Flora of New Zealand Series

Taro

Robust, tuberous, acaulescent perennials 1-2 m high, with a cluster of long-petioled leaves. Leaves large; laminae peltate, ovate-cordate, 20-50 cm long, acute to acuminate, entire, sometimes white-mottled, veins somewhat reddish; petiole ± > lamina, light to dark green, reddish-or purple-tinged. Scape stout, < petiole. Spathe pale yellowish, ± 20 cm long, rolled inwards at apex. Spadix ± ⅔ of spathe; basal female zone separated from upper male zone by shorter sterile zone made narrower by constriction of spathe; terminal sterile appendage variable in length with much-narrowed, acute tip. Berries green.

K., N. North Auckland; South Auckland; Bay of Plenty. S. Nelson - Hector. Damp to wet waste land.

(Wild in S.E. Asia; much cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions especially in Asia and the Pacific)

First record: Hooker 1867: 762, as Colocasia antiquorum Schott, citing C. esculenta as a synonym; but C. esculenta has priority as the earliest published name.

First collection: It is difficult to decide what is the first collection in the adventive state as the status of early specimens (i.e. whether cultivated or wild) is not clear from data on the labels.

FL. 2-4.

A variable sp. with many different colour forms, many of which have been described as vars. Plants seldom flower, and fruit even more rarely (Cooper Rec. Auckland Inst. Mus. 6, 1969, 403-406). Cooper (op. cit.) applied the varietal name C. esculenta var. antiquorum (Schott) Hubbard and Rehder to two specimens in which the sterile appendage ± equalled the male zone of the spadix; however, recent treatments (e.g. Backer and Bakhuisen van der Brink Fl. Java 3, 1968, 121) treat C. esculenta var. antiquorum as a synonym of C. esculenta.

Recorded by Buchanan (T.N.Z.I.9,1877,523) for Kawau Id as Caladium esculentum but placed in the Cucurbitaceae.