Are all cultivars of Colocasia esculenta (taro) edible?

I understand that Hawaiians bred hundreds of varieties of edible taro before western crops took over as mainstays on their farms. Does anyone know if the Colocasia esculenta varieties sold in the ornamental trade are of the same food value? Do some taste better than others?

As an example, here is an extensive list of Colocasia esculenta cultivars that grow in my hardiness zone. I'd like to pick one that won't overly bully its neighbors and figured a purple or variegated variety would have enough reduced vigor to make that possible:

http://www.plantdelights.com/searchprods.asp

If anyone has suggestions on how to pick a variety or opinions on their overall edibility I'd greatly appreciate it.

I would love to know this myself. I have an un-named variety of Colocasia esculenta but have not yet tried to eat it.

I think I'm going to go with Colocasia 'Elepaio' which is the first one on that list. Since the catalog description said it was an old Hawaiian variety I looked it up and found it is edible and supposed to make good poi. One person says it was historically only grown by the Hawaiian royal family.

I'd still love to know if anyone has experience with eating other ornamental C. esculenta. Also, anyone know if red/purple varieties are commonly eaten?

Ornamental taro is Edible - if you are extra hungry. At least the leaf will be, although it will take a long long time to cook. Most "ornamental" taro I have seen doesn't produce a corm of significant size.

I'm growing a dozen or more varieties. Mostly traditional Hawaiian varieties, although I did just plant out a bunch of bun-long (Chinese taro) and a new hybrid variety. Three varieties (don't know the names) I grow haven't produced any corm in two years - all three are "running" - ie they spread quickly. Which is cool because they hold their own against grasses and weeds. I use these ones for the leaf - known as "lu'au". Cooked as a spinach. The ornamental "black magic" vareity has never produced corm in 5 years of growing, and I've never bothered to eat the leaf - it's for looking at, and is a really striking plant.

Point being, try to find a known edible variety. Taro is ornamental in it's own right.

I have many Taro questions. Rather than starting a new thread I'm reopening this. I am sure many people have Taro questions, if only we could find a traditional expert...

Here's a rant worthy of Mollison himself.

Bump... same question.. I wanna grow taro for the root.  I love the large root of taro baked with canned coconut milk, onions, and some salt. Sooo yum.. I can't find the large root in Alabama. Only the small ones. The large ones you could find in any Asian store on the West Coast.

Have been getting great information on growing colocasia esculenta (different varieties) also the American equivalent Xanthosoma Sagittifolium on a Youtube channel called,  Compostapr.
It is in Spanish but the guy is really very knowledgeable! The variety "Elena" has lilac flesh and is very edible 😋.  That is available at Wellspring Gardens. Also the regular green leaf with the white flesh tuber.

Taro does not make separate corms like the Xanthosoma. One must remove all young suckers or the plant will not grow a sizeable one to eat.
There is a variety of colocasia that the tuber is called eddo in some of the English speaking Caribbean Islands. This one does produce runners with small (tennis ball size) tubers. Those can be found in many Asian or Puertorican produce markets as well.  Hope this helps.

I'm interested to trade/buy several varieties of edible taro or similar species. If anyone is willing to trade/sell off some of their best edible types please hit me up! Interested in ones with big corms, edible stems, and edible leaves. Especially those of good edibility that are also more ornamental than just the green leaved types. Thanks for any help!

Eugene Holmes wrote:Have been getting great information on growing colocasia esculenta (different varieties) also the American equivalent Xanthosoma Sagittifolium on a Youtube channel called,  Compostapr.
It is in Spanish but the guy is really very knowledgeable! The variety "Elena" has lilac flesh and is very edible 😋.  That is available at Wellspring Gardens. Also the regular green leaf with the white flesh tuber.

Taro does not make separate corms like the Xanthosoma. One must remove all young suckers or the plant will not grow a sizeable one to eat.
There is a variety of colocasia that the tuber is called eddo in some of the English speaking Caribbean Islands. This one does produce runners with small (tennis ball size) tubers. Those can be found in many Asian or Puertorican produce markets as well.  Hope this helps.

Eugene I'm very curious to hear more about the edibility of the "Elena" variety. How you tried both the leaves and corms?
This is one variety I'm able to source in Europe. The traditional Hawaian cultivars I cannot find unfortunately.

This thread reminded me of an idea I was pursuing.
I live in zone 6, so most of these varities would not over winter here.
There is one that is known to be hardy and thats Chuna Pink.
I wasn't sure if it was  a Colocasia esculenta or one of the other things that look like Colocasia esculenta.
I found a breeder, Brian at Brian's Botanicals
, who works with it, and asked him.
He confirmed the identity.
This doesn't mean China Pink is "edible" , more like it confirming its is "tomato" not a "potato" I.E. potatoes and tomatoes are closely related and they both have fruit, but you wouldn't want to eat potato berries at all, but most varieties of tomatoes have the same things in their fruits.

All said, this is enough for me to want to grow China Pink.
It will be there if I needed it, hidden in plain sight.

William Bronson wrote:This thread reminded me of an idea I was pursuing.
I live in zone 6, so most of these varities would not over winter here.
There is one that is known to be hardy and thats Chuna Pink.
I wasn't sure if it was  a Colocasia esculenta or one of the other things that look like Colocasia esculenta.
I found a breeder, Brian at Brian's Botanicals
, who works with it, and asked him.
He confirmed the identity.
This doesn't mean China Pink is "edible" , more like it confirming its is "tomato" not a "potato" I.E. potatoes and tomatoes are closely related and they both have fruit, but you wouldn't want to eat potato berries at all, but most varieties of tomatoes have the same things in their fruits.

All said, this is enough for me to want to grow China Pink.
It will be there if I needed it, hidden in plain sight.

I also just got a China pink but haven’t tried it yet. On canarius.com china pink is sold as an edible taro, I also found it listed as edible on a couple of other european sites. I’m planning to try next year when mine has grown.

Does anyone have a link to a website where they sell edible cultivars or varieties of taro or malanga? I've searched tirelessly but never find anything. I'd really like to collect a bunch of these for food purposes. Thanks for any help! Want both varieties used for edible corms and leaves/stems.

I bought taro from canarius.com and malanga from https://thirdinsightdesign.com/

William Bronson wrote:This thread reminded me of an idea I was pursuing.
I live in zone 6, so most of these varities would not over winter here.
There is one that is known to be hardy and thats Chuna Pink.
I wasn't sure if it was  a Colocasia esculenta or one of the other things that look like Colocasia esculenta.
I found a breeder, Brian at Brian's Botanicals
, who works with it, and asked him.
He confirmed the identity.
This doesn't mean China Pink is "edible" , more like it confirming its is "tomato" not a "potato" I.E. potatoes and tomatoes are closely related and they both have fruit, but you wouldn't want to eat potato berries at all, but most varieties of tomatoes have the same things in their fruits.

All said, this is enough for me to want to grow China Pink.
It will be there if I needed it, hidden in plain sight.

So interesting that these would grow here in "Boston"

William Bronson wrote:This thread reminded me of an idea I was pursuing.
I live in zone 6, so most of these varities would not over winter here.
There is one that is known to be hardy and thats Chuna Pink.
I wasn't sure if it was  a Colocasia esculenta or one of the other things that look like Colocasia esculenta.
I found a breeder, Brian at Brian's Botanicals
, who works with it, and asked him.
He confirmed the identity.
This doesn't mean China Pink is "edible" , more like it confirming its is "tomato" not a "potato" I.E. potatoes and tomatoes are closely related and they both have fruit, but you wouldn't want to eat potato berries at all, but most varieties of tomatoes have the same things in their fruits.

All said, this is enough for me to want to grow China Pink.
It will be there if I needed it, hidden in plain sight.

Brian just sent out a message regarding other cold-hardy Colocasia varieties that he has bred. I hope this link works:

https://madmimi.com/p/e415c91?pact=1185755-181679582-14478067981-c665e2b7e06b531aec3a0729e48df57a2dc5318c#

The Colocasia "Pink China" is sold as an Elephant Ear Plant that is Cold Hardy through Zone 6.
When species info is given,  it is listed as Colocasia esculenta, and the leaves show it to be a taro, not a elephant ear, but all of that is theoretical.
Does anyone have first hand knowledge of this plant?

Taro already seems like a good fit for a 5 gallon bucket garden.
Sit those bucket in a kiddy pool,  feed heavily,  harvest leaves all growing season,  harvest the buckets, store and use the root over winter,  rinse repeat.
Basically,  a potato with edible greens  which  would be awesome.

If Colocasia "Pink China"  is an edible esculenta,  then we are looking at a cold hardy (to zone 6)  root to shoot edible that also works as an indoor plant, and that would be really cool!

So,  does anyone have any knowledge of this specific variety?

Bump!

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/colocasia-esculenta/  Lists taro and elephant ear as common names of Colocasia.

https://wimastergardener.org/article/elephant-ears-colocasia-alocasia-and-xanthosoma/ From this article, it sounds like they are all edible and pink china is listed as a variety of Colocasia.

Looks like Colocasia leaves point down:


And Alocasia and Xanthocasia leaves point up:




http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/plant-directory/colocasia-esculenta/

Taro can be distinguished from elephant ears by the attachment of the leaf from the petiole. In taro, the petiole attaches to the leaf several inches from the base of the ‘V’ of the leaf, while the petiole is attached directly at the base in elephant ears. The leaves are light green for elephant ear and darker green in color for taro.

I think it should be edible, but having been selected for appearance, it might not taste as good as a variety selected for food. I'm sure you know it needs to be cooked thoroughly! Try it and let us know!  

Xanthocasia start out rolled up into a spike, pointing up, but then go down as the leaves unroll and mature-- Alocasia seem to remain pointing up?
There seems to be so much confusion in terms of names. Here we have a few species that are lookalikes- Xanthosoma sagittifolium is used for food here, and we are oriented to avoid Colocasia antiquorum Schott as a potentially poisonous species--- and C antiquorum is synonymous for C esculenta! on top of that, they ALL seem to be generally called elephant ear or occasionally translated as taro. I suppose because we have one less toxic variety (X sagittifolium) the tendency is to avoid the others? The rule here is to only eat the one where the stem enters the leaf in the middle, not at the base, and only plants where the leaf has a border around the edge.
As mentioned, obviously, cook them all!!
Hopefully yours is really a taro. The tubers/corms on X sagitt are small, the leaves are really the main event (they make fabulous omelets) and are nutritious.

I am glad I have found this thread since I have been doing reading about the Pink China cultivar. I might have to send some samples to a food lab or get a test kit to make sure the corms are edible after cooking. I sure hope this is a genuine edible cultivar of Colocasia esculenta since it might be the only cultivar of taro that can be grown as a perennial in my climate.