Plant · P-273

Giant Swamp Taro

Cyrtosperma merkusii

Giant Swamp Taro produces an enormous starchy corm - up to a meter long and 80 kg - grown by holding it in permanently flooded pits in tropical lowland swamps for anywhere from two to six years before harvest. It needs standing water 20-70 cm deep held year-round, plus continuous warmth with no hard freeze, for that entire multi-year growing period. Every part is edible once cooked - corm, leaves and flower clusters - but all contain calcium oxalate that burns the mouth raw, neutralized only by thorough cooking, drying or steeping. Its tolerance for brackish water is a genuine asset on a coral atoll, though it has no use away from a permanent wetland.