General Information

COMMON NAMES: Wetland Taro, Dasheen [corruption of French 'dachine' from 'chou de Chine' (China cabbage)], Eddo / Eddoes [tropical American from w.African 'edwo' meaning yam], Wild Arum [1800s name]; German Taro TRADITIONAL NAMES: Taro (RR AT MK MT AK PL TW MH RK), Māmio (MG), Talo (TS), Wāwā (PK NS); Other Polynesian - Talo (SAM), Kalo (HAW), Dalo (FIJ) GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: NATIVE e.India - Burma COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Introduced - Polynesian + Recent, Not naturalised; Land, lowlands - valleys, horticultural - gardens, wetlands SIGNIFICANCE LIST: Food (Root 4+), Medicine; Poisonous to eat older leaves raw - moderate KEY FEATURES: Large, stemless herb to 1.5m. ROOT one ovoid corm/tuber. LEAVES massive, to 50x30cm, heart-shaped, peltate (=stalk attached in from margin), waxy with smooth margin; stalk to 1.5m. Leaves point downward at night.

Cook Islands Distribution

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Southern Group: Present    Makatea: Present
RR	MG	AT	MK	MT	AK	PL	TK	MN
++++	++++	++++	+++	++?	++++	P		X

Northern Group: Present
TN	MH	RK	PK	NS	SW
+	P	++?	++++	++?	-

Colocasia esculenta Linnaeus
SYNONYMS: Colocasia esculenta var. antiquorum; Colocasia antiquorum; Arum esculenta; Arum colocasis

TAXONOMY: PLANTAE; ANTHOPHYTA (=Angiospermae); LILIOPSIDA (=Monocotyledones); ARECIDAE; Arales; ARACEAE

SIGNIFICANCE NOTES -. Comment: NBSAP - Atiu (Taro Atiu/Niue, 1 of 5 domestic)
POSITIVE SIGNIFICANCE: Food (Root 4+), Medicine
NEGATIVE SIGNIFICANCE: Poisonous to eat older leaves raw - moderate

IDENTIFICATION: Stemless herb to 1.5m grown for its edible corm. LEAVES massive, to 50x30cm, heart-shaped (large anterior lobe with 2 small posterior lobes), peltate (=stalk connects to underside near the centre), waxy, edge withoout teeth, tip downward at night; stalk to 1.5m. ROOT (=corm, a swollen underground stem) ovoid, edible after cooking.

GENERAL NOTE: Taro contains calcium oxalate crystals that cause a burning sensation in the mouth as they pierce the mucous menbranes. The concentration of crystals is greater in mature leaves than in teh corm. The crystals are dissolved by cooking or fermentation. A tuber refers to any food-laden swelling of a stem or root of a dicot. Stem-tubers have 'eyes', eg. Potato, while root-tubers do NOT have eyes (eg. Sweet-Potato). The swollen stems of monocots are bulbs, when covered with scaly leaf-stalks, or corms when without scales.

Vouchers:
Pukapuka: fieldspecimen, 2/2004, G.McCormack with ID as Colocasia esculenta.

References:
p.1357 Wagner et al.- Flowering Plants of Hawaii
p.157 Neal - In Gardens of Hawaii
p.277 Royal Hort. Soc. Index of Garden Plants
p.105 Tropica
p.1/456 A.C.Smith - Flora Vitiensis Nova
p.301 A Cheeseman - Flora of Rarotonga
p.26 Wilder - Flora of Rarotonga
p.400g Whistler - Ethnobotany of the Cook Islands
p.47 McCormack/Kunzle - Rarotonga's Mountain Tracks and Plants

Data Update History (information):
zTX, zB02, zM02, zupM04b, zD02

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