Taro

Appears in
A Canon of Vegetables

By Raymond Sokolov

Published 2007

  • About

Taro, because it is the most widespread common name in English, is the shorthand I will use for all the edible members of the aroid family. The vernacular nomenclature for these tuberous plants that have spread throughout the tropics reflects the difficulty of distinguishing members of one taro species from another. Names vary from place to place, even though regular consumers do not confuse them in kitchen practice. All taros belong to the large family of the Araceae or Aroidae, which take their names from the arum lily of Europe. There are no genera and some 1, 800 species. Edible aroids divide roughly into Xanthosoma spp. (tannia, tanniers, yautía, and malanga) and Colocasia esculenta (eddoes, dasheen, cocoyam, taro).