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Dwarf Taro
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Dwarf Taro
ative Photo: Thingnam Girija
Common name: Dwarf Taro • Nepali: लेलधामखोस Leldhamkhos, पतरकच Patarkach
Botanical name: Remusatia pumila    Family: Araceae (Arum family)
Synonyms: Caladium pumilum, Colocasia pumila, Gonatanthus pumilus

Dwarf Taro is a herb which is characterized by large ovate-oblong heart-shaped, Arbi-like leaves. Leaves are 8-15 cm long and 5-10 cm broad, attached to a long stalk from the middle of the blade (what is called a peltate leaf). The plant often grows on trunks of trees. Flower is a 15-25 cm long stick like spadix, wrapped in a green covering (spathe). Fruit is a head of small yellow berries enclosed in the spathe-tube. The rootstock of the plant is tuberous. Dwarf Taro is found in dense evergreen forests, on damp mossy rocks, trees, and banks, at altitudes of 1000-2800 m, in the Himalayas, Bhutan, Nepal, N Thailand and China. Flowering: June-August.
Medicinal uses: A paste from the rhizome is applied on the chest for chest pain. Juice from crushed leaves is used as an antibiotic for wounds in humans and animals.

Identification credit: Tabish Photographed in Gangtok, Sikkim.

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