kalimantan specimen was found to be misidentified, and the species is restricted to the limestone karst of the Gunung Mulu area in Sarawak.¹,²

3. The plants in these photographs have thick, glossy leaf blades with a metallic silver-grey upper surface and impressed, darker veins.

REFERENCES:

1. Asih, N.P.S. & Lestari, D. 2022. Update on Alocasia cuprea K.Koch distribution in North Kalimantan. Reinwardtia 21(2): 49–53

2. Boyce, P.C. & Wong, S.Y. 2011. Geological perambulations. IAS Newsletter 33(4): 1–6

Additional photos by Dhimas Pinasthika