Colocasia “White Lava”

Drama in Three Colours

Colocasia ‘White Lava’ is a Hawaiian-bred cultivar that earns its name. The large, heart-shaped leaves develop a bold white centre as the plant matures — a wide, luminous band that radiates out through the veining against deep green, the whole effect grounded by dark, reddish-purple stems that provide a vivid third element to a combination of genuine sophistication. It is foliage that looks designed rather than grown.

The white centre is worth noting as a buying consideration — young plants show the characteristic colocasia leaf, and the striking variegation intensifies as the plant settles and matures. It rewards patience, and the wait is worthwhile.

Why It Works in the Wet Tropics

Where some of the more exuberant elephant ears can become a management exercise in the tropics, ‘White Lava’ behaves with considerably more decorum. Its clumping habit keeps it contained and tidy — building into a dense, well-defined clump rather than spreading aggressively — which makes it genuinely useful as a landscaping plant as well as a collector’s specimen. Easy to grow in the heat and humidity of the wet tropics, it stays evergreen and performs consistently without demanding constant attention.

In the Garden

Give it rich, consistently moist soil and it will thrive — along a boggy garden edge, at the margins of a pond or water feature where natural moisture keeps it at its best, or in a large container where the dark stems and white-centred leaves can be appreciated at close range. A heavy feeder, it responds well to regular tropical fertiliser through the growing season.

Use it where the three-colour combination — white, green and near-black stem — can be set against complementary foliage. The dark stems pair beautifully with other purple and bronze-toned tropicals; the white centre holds its own against almost anything.