Tea Cups aka Coffee Cups Zone 7b-10
Tea Cups or Coffee Cups however you prefer to call them are a very unusual elephant ear. The leaves form a cup that catches rainwater until it reaches the point it gets top heavy and must dump the water. So
metimes this water is dumped into a lower leaf who in turns dumps it to the ground or yet another lower leaf. Very interesting to watch. I find myself doing this with the garden hose. Yes, my wife thinks I'm crazy but its the little things in life that make us smile.
This ee spreads by underground runners, above ground runners, and by clumping. I like to wait until the above ground runner produces a baby plant with one or two leaves than I'll pull it off and plant it somewhere else.
Make sure to water this plant well. It likes lots of water and will even enjoy sitting in water during the growing season.
I've grown this plant in my pond for the last several years by just dropping a sprouting tuber next to the water fall and mother nature takes over from there. End of season I'll cut the roots that have anchored the plant into the side of the waterfall. Then chop the leaves and dry the tuber than bring in for winter storage.
The tuber on this plant has a more red colored look to it than most ee's I've seen. Very unusual but easy to determine what it is in comparison to others ee's in the dormant from.
In this picture below you can see this plant can grow to very tall heights in a single year. This was grown from a dormant tuber (golf ball size) that was already about a year old. In this picture I would guess by it to be about 6 1/2 feet high.
Nevermind the smug look on my face. I took this picture myself with my cell phone and was not thinking of smiling. I was just surprised I got the plant and me in the frame.