Giant elephant ear facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Giant elephant ear |
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Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Order: | Alismatales |
| Family: | Araceae |
| Genus: | Colocasia |
| Species: |
C. gigantea
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| Binomial name | |
| Colocasia gigantea (Blume ex Hassk.) Hook.f.
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The giant elephant ear (also called Colocasia gigantea or Indian taro) is a very tall plant. It can grow between 1.5 and 3 meters (about 5 to 10 feet) high! This plant has a large, thick underground stem called a corm. From the top of this corm, many big leaves grow in a circle.
People in some parts of Southeast Asia and Japan use the leaf stalks of this plant as a vegetable.
Giant Elephant Ear in Asia
This plant is an important food in several Asian countries.
In Vietnam
In Vietnam, the giant elephant ear is known as dọc mùng. In some southern parts of Vietnam, it's also called bạc hà. People often add it to popular Vietnamese dishes. These include canh chua, which is a sour soup, and bún, a type of noodle dish.
In Japan
In Japan, the plant is usually called hasu-imo. This name means "lotus yam." In Kōchi Prefecture, it's sometimes called ryukyu. This is because the plant first came from the Ryukyu Kingdom.
Japanese cooks use hasu-imo in different meals. It can be an ingredient in miso soup, a traditional Japanese soup. It's also used in chanpurū, a stir-fry dish from Okinawa, and sometimes even in sushi. The Japanese word zuiki refers to the leaf stalks of both C. gigantea and another similar plant, C. esculenta.
Plant Family Connections
Colocasia gigantea is closely related to another plant called Alocasia macrorrhizos. Scientists believe that Colocasia gigantea might have grown from a natural mix between A. macrorrhizos and C. esculenta. This means they are like cousins in the plant world!
