I obtained this from Glasshouse Works
in May, 1997. Although it arrived as one broken leaf and a root, it's become quite
well established and since this photo has begun to sprout a new and larger leaf.
I'll upload the image of the new leaf when it opens. It's my understanding that
there is a white variety of this plant and that this golden variegation is more difficult
to obtain. Be that as it may, I'm not sure which I'd prefer if I had my
choice. I hope to swap an offset for a white variegated variety.
May 1998 - I've learned that temperature has some apparent effect on
the degree of variegation. Towards the end of the 1997 growing season, I had left
the plant outside perhaps a bit longer than I should have. (No, for a change it
didn't quite get frosty out.) The leaves were barely variegated at all. I
feared that the plant was reverting. I had heard from some aroiders that
occassionally, variegated plants become solid green. Over the winter, the
plant survived and grew on a kitchen counter top. All the leaves over the winter
have had this same kind of mottled appearance. As the leaf gets older, the yellow
fades to a cream color.
There are some big questions that raise signficant controversy:
Is this Alocasia micholitziana variegated or Alocasia "Frydek"" or Alocasia micholitziana "Frydek" variegated? I'm amazed to see this actually spark anger in web-based conversations.
I have yet to get access to and read the original literature but have come up with the following web link published in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility: https://www.gbif.org/species/141419512
That refers to an article authored in 1913 in the Gardener's Chronicle (https://www.ipni.org/n/84208-1) authored by a horticulturist or botanist named Sander who described Alocasia micholitziana on the Phillipine island of Luzon. There's no mention of "Frydek". Wikipedia doesn't list a horticulturist or botanist named "Frydek" but it does list 3 Czech football players named Frydek. I'm not 100% postivie, but highly suspect they weren't looking for (and then naming) some prized clone of A. micholitziana.
The University of British Columbia published a web page (link below) concerning Alocasia "Amazonica" in which they claim it is not a species but rather some cross, the parents of which are uncertain. On that web page, they claim that Alocasia micholitziana has been made available commercially under the name Alocasia "Frydek". If this is true - it would suggest that Alocasia micholitziana and Alocasia "Frydek" are one and the same.
https://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/threads/alocasia-amazonica-is-not-a-species-and-isnt-from-the-amazon.58955/
The photo on this page was taken in 1998. The plant is still hanging on. I had grown a large non-variegated specimen and hoped to capture some photos but Tobacco Mosaic Virus got it before my camera did.