Colocasia

Colocasia
Colocasia esculenta
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Alismatales
Family: Araceae
Subfamily: Aroideae
Tribe: Colocasieae
Genus: Colocasia
Schott
Natural range of the genus Colocasia.
Synonyms[1][2]

Leucocasia Schott

Elephant ear plant with yellow blossom
Elephant ear plant with blossom

Colocasia is a genus[3][4] of flowering plants in the family Araceae, native to southeastern Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Some species are widely cultivated and naturalized in other tropical and subtropical regions.[1][5]

The names elephant-ear and cocoyam are also used for some other large-leaved genera in the Araceae, notably Xanthosoma and Caladium. The generic name is derived from the ancient Greek word kolokasion, which in Greek, botanist Dioscorides (1st century AD) may have inferred the edible roots of both Colocasia esculenta and Nelumbo nucifera.

The species Colocasia esculenta is invasive in wetlands along the American Gulf coast, where it threatens to displace native wetland plants.[6]

  1. ^ a b "Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online.
  2. ^ GRIN (October 5, 2007). "Colocasia Schott". Taxonomy for Plants. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland: USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program. Archived from the original on October 7, 2012. Retrieved July 13, 2010.
  3. ^ "Query Results for Genus Colocasia". IPNI. Retrieved February 13, 2010.
  4. ^ "Name - Colocasia Schott subordinate taxa". Tropicos. Saint Louis, Missouri: Missouri Botanical Garden. Retrieved February 13, 2010.
  5. ^ Wagner, W. L.; D. R. Herbst & S. H. Sohmer (1999). Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai'i. Revised edition. Vol. 2. University of Hawaiʻi Press/Bishop Museum Press. p. 1357.
  6. ^ Keddy, P.A., D. Campbell, T. McFalls, G. Shaffer, R. Moreau, C. Dranguet, and R. Heleniak. 2007. The wetlands of lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas: past, present and future. Environmental Reviews 15: 1- 35.