UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Washington, D. C. 
TAROS AND YAUTIAS; PROMISING NEW FOOD PLANTS 
FOR THE SOUTH. 
By Ropert A. Youne, Assistant Horticulturist, Office of Foreign Seed and Plant 
Introduction, Bureau of Plant Industry. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. Page 
General characteristics ____________ Ll] OY 0 Ve ene ei ee ne 3 
SS Pee a Ae I SER Poel AN GG OL AIC) eens Bele Bele a ieee a naar Gd Se ages PS Ly, 
Relationship of the taros and i SUM Marry os Pe Le are 22 
VU Se on ee ee 2 
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 
The taro (pronounced tah’ro) and yautia (pronounced yow tee’ 
ah) are starchy root crops? belonging to the aroid family (Aracez). 
They are similar to the potato in food qualities. As a group they 
are often termed the edible or economic aroids. All are of tropical 
or subtropical origin, mostly requiring a very long season in which 
to mature and more moisture than the common crop plants of tem- 
perate regions. Some of them are adapted for cultivation in rich 
and moist but fairly well drained lands in the coast regions of the 
southeastern United States. They do not thrive in the dry regions 
of this country where irrigation 1s practiced. 
The taros include the ordinary peltate-leaved elephant-ear and the 
dasheens. Dasheens have been grown on a small but increasing com- 
mercial scale for a number of years in the far South. The dasheen 
type of taro has proved to be the most valuable for cultivation in the 
Southern States, and its more important varieties have been treated 
in detail in a separate paper.? This bulletin, therefore, deals mainly 
1Two earlier publications (now out of print) have dealt with the yautia, one cf which 
also treated of the taro: (1) Barrett, O. W. The yautias, or taniers, of Porto Rico. 
Porto Rico Agr. Exp. Sta. Bul. 6, 27 p., 4 pl. 1905; (2) Barrett, O. W._ Promising root 
crops for the South. I.—Yautias, taros, and dasheens. U.S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Plant Indus. 
Bul. 164, p. 7-29, 10 pl. 1910. Besides these there have been several papers dealing 
exclusively with the dasheen, the most recent of which is Farmers’ Bulletin 1396. 
2Young, R. A. The dasheen; a southern root’ crop for home use and market. U., §. 
Dept. Agr., Farmers’ Bul. 1396. 35 p., 26 fig. 1924. 
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