Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Colocasia esculenta
Common name
Taro
Family
Araceae
Where found
Along streams and in open marshy places. Sydney and the Blue Mountains, and south to Berry.
Notes
Introduced robust perennial herb to about 1 m high. Stem a thick and fleshy rhizome, creeping to sprawling, often underground. Leaves alternating along the stems, to about 60 cm long, 300 mm wide, peltate, more or less glaucous. Individual flowers small, with 0 petals. Male and female flowers in a spike on the same plant, male flowers above, cream, female flowers below, green. Flowers highly fragrant. Spathe 200-300 mm long, yellow. Flower spike much shorter than the spathe, to about 120 mm long. Fruit in a cluster, red, protected by the lower part of spathe. Flowering: Summer.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Colocasia~esculenta (accessed 7 January, 2021)
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a free mobile application:
