Tribe Colocasiodeae Rank Species | Subfamily Aroideae Genus Colocasia Higher classification Tarul | |
Similar Tarul, Alocasia, Alocasia macrorrhizos, Arum, Culantro | ||
Growing the elephant ear thai giant colocasia gigantea
Colocasia gigantea (also called giant elephant ear or Indian taro) is a 1.5–3 m tall herb with a large, fibrous, inedible corm, producing at its apex a whorl of large leaves. The leaf stalk is used as a vegetable in some areas in South East Asia and Japan.
Known as bạc hà in southern Vietnam and by Vietnamese speakers in the U.S (while it is called dọc mùng and bạc hà refers to a culinary mint herb in northern Vietnam), it is often used in canh chua and bún (rice vermicelli soup). In northern Vietnam, it's known as dọc mùng or rọc mùng.
In Japanese, it is called hasu-imo (literally, "lotus yam") in general and ryukyu in Kōchi Prefecture as it is originated in Ryukyu Kingdom. It is sometimes used as an ingredient of miso soup, chanpuru and sushi. A Japanese term zuiki means the leaf stalk of both C. gigantea and C. esculenta. Higo-zuiki, made of a dried stalk and produced solely in Kumamoto Prefecture (or Higo Province), is a sex toy with a history of several hundred years, containing saponin which is considered to affect sexual pleasure.
C. gigantea is close to Alocasia macrorrhizos and is thought to be produced from natural crossing between A. macrorrhizos and C. esculenta.
