Distribution and morphological characteristics of wild taro (Colocasia esculenta Schott) in Japan and Taiwan.

Abstract

The 29 accessions of wild taro (Colocasia esculenta SCHOTT) were collected in southern Japan and Taiwan. The collection sites were from Honshu, Kyushu, Hachijo Island, through most of the islands in the Nansei Archipelago and Taiwan. However, they were not found in the southern coastside of Shikoku, a few islands in the Nansei Archipelago and Peel (Chichi-jima) and Coffin (Haha-jima) Islands in Bonin Archipelago. The taros grew naturally along roadsides, around creeks and around and inside of rice cropping paddy fields. All the accessions derived from Taiwan and the Nansei Archipelago were diploids (2n=28) and the others were triploids (2n=42). The taros were cultivated in the experimental fields with one of the oldest cultivars, 'Eguimo', to observe the vegetative and inflorescence morphology in details. Their. plant form, leaf shape and petiole color were variable among the accessions. The triploids had cormel typed lateral branches and the diploids did runner typed ones. All the accessions produced spadices. Length of the portions of spadix varied among the accessions. They do not seem to be wild, but escape. And because their edible characters such as cormel yield are infcrior to those of the current cultivars, they are thought to have been introduced in the areas before the arrival of current cultivars.