| Common Name : | Giant taro, Giant ape, Giant Alocasia. |
| Botanical Name : | Alocasia macrorrhiza |
| Family : | Araceae |
| Bengali Name : | Man kochu ( |
| Photo Taken : | Bangladesh |
Giant Taro is a plant from the Arum family Araceae. This is also known as Giant ape, Giant alocasia, etc. Botanical name of the plant is Alocasia macrorrhiza. This is native at Malaysia, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In Bangladesh we know this as Man kochu (
Giant taro (Alocasia macrorrhiza) a big herbaceous plant which can grow up to 12 feet in height. The plant has an upright trunk which itself can be 6 feet in height. The leafs use to emerge from the trunk which are very big, can be 3-6 feet long and 2-3 feet wide. Leafs look like the ear of an elephant due to its huge size. Leafs are having 2-4 feet long stalk. This plant can easily grow under the large trees (specially in rain forest).
Being a big herbaceous plant the Giant taro (Alocasia macrorrhiza) brings slightly bigger flower (which is mainly an inflorescence). Flower blooms over a short stalk from the plant and can remain hidden due to the large leafs. Flower is having a green bulb at the bottom and then a creamy white sepal which looks like a hood of a snake.
In some countries Giant taro (Alocasia macrorrhiza) is being used as an ornamental flowering plant for its large leafs. But in South Asia this is being used as a vegetable. The trunk of the plant can be cooked with small fishes, fried, and smashed. Although having oxalic acid the curry often cause itching at throat, mouth and tongue during eating. Despite of that this is still one of my favorite dish. Lot of people believe using lime or lemon with this dish would reduce the itching.
Photos of Giant taro (Alocasia macrorrhiza) were taken from the following locations of Bangladesh.
1. March 2013: Mymensingh.
2. November 2014: Nagorpur, Tangail.
This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icflora.blogspot.com/
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