keys to the vascular plants of east texas - Botanical Research ...

468 ARACEAE/CRYPTOCORYNE
corm (when properly prepared) and leaves (again, with proper preparation), contain calcium
oxalate crystals (and possibly also toxins) which can cause burning and swelling of the mouth
and throat and even death (Schmutz & Hamilton 1979). The common name DASHEEN is “said to
be a corruption of the French du Chine, ‘from China’ ” (Shosteck 1974). (Greek: kolokasia, derived
from Arabic: colcas or culcas, the terms originally used for the edible roots of Nelumbo
nucifera Gaertn.—water lotus, and “thus applied to Colocasia because of its edible tubers”—
Serviss et al. 2000)
REFERENCES: Greenwell 1947; Arridge & Fonteyn 1981; Wang 1983; Tahara et al. 1999a, 1999b;
Ochiai et al. 2000; Serviss et al. 2000.
Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott, (edible), TARO, WILD TARO, ELEPHANT’S-EAR, KALO, DASHEEN,
EDDO, COCO-YAM, MALANGA. Large perennial with large tuber-like corm and scale-covered, welldeveloped,
elongate, sometimes tuberous rhizomes (often emergent from the soil and becoming
stoloniferous); leaves all basal; leaf blades to 70 cm long and 40 cm wide, � ovate, cordate to
sagittate or hastate at base, peltate—the notch at base not as deep as attachment of petiole, the
upper blade surface usually with a red or purplish spot above where the petiole attaches and
often with a velvety sheen, with midvein and lateral veins even with or minutely raised above
adjacent blade tissue; petioles usually longer than leaf blades; spathe convolute, (10–)20–35
(–40) cm long, constricted between the inflated tube and expanded blade, yellow to orange;
spadix terminated by a short or long sterile appendage; fruits and seeds not observed in TX
material, the fruits reported to be orange; both diploid (2n = 2x = 28) and triploid (2n = 3x = 42)
forms are known (Tahara et al. 1999a). Cultivated as an ornamental and apparently spreading
in wet areas; Bell (specimens collected in 1997 from a large population along Salado Creek, including
a flowering individual), Dallas, Liberty, Polk, Travis (Town Lake; huge population—G.
Diggs, pers. obs.) (BRIT), Henderson (BAYLU), Hays (San Marcos River—Arridge & Fonteyn
1981), and Guadalupe (Turner et al. 2003) cos., extensively naturalized along Turtle Creek in
Dallas (R. O’Kennon, pers. obs.); according to Serviss et al. (2000), this species occurs throughout
“most of eastern Texas”; also Edwards Plateau; se U.S. from NC s to FL w to TX. Summer–Sep.
Native of tropical Asia. An important foodstuff for more than 2,000 years (Plowman 1969), this
widely cultivated species has numerous varieties and hundreds of forms or land races (Serviss
et al. 2000). Three of the varieties are reported (Serviss et al. 2000) as occurring in East TX: var.
aquatilis Hassk., var. antiquorum (Schott) Hubb. & Rehd., and var. nymphaeifolia (Vent.) A.F.
Hill. However, these “three varieties intergrade appreciably in form and ecology and probably
encompass only a single, highly variable taxon” (Serviss et al. 2000). We are therefore not recognizing
varieties in this treatment. Worldwide, in terms of food production, this species is the
most important member of the Araceae (Serviss et al. 2000); approximately 400 million people
include TARO in their diets (Bown 2000). It is widely grown in the tropics for the starchy, edible
(when appropriately cooked), tuberous corm and young leaves, and it was apparently first
brought into the U.S. as a food for slaves. It was subsequently cultivated by the Dept. of Agriculture
throughout the southeast, including East TX. In Hawaii it is eaten as “poi,” a fermented
paste made from crushed cooked corms (Greenwell 1947; Arridge & Fonteyn 1981; Ivancic &
Lebot 1999; Thompson 2000b). Taro chips, made from the corms, are now available in many
East TX grocery stores as a snack food. However, all parts of the plant except the corms (when
properly prepared) contain calcium oxalate crystals and possibly also toxins (Schmutz &
Hamilton 1979). � I m/282
CRYPTOCORYNE Fisch. ex Wydl. WATER-TRUMPET
AA genus of ca. 50–60 species of rhizomatous, often stoloniferous marsh and water plants
found throughout most of tropical Asia from India and China to the Philippines and New
Guinea (Reumer 1984; Mayo et al. 1997, 1998; Ørgaard & Jacobsen 1998; Bastmeijer 2003). The
inflorescences are reported to “give off a dung-like scent; this attracts insects, which crawl