Indo-Malay Taro is a large evergreen herb, with stout
epigeal stem. Leaves can grow very large, but are smaller in
cultivation. Leaf-stalks are pale green, strikingly powdery, up to 2.5
m, proximal half sheathing; leaf blade white powdery below, especially
when immature, green or pale green above, ovate-heart-shaped, 25-250 x
17-150 cm, membranous, base heart-shaped, peltate, margin wavy, tip
shortly tapering. Inflorescences are 5-13 arising from leaf axil
(actually at branch-ends on shoot and displaced by new shoot);
flower-cluster-stalk powdery, cylindric, 30-80 x 1-2 cm, each with a
membranous cataphyll nearly equaling length of flower-cluster-stalk.
Spathe is 12-24 cm; tube green, ellipsoid, 3-6 x 1.5-2 cm; limb erect,
white, oblong-boat-shaped, distinctly constricted, 8-19 × 2-3 cm.
Spadix 9-20 cm; female zone white or cream-colored, conic; sterile zone
3-4.5 cm, slender; male zone 5-14 cm; appendix very short, 1-5 mm, tip
pointed. Berry oblong, about 5 mm. Seeds are many, spindle-shaped, with
many distinct longitudinal striations. Indo-Malay Taro is native to
Bangladesh, Borneo, Cambodia, China South-Central, China Southeast,
Jawa, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Myanmar, Sumatera, Thailand,
Vietnam, at altitudes of 100-700 m. It is widely cultivated in SE Asia,
including NE India, for its edible leaf-stalks. Leaf-stalks are cooked
for consumption. Rhizome is boiled or steamed for consumption. Whole
plant is used as common vegetable. Flowering: April-June.
Medicinal uses: Leaf lamina roasted for local
application on boils.
Identification credit: Tabish
Photographed in Imphal, Manipur.
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The flower labeled Indo-Malay Taro is ...