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Low toxicity🍽️ Edible

🍃 Taro

Colocasia esculenta · Araceae

🌴 Tropical
🧠 To remember it“Raw taro bites, cooked taro feeds” — the burning sensation in your mouth is the signal that it needs to cook longer.
Taro — Colocasia esculenta

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

Herbaceous plant with large heart- or shield-shaped leaves ("elephant ears"), supported by long, erect petioles attached to the center of the leaf blade (peltate). The corm (tuber) is buried beneath a clump of leaves.

  1. heart-shaped peltate leaves, petiole attached to the middle of the blade and not the edge
  2. water droplets bead up without wetting the leaf (lotus effect)
  3. fibrous brown corm beneath the clump
Size1-2 m foliage height
Floweringrare in cultivation, yellowish spathe typical of Araceae
Habitatwet to swampy areas, rice paddies, tropical stream banks, often cultivated on irrigated terraces

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Colocasia gigantea and Alocasia (certain species toxic when raw) (Alocasia spp.)all raw Araceae sting and irritate (calcium oxalate), some ornamental Alocasia are more toxic

To tell them apart: petiole attached to the center of the blade in Colocasia (peltate), often at the edge in Alocasia; if in doubt, always cook thoroughly

🍽️ Eating it

Partscorm (tuber), cooked young leaves and petioles
Seasonharvested 7-12 months after planting, year-round in a stable tropical climate
Tastestarchy, slightly sweet and nutty once cooked, texture similar to chestnut

Preparation : never eat raw: raw corms and leaves contain needle-like calcium oxalate crystals (raphides) that severely irritate the mouth and throat. Peel, then boil or steam thoroughly (30-45 min for the corm); discard leaf cooking water to further reduce soluble oxalates

112kcalEnergy
1.5gProtein
0.2gFat
26.5gCarbs
4.1gFiber
4.5mgVitamin C
591mgPotassium

USDA FoodData Central, raw corm, per 100 g

💊 Healing with it

no major validated medicinal use; traditionally used as an easily digestible staple food, including for infants in the Pacific (poi)

Level of evidence : traditional use — PMC - Impact of Cooking Duration on Calcium Oxalate Crystals in Taro

⚠️ people prone to kidney stones: limit undercooked leaves/petioles, which are rich in oxalates

🪓 Other bushcraft uses

  • leaves used as plant food wrapping after cooking
  • highly digestible starch used as baby porridge in the Pacific
Sources (2)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.