Devil's Tongue (Amorphophallus konjac) - The Bizarre Beauty with a Diet Secret

Were you fascinated by the corpse flower, but wary of its care requirements? Then the konjac plant is perfect for you! It is the uncomplicated, absolutely robust little sister from the arum family. It offers a spectacular bloom, a leaf that looks like a small tree, and incidentally provides the raw material for the ultimate superfood.

Scope of delivery: Three tubers each (approx. 1.5-3cm)

Growth & Appearance

• Lifespan: Perennial, tuber-forming plant.

• Growth height: The single, umbrella-like leaf that the plant develops in summer often grows over 1 meter (sometimes up to 1.5 meters) tall and looks like a small palm tree.

• Habit: The leaf stalk is an absolute eye-catcher! It is smooth and distinctly mottled, making it look astonishingly like real snake skin (hence it is often called "snake palm").

• Flower: When the tuber is large enough (from approx. 500 g tuber weight), it produces a huge, deep wine-red to black-violet flower in late winter, shaped like a gigantic calla lily, from the center of which a long spadix (the "devil's tongue") protrudes.

Origin Its original home is in the humid, warm climate of Southeast Asia (especially in China, Japan, and Vietnam), where it grows in shady to semi-shady forests.

Ingredients (The weight-loss wonder & a IMPORTANT WARNING)

• The magic fiber: The tuber is rich in glucomannan. This extremely swelling fiber can bind 50 times(!) its own weight in water.

• Caution, poisonous raw! Like all arum plants, all parts of the plant contain sharp calcium oxalate crystals. The tuber must under no circumstances be eaten raw, but must be elaborately processed.

Uses

• In the kitchen (fitness food): In Asia, jelly, flour, and noodles have been made from the tuber's flour for centuries. Here, it is primarily known today as calorie-free "shirataki noodles" – the wet dream of every low-carb diet, as they are extremely filling but contain almost zero calories.

• In cosmetics: The plant fibers are used to make the famous, extremely soft "Konjac sponges" for gentle facial cleansing.

• In the garden/home: A fascinating ornamental plant that looks wonderful on the balcony or in the garden bed in summer.

Historical facts In Japan, the konjac root has been cultivated as a valuable medicinal and food plant since the 6th century. It was originally used as a medicine for coughs and for intestinal cleansing ("broom for the stomach").

Curiosities (The wonder on the windowsill, the "fragrance" & the fly trap) The konjac plant has absolute craziness in store:

1. The dry bloomer: When the tuber reaches its flowering weight, it suddenly awakens you in late winter with a bloom. The crazy thing: It needs neither soil nor water! You can simply lay the bare tuber dry, and it will push out its gigantic flower solely from the stored energy within the tuber.

2. The carrion smell (Note gardener's tip!): Similar to the corpse flower, the bloom emits an extreme odor of rotting flesh for a few days. Hence the absolute pro tip: In winter, wait until at least February before placing the dormant tuber in a warmer spot! This way you can artificially delay the bloom a bit and place the flowering plant, along with its beastly stench, directly outside. Under no circumstances place it in the hallway! Otherwise, the whole house will stink – unless, of course, you want to "delight" unloved neighbors with it...

3. Pollination (A clever trap): The nasty stench has a purpose: it attracts blowflies and carrion beetles. These crawl deep into the kettle of the flower and are "trapped" there overnight by extremely smooth walls to pollinate the female flowers located at the very bottom. Only the next day do the male flowers open, generously powdering the trapped insects with fresh pollen, and the kettle wall becomes grippy again, allowing the flies to escape. Important for seed collectors: Since the female and male flowers on one and the same plant ripen at different times to avoid inbreeding, successful pollination (and the harvesting of red berries) generally requires pollen from a second konjac plant flowering at the same time!

Location, care & overwintering (Absolutely beginner-friendly!)

• Location (Summer): Partial shade. Happy to be outdoors in the garden bed or in a large pot from mid-May.

• Soil: Humus-rich, nutrient-rich, and loose. It grows rapidly in summer and therefore has a correspondingly large appetite and thirst.

• The dormant phase (Winter): When the snake-like leaf turns yellow and collapses in autumn, the plant retracts. Now simply remove the tuber from the soil, gently brush it clean with a soft brush, and store it completely dry, dark, frost-free, and most importantly not too warm! (If you store it too warm, the flower will emerge much too early). Overwintering doesn't get any easier!

• The cycle: In spring, tiny pink "horns" appear on the tuber – this is the new shoot! As soon as these horns grow, simply replant them in fresh soil, and the spectacle begins again.