Taro (botany)

Taro (botany), one of several common names for large perennial herbs of a plant genus, especially for one species, of the arum family. The genus is grown throughout the Tropics for its starchy corms (swollen underground stems), which yield about 50 percent starch but which must be cooked before eating to eliminate a poisonous substance, calcium oxalate. Taro is native to Southeast Asia, but its cultivation had spread to the Mediterranean by classical times and to the Pacific islands by 1000 years ago. Other names include dasheen, eddoe (West Indies), and cocyam (West Africa). Forms of the genus are grown ornamentally for their huge leaves, known as elephant ears. Poi, the national dish of Hawaii, is made from boiled taro that is pounded, then fermented to form a sticky, edible paste.

Scientific classification: Taro belongs to the family Araceae. It is classified as Colocasia esculenta.