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Taro (Colocasia esculenta)
Photo: No machine-readable author provided. Thierry Caro assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 2.5, Wikimedia Commons

On the map in 2 countries crop

Taro

Colocasia esculenta

Family: Araceae

On our map this plant appears in 2 countries and ranks highest in: Palau, Samoa.

Taro is a perennial with large, heart- to arrow-shaped leaves on long stalks, growing from a starchy corm. In Palau it is grown in permanently wet, carefully tended patches in the valleys, surrounded by dykes and channels. The corms are boiled or baked, because raw they irritate the throat with crystals of calcium oxalate. Giant swamp taro (Cyrtosperma) is also grown alongside it in the wet patches.

Description from: Palau.

More: Wikipedia (en) Wikipedia (pl) Plants of the World Online (Kew)

Significance in each country

  1. Palau no. 2 of 5 introduced or naturalised

    In traditional Palauan society, in which descent and land pass down the female line, taro patches belong to the women’s sphere.

  2. Samoa no. 3 of 5 cultivated

    In 1993 taro leaf blight, caused by the water mould Phytophthora colocasiae, destroyed the crops in Samoa and wrecked the lucrative export of corms to New Zealand.