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Colocasia
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OverviewAI-generated
Colocasia is a genus of plants within the family Araceae. It belongs to the tribe Colocasieae and is commonly known as colocasia or taro. The taxon is classified under the kingdom Plantae.
Records of Colocasia have been documented in Mexico, China, Thailand, Bangladesh, and the United States. These records are held by institutions including UACH, US, INECOL, UCM, and A. The genus is not considered extinct.
Synthesized by Vinony from 28 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, PubMed, iNaturalist, Plants of the World, iDigBio, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Species
Taro
species
via · Kew POWO
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 136
- With media
- 106
- Family
- Araceae
- Collections
- UACH, US, INECOL, UCM, A, MO
- Recorded in
- Mexico, China, Thailand, Bangladesh, United States, Vietnam, Indonesia, Saint Lucia
Research
610 papers- Functional profile and encapsulating properties of Colocasia esculenta (Taro).Food science & nutrition · 2023
- Potential of Colocasia leaves in human nutrition: Review on nutritional and phytochemical properties.Journal of food biochemistry · 2019
- Colocasia Esculenta as a Potential Plant-Based Medicine: A Review on Its Bioactive Constituents and Pharmacological Activities.Journal of experimental pharmacology · 2025
- Nutritional, phytochemical composition and potential health benefits of taro (Colocasia esculenta L.) leaves: A review.Food chemistry · 2022
- Anticancer and Immunomodulatory Benefits of Taro (Colocasia esculenta) Corms, an Underexploited Tuber Crop.International journal of molecular sciences · 2020
via PubMed
~11 min read
Encyclopedic overview
17 sectionsContents
- Description
- Chemistry
- Taxonomy
- Species
- Etymology
- Ecology
- Cultivation
- Nutrition
- Culinary uses
- In the Mediterranean
- In Egypt
- In South Asia
- In culture
- Gallery
- See also
- References
- External links
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Colocasia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae, native to Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Some species are widely cultivated and naturalized in other tropical and subtropical regions. The species C. esculenta (taro) is invasive in wetlands along the Gulf Coast of the United States, where it threatens to displace native wetland plants.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Colocasia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.