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Alocasia macrorrhizos
Also called Ape, Cunjevoi, Giant Alocasia, Pai, Elephant's Ear Plant
In Singapore: Giant Taro, Greater Alocasia, Birah Negeri, Elephant's Ear, Golden Giant Taro, Golden Elephant's Ear, Metallic Giant Taro, Metallic Elephant's Ear, New Guinea Gold Giant Taro, New Guinea Gold Elephant's Ear, Stingray Alocasia, Stingray Elephant's Ear, Variegated Giant Taro, Variegated Elephant's Ear (Naturalised in Singapore)
Giant taro is a large tropical aroid grown for its starchy rhizome and edible leaves, with huge heart-shaped leaves on tall stems. It is a species native to rainforests of Southeast Asia, New Guinea and Queensland, and it needs warmth, humidity and rich moist soil.
Alocasia macrorrhizos is a species of flowering plant in the arum family (Araceae) that is native to rainforests of Maritime Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and the Murray Islands group in the Torres Strait of Australia. It has long been cultivated in South Asia, the Philippines, many Pacific islands, and elsewhere in the tropics, in the order of tens of thousands of years. Common names include giant taro, giant alocasia, ʻape, biga, and pia. In Australia it is known as the cunjevoi (a term which also refers to a marine animal).
Alocasia macrorrhizos is native to an area from Borneo in the west to the Solomon Islands in the east, including Sulawesi, the Philippines, the Maluku Islands, New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and Queensland.
Usually the starch-containing rhizome and above-ground stem of the plant are collected and used for food. The leaf and leaf stem are also edible. Since the plant's sap can irritate all parts of the body that came in contact with it, due to presence of needle-like crystals of calcium oxalate (known as raphides), they have to be thoroughly cooked to avoid adverse effects. Plants harvested later will have more raphides. Alocasia species are commonly found in marketplaces in Samoa and Tonga and other parts of Polynesia. The varieties recognized in Tahiti are the Ape oa, haparu, maota, and uahea. The Hawaiian saying: ʻAi no i ka ʻape he maneʻo no ka nuku (The eater of ʻape will have an itchy mouth) means "there will be consequences for partaking of something bad".
Alocasia azlanii · Alocasia baginda · Alocasia brancifolia · Cunjevoi · Chinese taro · Alocasia fornicata · Alocasia heterophylla · Alocasia infernalis · Alocasia lauterbachiana · Alocasia longiloba · Alocasia melo · Alocasia nebula
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Alocasia macrorrhizos by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
