JOURNAL OF AGffllfflML RESEARCH 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Vol. VI Washington, D. C, July io, 1916 No. 15 



STORAGE-ROTS OF ECONOMIC AROIDS 



By L. L. Harter, 

 Pathologist, Cotton and Truck Crop Disease Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry 



INTRODUCTION > 



The economic aroids within the scope of this article include various 

 species and varieties of the genus Colocasia obtained from numerous 

 warm regions throughout the world; a species of Alocasia received from 

 Dutch Guiana under the varietal name "Eksi-taya" and Xanthosoma 

 sagittijolium (L.) Schott, a native tropical American species. These 

 plants are all of greater or less importance for human food in many 

 tropical and subtropical countries, and they are being grown commer- 

 cially or experimentally in the southern United States. 



The Trinidad dasheen, a variety of taro, gives the greatest promise of 

 success in the United States. It differs from many other taros in that it 

 produces a considerable number of cormels, or "tubers," 2 of edible size, 

 in addition to the large, edible, central corm. There are a number of 

 varieties resembling it more or less closely. China is believed to have 

 been the original home of the Trinidad dasheen, which is referred to 

 Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott. 



Another group of taros, resembling the Trinidad dasheen in general 

 leaf and floral characters and in the production of a large number of 

 tubers, is represented by the Yu-to variety, from Mukden, Manchuria. 

 Several of the Japanese taros, or " imos," are similar to this variety. The 

 tubers are often very numerous, but usually quite small. These varieties 

 are at present also referred to C. esculenta. 



The Egyptian taro, called "Qolqas," is a member of another group of 

 taros probably belonging to C. antiquorum (L.) Schott. A variety of this 

 type, obtained by the Department from Cat Island, S. C, in 1906, is 

 representative of this group. This group is distinguished from the 



1 The first four paragraphs of the introduction were prepared by Mr. R. A. Young, of the Office of Foreign 

 Seed and Plant Introduction, Department of Agriculture. 



2 The word "tuber," the commercial term for "cormel" in the case of the dasheen, is used instead of 

 "cormel" in this paper. 



Journal of Agricultural Research, Vol. VI, No. is 



Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D. C July io, 1916 



eo G— 85 



' (549) 



