Colocasia esculenta

Taro (; Colocasia esculenta) is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, stems and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in African, Caribbean, Oceanian, East Asian, Southeast Asian and South Asian cultures (similar to yams).

== Description == 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 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 high. The path can be up to long. The spadix is about three fifths as long as the spathe, with flowering parts up to 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. File:Elephant Ear Flower One.jpg|Flower File:2006-10-22Colocasia01.jpg|Leaves File:Coloc escul 140521-0017 tdp.JPG|Corms File:Taro root and crossection of taro root.jpg|Corm (cross section) File:Satoimo(Japan).JPG|Corm with soil, may be sold (left bottom), washed (2 pcs) cross-section (2 pcs), Japan