Talk:Taro

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of the following WikiProjects:

Contents

[edit] corm?

This sounds just like the root of the plant. Why not just call it a root vegetable? Sounds less confusing to me. Saritamackita 21:41, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Number of species in genus

No mention has been made at all about taro's association with India. From all information that i have seen, the taro's origin is India/ Bangladesh from where it travelled to Egypt about 2000 yeras ago. Also, taro - known as arvi in Hindi - is a popular food in India. in North India its the taro corm that is more popular whereas in Gujarat and South India, its leaves are consumed in a uniue way. They are lined with rice flour paste, then rolled into long rolls that are cut into rounds. these rounds are either steamed in curries or fried - patrel is a very popular gujarati snack - ratna rajaiah

Obviously you have a problem with facts. Do you have a source for your insistance that there is but one species in the Genus Colocasia? - Marshman 16:54, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Taiwanese and mainlanders

I removed the statement that taro is also used as an "affectionate name" for mainlanders by Taiwanese, because it seemed more appropriate to the mainlander article than here. It's a fact about language use, rather than about the plant. - Pekinensis 20:04, 18 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I would agree. However, every article namespace has a potential problem of requiring some sort of disambiguation, so its presence here somewhere could be justified. My objection would be that it is really not necessarily an English language factoid, or maybe one that better fits under Taiwan culture or something - Marshman 21:49, 18 Mar 2005 (UTC)
It's a cultural reference derived from the plant's perceived contrast to the sweet potato (the nickname for non-Mainlander Taiwanese). But I agree it's not really a mainstream English language reference. A-giau 12:25, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)
I removed this sentence as I didn't understand it: "Its flower is totally known in Korea; Korean farmers spread it with its corm.". Rmhermen 18:19, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
The taro is a flowering plant, but taro does not bloom in Korea. I don't know if it's because of the weather or because of the harvesting, but taro does not spread by seeds in Korea. It's true and any Korean taro farmer can tell you that, although I guess it's difficult to find someone on the web who says the same. --Kjoonlee 17:56, 22 November 2006 (UTC)
I'll put it back in if I can find a citation. --Kjoonlee 17:56, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Taro as one of earliest cultivated plants?

"Taro is believed to be one of the earliest cultivated plants."

Source for this? -- 201.51.201.107 19:16, 8 March 2006 (UTC)


Taro is also extensively eaten in Cyprus and South Med. In Cyprus it is called "Kolokasi"

[edit] Variety and color?

I bought Taro from a Japanese food store and also my local super market. I planted it and it came out the same. I went to the Korean market, bought it and the tarot plants look different. The edges of the leaves are purple, really, really dark purple, as are the stems. On the Japanese variety the stems are green with tinges of purple at the base of the stem kind of scattered out rather than concentrated. I read on the internet that there are two basic kinds of taro the "mountain" kind ("asian") and then the "wetland" kind (Hawaiian). However, I did not realize there were sub varieties within that... anyone have an idea what variety of the mountain kind of taro I have that would produce that sort of look? I'm having trouble finding it on the Internet. --Hitsuji Kinno 20:50, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Aloha-

I am mahi'ai, a kalo farmer from Hawaii. I personally have six variaties of kalo. Mo'i, Pili Ali'i, Mana, Kumu, Ele Ele and Lehua. There are many more. I cannot tell you the name of your plant without seeing it, I just wanted to pass it on, there are still many, many variaties. The university of Manoa has a patent of several kinds of genetically modified kalo, over which there is much debate.

Then could you add something on cultivars? (with references) I can take a picture of the two types of taro... but they are mountain rather than wetland taro... and from what I know Hawaii tends to grow wetland (is that correct?) Noting such things might be useful. There are examples of listed cultivars in banana, carrot, and pineapple articles. Considering the range of taro, listing a few common base groups would be useful.--Hitsuji Kinno 02:31, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hawaii

Why is half of the article about production in Hawaii, which is not among the top producers, not even the whole USA?--cloviz 16:41, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Aloha- It is true that in Hawai'i we cannot compete with the top kalo producers of the world. There are reasons for this, try acreage. There have also been terrible cases of root rot and snails causing damage to our lo'i. Maybe I can offer you one reason for the mention of Hawai'i in the article. Many lifetimes ago, there lived a man, Wakea, and his wife, Papa, who are the parents of our people. From them was born a stillborn son, Haloa, and from his grave grew the first kalo. Kalo is more than a plant, and source of food, there is a deep connection that involves ohana, family, and a way of life. We could never compete on a global market with "top producers." We have no desire to compete, we no need plenty you see, we only need enough.

I see. It would be interesting to have that story in the article; it demonstrates cultural importance of the plant. I just thought it would be more balanced to have sections on other countries too. But to be sincere, I have never seen a taro in my life...--cloviz 13:11, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
It's great that the Hawaiian's have deep connection to Taro. However, you're a little pretentious to believe that Hawaiian's alone have this bond. In fact, most indigenous communities have strong bonds with their staple crops. Africans are known to have strong bonds with their crops and land, likewise other Pacific Islanders. It's a shame that this page isn't more representative of Taro worldwide.

[edit] differences with ube

what are the differences other than that ube is purple? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.107.217.63 (talk • contribs) 04:30, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Alternate name?

I think "malanga coca" might be an alternate name. Badagnani 17:46, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

another from india possibly like sounds "Arbe"77.133.23.219 11:24, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] oxalates

A user on IRC was having trouble posting this, so I did so in their stead

The article sounds incorrect to me.
1) Does taro contain Calcium oxalate or Oxalic acid or both? intro says one then a couple paragraphs down with get the other with no explanation why the discrepancy.
2) The article says these Oxalates are borken down by cooking. Well no. Calcium Oxalate.monohydrate will break down to CaCO3 at about 500C. Most foods are not cooked at 500C. Oxalic acid is quite stable and decomposes at 189.5C. Most foods are not cooked at this temperature and indeed one would need a rather powerful autoclave.
So what gives? What are the Oxalate levels anyways?

--Agamemnon2 20:00, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

terr 20:03, 14 August 2007 (UTC) thanx. I can edit this para but I could not edit the page itself to insert the para.

[edit] Size

I have always heard that it grows with one very large corm (slightly smaller than an American football) and many smaller ones, on one plant. But the article doesn't mention this. Is this correct? Badagnani 06:27, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] root (corm) vs. leaf

It's important to distinguish in the article between taro root and taro leaves, as both are edible, and the leaves are delicious and extremely nutritious. Please specify and differentiate! Most of this article seems to be about the root, as if it's understood that that is the only useful or edible or desirable part of the plant -- which is hardly the case. Please fix the terminology and specify which part is being discussed in every instance. Thanks. Softlavender (talk) 06:18, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Brown veins in corm

What are the brownish veins in the corm (which a regular potato, for example, doesn't have)? This should be described in the article. Badagnani (talk) 18:49, 11 May 2008 (UTC)