The taxonomic classification of the Chinese Ocumo, whose scientific name attributed to this plant is Colocasia esculenta, belongs to the Kingdom: Plantae, Phylum: Magnoliophyta, Class: Liliopsida, Order: Arales, Family: Araceae, Genus: Colocasia and Specific Epithet: esculenta.
▶ Chinese Ocumo is a herbaceous, succulent plant that reaches 1-3 meters, without aerial stem. The central stem is ellipsoidal, known as corm, rich in carbohydrates (18-30% on a fresh basis). The plant is constituted by a simple or branched corm from the upper part of which sprout leaves.
Chinese ocumo (colocasia esculenta), a species originating from the Asian continent, specifically in the Southeast, probably comprised between countries such as India or Malaysia.
As a crop it is among one of the first to be domesticated by man, its history can be traced back to Neolithic cultures.
In addition, during prehistoric times its cultivation spread to the Pacific Islands, later it was taken to the Mediterranean and India, tropical America and south of the coasts of the United States of America.
As for its name it has many denominations that derive according to the geographic area, mainly in the tropic it has innumerable vulgar names, but it will be seen that the variation "tallus" (tallas, tales, taloes) is the most important from which the Hawaiian name "Taro" or "Chinese Ocumo" is derived.
