Pink Dragon (Alocasia 'Pink Dragon') care

Aroids · needs attention to keep

An alocasia grown as much for its stems as its leaves: dusty-pink petioles holding glossy dark arrowheads with pale veins and burgundy undersides. Sturdier and more forgiving than most alocasias, and one of the better ones to start with.

Quick facts

Water

Water weekly. Water when the top third dries, and never leave the pot standing in a saucer of water. Alocasias also drip water from their leaf tips in the morning — that is guttation, and it means the roots are working, not that anything is wrong.

Light

Bright indirect light, as much as it can get without direct sun.

Humidity

60% and above, or spider mites will find it.

Soil

Chunky and fast-draining: bark, perlite, a little coir.

Feeding

Balanced feed at half strength every second or third watering, spring through summer only.

Repotting

Repot once a year.

Toxic to pets

Toxic to cats, dogs and people if chewed — the sap carries insoluble calcium oxalate crystals, which burn the mouth and throat. Keep it off the floor if anything in the house tastes its way through life.

Difficulty

Needs attention.

Mature size

60–90 cm tall.

Native to

A cultivated hybrid.

Watering a Pink Dragon

Water weekly. Water when the top third dries, and never leave the pot standing in a saucer of water. Alocasias also drip water from their leaf tips in the morning — that is guttation, and it means the roots are working, not that anything is wrong.

That cadence is the one PlantParlour sets for this species when you name it, and it is deliberately on the cautious side — a plant that asks a day early is safer than one that asks a day late. Log each watering and the reminder moves with the plant rather than with the calendar.

Light

Bright indirect light — more than people give them. An alocasia in a dim room loses a leaf for every new one it makes and slowly winds down to nothing. Direct afternoon sun, though, burns holes in those thin leaves.

Humidity and temperature

60% and above, or spider mites will find it. Central heating in winter is what turns a comfortable room into a dry one, and it is the usual reason an established plant suddenly browns at the edges or picks up spider mites.

Soil and potting

Alocasias grow from a corm, and a corm sitting in wet compost rots. Use a very open mix and a pot with real drainage. Many growers keep them in semi-hydroponics for exactly this reason.

Feeding

Balanced feed at half strength every second or third watering, spring through summer only. Stop feeding in autumn and start again when you see new growth in spring — feeding a plant that isn't growing just builds up salts in the pot.

Repotting

Repot once a year. Once a year in spring. Expect to find offsets — small corms around the parent — which can be potted separately. Do not size up more than one pot at a time.

Common problems

• Leaves dropping one after another over winter

  Dormancy. Alocasias often go down to nothing and come back in spring.

  Fix: Cut the water right back, keep the corm just barely damp, stop feeding, and wait. Throwing it out in February is the usual mistake.

• Fine webbing, leaves going dull and stippled

  Spider mites. This genus is their favourite.

  Fix: Shower the plant, wipe both sides of every leaf, and treat weekly for a month. Raise the humidity or they come straight back.

• Yellow leaf with a brown mushy stem

  Rot at the corm from a wet mix.

  Fix: Unpot immediately, cut back to firm white tissue, and repot into bark and perlite.

• Dry brown patches in the middle of a leaf

  Sunburn.

  Fix: Move it out of direct sun; the damage does not heal.

Propagation

Separate the offsets at repotting. Each corm, even a bare one the size of a hazelnut, will sprout in damp sphagnum in a covered box over a few weeks.

A cutting taken in PlantParlour keeps its link to the plant it came from, so a propagation years later still traces back to the mother plant — which is the point if you ever sell or trade it.

Toxicity and safety

Toxic to cats, dogs and people if chewed — the sap carries insoluble calcium oxalate crystals, which burn the mouth and throat. Keep it off the floor if anything in the house tastes its way through life.

Named cultivars and variegations

Alocasia 'Pink Dragon' is sold under several cultivar names. Care is the same unless noted; variegated forms carry less chlorophyll, so they grow more slowly and want more light than the plain species.

Questions people ask

Related plants

• Alocasia amazonica
• Alocasia 'Regal Shield'
• Alocasia zebrina
• Alocasia macrorrhizos
• Alocasia baginda
• Alocasia reginula
• Alocasia micholitziana
• Monstera deliciosa

Or browse every plant in the library.