A tropical plant with large heart-shaped leaves and a starchy root that is eaten as a staple food in many Pacific and African cultures.
From Polynesian languages, particularly the word 'talo' in Samoan and 'taro' in Hawaiian. The word traveled to English through European contact with Pacific island cultures in the 18th century.
Taro is a 'perfect' staple crop—it grows in wet tropical areas where many grains struggle, and it's incredibly nutritious and calorie-dense. Polynesian and African communities have cultivated it for thousands of years, making it one of humanity's oldest cultivated plants, yet it remains mysterious to most Western diets.
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