Showing Food Taro
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| Name | Taro | ||||||||||
| Scientific Name | Colocasia esculenta | ||||||||||
| Description | Taro is a common name for the corms and tubers of several plants in the Araceae family. Of these, Colocasia esculenta is the most widely cultivated. Taro is native to southeast Asia. It is a perennial, tropical plant primarily grown as a root vegetable for its edible starchy corm, and as a leaf vegetable. It is a food staple in African, Oceanic and Asian cultures and is believed to have been one of the earliest cultivated plants. Colocasia is thought to have originated in the Indo-Malayan region, perhaps in eastern India and Bangladesh, and spread eastward into Southeast Asia, eastern Asia, and the Pacific islands; westward to Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean; and then southward and westward from there into East Africa and West Africa, whence it spread to the Caribbean and Americas. It is known by many local names and often referred to as 'elephant ears' when grown as an ornamental plant. | ||||||||||
| Primary ID | FOOD00488 | ||||||||||
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| Group | Vegetables | ||||||||||
| Sub-Group | Root vegetables | ||||||||||
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| ITIS ID | 42549 | ||||||||||
| Wikipedia ID | Taro | ||||||||||
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| Content Reference | — Duke, James. 'Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases. United States Department of Agriculture.' Agricultural Research Service, Accessed April 27 (2004). — U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. 2008. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 21. Nutrient Data Laboratory Home Page. | ||||||||||