page_title: Domesticated plants and animals of Austronesia
section_title: Colocasia esculenta (taro)
hierarchical_section_title: Domesticated plants and animals of Austronesia / Plants / Colocasia esculenta (taro)
caption_attribution_description: English: One of the largest taro growing areas in the Hawaiian Islands is the Lower Hanalei Valley. I guess every tourist to Kauai'i has one of these, but I figured it came out well.
context_page_description: One of the major human migration events was the maritime settlement of the islands of the Indo-Pacific by the Austronesian peoples, believed to have started from at least 5,500 to 4,000 BP. These migrations were accompanied by a set of domesticated, semi-domesticated, and commensal plants and animals transported via outrigger ships and catamarans that enabled early Austronesians to thrive in the islands of Maritime Southeast Asia, Near Oceania, and Remote Oceania, Madagascar, and the Comoros Islands.
  They include crops and animals believed to have originated from the Hemudu and Majiabang cultures in the hypothetical pre-Austronesian homelands in mainland China, as well as other plants and animals believed to have been first domesticated from within Taiwan, Island Southeast Asia, and New Guinea. Some of these plants are sometimes also known as "canoe plants", especially in the context of the Polynesian migrations. Domesticated animals and plants introduced during historic times are not included.
context_section_description: The taro (Colocasia esculenta), sometimes referred to as the "true taro", is one of the most ancient cultivated crops and pre-dated the Austronesian expansion. Taro is found widely in tropical and subtropical regions of South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea, and northern Australia and is highly polymorphic, making taxonomy and distinction between wild and cultivated types difficult. It is believed that they were domesticated independently multiple times, with authors giving possible locations as New Guinea, Mainland Southeast Asia, and northeastern India, based largely on the assumed native range of the wild plants. However, more recent studies have pointed out that wild taro may have a much larger native distribution than previously believed, and wild breeding types may also likely be indigenous to other parts of Island Southeast Asia.
  Archaeological traces of taro exploitation have been recovered from numerous sites pre-dating the Austronesian expansion, though whether these were cultivated or wild types can not be ascertained. They include the Niah Caves of Borneo, dating to <40,000 BP; Ille Cave of Palawan, dated to at least c. 11,000 BP; Kuk Swamp of New Guinea, dated to 10,200 to 9,910 cal BP; and Kilu Cave in the Solomon Islands dated to around c. 28,000 to 20,000 BP. In the case of Kuk Swamp, there is evidence of formalized agriculture emerging by about c. 10,000 BP, with evidence of cultivated plots, though which plant was cultivated remains unknown. 
  Regardless, taro were definitely among the cultivated plants of Austronesians as well as preceding populations in Island Southeast Asia. However, their importance in Island Southeast Asia had largely been replaced by rice, although they are still planted at the margins of rice paddies in some communities. They remained a staple in the islands of Melanesia and Polynesia where rice wasn't introduced. They are one of the four species of aroids (taros) cultivated by Austronesians primarily as a source of starchy corms, the others being Alocasia macrorrhizos, Amorphophallus paeoniifolius, and Cyrtosperma merkusii. They are the most important and the most preferred among the four, because they were less likely to contain the irritating raphides present in the other plants.
  Taro is also identified as one of the staples of Micronesia, from archaeological evidence dating back to the pre-colonial Latte Period (c. 900 - 1521 AD), indicating that it was also carried by Micronesians when they colonized the islands. Due to the unsuitability of the low-lying atoll islands of most of Micronesia, Micronesians innovated by digging pits that could then be filled up with compose suitable for taro cultivation. Taro pollen and starch residue have also been identified in earlier Lapita sites, dated to around c. 3,050 - 2,500 cal BP.
  There are numerous terms for taro in the Austronesian languages, both specific and generalized. The reconstructed Proto-Austronesian term for taro is *cali, with cognates in Formosan languages including Seediq sali, Thao lhari; Bunun tai; and Amis tali.
  It became *tales in  Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, which in turn became *talos or *talo in Proto-Oceanian. Modern cognates include Hanunó'o tálus; Aborlan Tagbanwa talis; Palawan Batak täläs; Nias talõ; Minangkabau talas; Rejang and Sundanese taleus; Javanese tales; Palauan dáit; Rotinese tale; and Tetun talas. In Polynesian languages, the cognates include Motu, Marovo, Tongan, Samoan, Niue, Futunan, Tuvaluan talo; Kwaio, Lau (Malaita), and Toqabaqita alo; 'Āre'āre, Arosi, and Bauro aro; Nakanamanga na-tale; Sye tal or nal; Fijian and Nukuoro dalo; Rennellese tago; Anuta, Rarotongan, and Māori taro; and Hawaiian kalo. The English name for the plant is itself derived from the Polynesian names. A red variety of taro also has names derived from reconstructed Proto-Polynesian *pongi, with cognates including Niue pongi; Marquesan poki; Hawaiian poni; and Māori pongi.
  In Proto-Western-Malayo-Polynesian, another reconstructed term is *kaladi, with cognates including Agutaynen, Sabah Bisaya, Iban, Tae', a
caption: Taro fields in Hanalei Valley, Kaua'i
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