I just learned that the beautiful "elephant ears" Caladium plant I recently
bought is also taro. I've always heard taro referred to as a root, but
caladium grows from tubers. Does anyone know if I planted store-bought taro
root, would I get a caladium plant??
Shari in Shoreline (near Seattle), WA, zone 8, Sunset 5
Try it and see, don't know how much "chill" they'll take before not being
viable. I just planted one of the "black" ones at a client's restaurant in
Newport Beach. There are Tropicana cannas, musas and papaya planted there
also. ;-D
Taro (possibly a Maori word, it is kalo in Hawaiian) is a tropical plant
(Colocasia esculenta in the Family Araceae) grown for its edible stem or
corm and leaves. Flowers are also eaten. The word kalo refers to the corm.
Taro is closely related to elephant ear and Caladium, plants commonly grown
as ornamentals.
Taro is a traditional staple in many tropical areas of the world, and is the
base for poi in Hawai'i. The plant is actually inedible if ingested raw
because of raphids in the plant cells. Severe gastrointestinal distress can
occur unless the plant is properly processed first.
Taro is grown in pondfields called lo'i (in Hawaiian). The picture shows
several small lo'i in Maunawili Valley on O'ahu. The ditch on the left in
the picture is called an 'auwai and supplies diverted stream water to the
lo'i or pondfields. Cool flowing water yields the best crop. Some of this
taro in the foreground has been harvested and the caretakers are preparing
to replant the huli stacked at their feet. These are the top portion of the
corm with a short piece of bladeless leafstem.
http://www.fact-index.com/t/ta/taro.html
Colocasia esculenta- Commonly called Taro, Elephant ears, or Caladium.
Height can be anywhere from 2 to 5' depending on the variety. All varieties
of Taro are hardy to zone 8. They will thrive in full sun to partial sun.
The water should be even with the top of the pot or up to 4" over the top of
the pot
WINTER CARE OF TAROS
If you live in a colder climate, plan to bring in your Taro before the first
frost and treat it like a house plant. Place it in front of a sunny window
for the winter and keep the soil barely moist. Wait until the night time
temperature stabilizes at 60 degrees before returning it to the pond in the
spring.
VARIETIES http://www.koivet.com/plants/elephant.html
The Araceae are rhizomatous or tuberous herbs comprising about 110 genera
and 1,800 species, usually with calcium oxalate crystals or raphides and
commonly with milky sap. The leaves are alternate, simple or compound,
petiolate, sometimes very large, and usually with a sheathing base. The
inflorescence is a fleshy spike or spadix subtended or commonly partially
enveloped by a bract or spathe which is sometimes petaloid or brightly
colored. The tiny flowers are actinomorphic, bisexual or unisexual, and are
sessile or sometimes embedded in the floral axis. The perianth is nearly
always absent in unisexual flowers but in bisexual flowers typically
consists of 4-6 small, undifferentiated tepals that are free or connate. The
androecium of a typical male flower usually consists of 2, 4, or 8 distinct
or variously connate stamens that are opposite the tepals when these are
present. The gynoecium of a typical female flower consists of a single
compound pistil of mostly 3 but up to 15 carpels, a single style, and a
superior ovary with sometimes one locule and 1-numerous parietal ovules or
more frequently 3 or more locules, each with 1-numerous axile-apical to
axile-basal ovules. The fruit is a berry.
Each "thumbnail" image below is linked to a larger photograph.
Alocasia macrorrhiza, Araceae, 'ape. Giant herb from South and SE Asia, with
huge arrowhead-shaped leaf blades up to three feet long. Closely related to
taro and sometimes cultivated for the edible (after cooking) underground
stem.
recently
> bought is also taro. I've always heard taro referred to as a root, but
> caladium grows from tubers. Does anyone know if I planted store-bought
taro
Shari Rosner wrote:
Shari
There seems to be some confusion here. Caladium is not Taro, which
although similar in appearance belongs to a different genus (Colocasia).
While Taro is an Asiatic plant, Caladiums are American in origin and not
actually edible.. The edible part of the Taro, though popularly known as
a root, is in fact a large tuber. If you plant a tuber of the crop
variety of Taro you should get a plant with big elephant's ear leaves
but these will only be plain green, whereas Caladiums are usually
brightly coloured and patterned. There is a purple variety of Taro
('Fontanesii') and a very large species C.gigantia from Malaysia, but
these are only grown for ornament and not to produce the vegetable.
"Taro" is certainly a word in the Maori vocabulary, as it is around most
of the South Pacific, but is not a food plant they have used in modern
times. They brought the roots along with kumara (sweet potatoes) to NZ
in their original migration (around the start of the second millenuium),
but while the kumara adapted well, the climate was never suitable here
for Taro and it soon died out. It is however a popular food with a lot
of islanders in the South Pacific and the tubers have become a regular
import in modern times for the benefit of the many Samoans and other
islanders who have made this land their home, so it is a basic item
stocked by most local supermarkets.
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ. Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm
NEW PICTURES ADDED 4/Feb/2004
