Where does taro come from?

Answer 1

Taro (Pronounced tah-roh) and similar names are used in Tahitian and other Polynesian languages including Cook Island Maori and New Zealand Maori. The Hawaiian form of this name is kalo, the Fijian form is dalo, and the Indonesian form is tales. For uncertain reasons, 'taro' was adopted as a common name for the plant in English, in the 19th century, rather than the old vernacular Latin name for the plant (colocasia). The Pacific Island names (above) all belong to languages in the Austronesian language family. Gabi is the the name in the Philippines and in Japan it is called sato-imo (lit. 'village root crop'). There are many other vernacular names for the plant throughout its premodern range in the wild and under cultivation -- in Africa, southern Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Pacific.

The plant grown as a vegetable food for its edible corms and leaves; the use of the corms is more common, but it is also an important leaf vegetable in some regions. It is considered a staple in Oceanic societies, and is likely to be one of the earliest cultivated plants.[1] Taro has a number of wild relatives in the same genus in Southeast Asia, and this is where the cultivated species is likely to originate as a natural species. The natural range of taro extends from Southeast Asia to the Pacific Islands, and within this wide geographical range, the exact location or locations of domestication are unknown. Taro is related to Xanthosoma sagittifolium (yautia, malanga) another root crop that was independently domesticated in tropical America.

In its raw form, most varieties of taro are poisonous due to the presence of an enzyme (cysteine protease) attached to crystals of calcium oxalate. In cultivated forms of taro, this enzyme is destroyed by cooking, but in wild forms the enzyme appears to be heat resistant (Matthews personal observation). The acridity factor can be removed by steeping peeled taro roots in cold water overnight, and discarding the water, by vigorous washing with salt in running water, cooking, and other methods.

To summarise: Taro comes from:

1. Very poisonous wild forms of the plant (in the same species and possibly with the involvement of other species, not yet determined, as of 2010) (morphological origin).

2. From unknown wild populations over a wide natural geographical range in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands (geographical origin).

3. From somewhere in the vicinity of Southeast Asia, as a natural species evolving from wild ancestors before the arrival of humans in Southeast Asia (geographical origin).

Key authors for this story include: de Candolle, Schott, Krause, Hill, Porteres, Plucknett, Hay, Lebot, Ivancic, Caillon, Zhang, Li, Golson, Yen, Spriggs, Matthews, and Denham.