taro
/ˈtɑːrəʊ
/ /ˈtarəʊ /noun [mass noun]
1A tropical Asian plant of the arum family which has edible starchy corms and edible fleshy leaves, especially a variety with a large central corm grown as a staple in the Pacific. Also called dasheen, cocoyam. Compare with eddo.
- Colocasia esculenta (variety esculenta), family Araceae.
- Land was divided into slices running from the mountains to the sea, within which commoners hunted pigs in the forests; grew taro, a major food source, in irrigated terraces; and constructed coastal fish ponds.
- In Tuvalu, farmers once dug pits in the sandy soil, filled them with compost and planted taro, but now in low-lying areas, increasingly brackish water is poisoning these root crops.
1.1The corm of the taro.In W. Africa, where both taro and malanga are staple foods, next in importance only to cassava and yams, they are known as ‘old’ and ‘new cocoyam’....
- In rural areas, people provide much of their own food through fishing, animal husbandry, and gardening of indigenous staple foods such as taro, breadfruit, sweet potatoes, and manioc.
- Calaloo (a green, leafy vegetable that is served cooked) is sometimes combined with taro, dasheen, or tania leaves, okra, pumpkin, and crab to make a dish called calaloo and crab.
Origin
Mid 18th century: of Polynesian origin.