Colocasia esculenta

Colocasia esculenta is a tropical plant grown primarily for its edible corms, a root vegetable most commonly known as taro (/ˈtɑːroʊ, ˈtæroʊ/), or kalo in Hawaiian (see Names and etymology for an extensive list). It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the Araceae family which are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in African, Oceanic and South Asian cultures (similar to yams), and taro is believed to have been one of the earliest cultivated plants. This plant and its root is generally called taro, but it has different names in different countries (see also the closely related eddoe (Japanese/Chinese) or malanga (Spanish) or cará or inhame (Portuguese)). The plant is called tales in Java, cheppankilangu in Tamil, Chembu (ചേമ്പ്) in Malayalam (മലയാളം), 'Dumbe' in South Africa, oah in Hokkien, cocoyam in Ghana, taro in Tahiti, ndalo in Fiji, talo in Samoa, gabi in the Philippines; natong in the Bicol Region, colcas (قلقاس) in Arabic, kolokasi or kolokas in Cyprus, kalo in Hawaii, amateke in Rwanda, and arbi in India.:23 Taro is often referred to as 'elephant ears' when grown as an ornamental plant. Linnaeus originally described two species, Colocasia esculenta and Colocasia antiquorum, but many later botanists consider them both to be members of a single, very variable species, the correct name for which is Colocasia esculenta. The specific epithet, esculenta, means 'edible' in Latin. Taro is related to Xanthosoma and Caladium, plants commonly grown ornamentally, and like them it is sometimes loosely called elephant ear. Similar taro varieties include giant taro (Alocasia macrorrhizos), swamp taro (Cyrtosperma merkusii), and arrowleaf elephant's ear (Xanthosoma sagittifolium). Colocasia esculenta is a perennial, tropical plant primarily grown as a root vegetable for its edible, starchy corm. The plant has rhizomes of different shapes and sizes. Leaves are up to 40 cm × 24.8 cm (15.7 in × 9.8 in) and sprout from the rhizome. They are dark green above and light green beneath. They are triangular-ovate, sub-rounded and mucronate at the apex, with the tip of the basal lobes rounded or sub-rounded. The petiole is 0.8–1.2 m (2.6–3.9 ft) high. The path can be up to 25 cm (9.8 in) long. The spadix is about three fifths as long as the spathe, with flowering parts up to 8 mm (0.31 in) in diameter. The female portion is at the fertile ovaries intermixed with sterile white ones. Neuters grow above the females, and are rhomboid or irregular orium lobed, with six or eight cells. The appendage is shorter than the male portion. Colocasia esculenta is thought to be native to Southern India and Southeast Asia, but is widely naturalised. Colocasia is thought to have originated in the Indomalaya ecozone, perhaps in East India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. It spread by cultivation eastward into Southeast Asia, East Asia and the Pacific Islands; westward to Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean Basin; and then southward and westward from there into East Africa and West Africa, where it spread to the Caribbean and Americas. Taro was probably first native to the lowland wetlands of Malaysia, where it is called taloes. In Australia, Colocasia esculenta var. aquatilis is native to the Kimberley region of Western Australia; variety esculenta is naturalised in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales.