Alocasia cucullata
(Chinese taro)

Preferred Scientific Name

• Alocasia cucullata (Lour.) G.Don

Preferred Common Name

• Chinese taro

Other Scientific Names

• Alocasia rugosa (Desf.) Schott
• Arum cucullatum Lour.
• Caladium colocasia Schott ex Wight
• Caladium cucullatum (Lour.) Pers.
• Caladium rugosum Desf.
• Colocasia cochleata Miq.
• Colocasia cucullata (Lour.) Schott
• Colocasia rugosa (Desf.) Kunth
• Panzhuyuia omeiensis Z.Y.Zhu

International Common Names

• English: Buddha's hand; Chinese ape; dwarf elephant ear
• Chinese: jian wei yu

Local Common Names

• India: boga kachu; mukhi-kochu; panchamukhi kochu

• Domain: Eukaryota
•     Kingdom: Plantae
•         Phylum: Spermatophyta
•             Subphylum: Angiospermae
•                 Class: Monocotyledonae
•                     Order: Arales
•                         Family: Araceae
•                             Genus: Alocasia
•                                 Species: Alocasia cucullata

The Araceae is a family of monocotyledonous flowering plants comprising about 144 genera and more than 3,600 species distributed mostly in tropical areas in the New World, and also in Australia, Africa-Madagascar and Asia (Stevens, 2019). The genus Alocasia comprises over 113 species of humid and rainforest understorey plants in Southeast Asia, the Malesian region and Australia. Several Alocasia species, including the giant taro (Alocasia macrorrhizos) and Chinese taro (Alocasia cucullata), are not only important food plants but also cultivated as ornamentals (Nauheimer et al., 2012).

The following description is adapted from Flora of China (Flora of China Editorial Committee, 2019).

Herbs, clumping, small to medium sized, somewhat robust, to 1 m, evergreen. Stems erect, hypogeal, basally much branched. Leaves many together; petiole weakly D-shaped in cross section, 25-30(-80) cm, sheath reaching to ca. 1/2 way, margins membranous; leaf blade broadly ovate-cordate, 10-40 × 7-28 cm, base shallowly cordate, apex acute; primary veins 4 on each side, radiating from petiole, arching, interprimary veins not forming a collective vein. Inflorescences rarely produced, usually solitary, sometimes paired, among leaf bases, subtended by membranous cataphylls; peduncle 20-30 cm. Spathe green, 9-15 cm; proximal spathe 4-8 × 2.5 cm; limb narrowly cymbiform, 5-10 × 3-5 cm. Spadix 8-14 cm; female zone cylindric, 1.5-2.5 cm × 7 mm; sterile zone 2-3 cm × 3 mm; male zone yellow, 3.4 cm × 8 mm; appendix yellowish, narrowly conic, 3.5 cm × 5 mm. Fruit a subglobose berry, 6-8 mm in diameter, ripening red.

In cultivation fruits are rarely produced. Within its native distribution range, seeds of A. cucullata are dispersed by birds. It also spreads vegetatively by suckers, corm fragments and rhizomes. Small corm or root fragments in the soil are enough to give rise to new plants. This species often reaches new localities through the movement of soil by humans (Staples et al., 2003; Miyake and Yafuso, 2005; Nauheimer et al. 2012; Flora of China Editorial Committee, 2019).

Alocasia cucullata is listed as invasive in Cuba, Costa Rica, Hawaii, Fiji, the Cook Islands, Micronesia and French Polynesia, and has the potential to displace native species. It has become naturalized in the understorey of rainforests and moist areas along stream and river banks (Grayum, 2003; Chacón and Saborío, 2012; Oviedo Prieto and González-Oliva, 2015; PIER, 2019).

• Proved invasive outside its native range
• Has a broad native range
• Is a habitat generalist
• Tolerates, or benefits from, cultivation, browsing pressure, mutilation, fire etc
• Pioneering in disturbed areas
• Tolerant of shade
• Benefits from human association (i.e. it is a human commensal)
• Long lived
• Fast growing
• Reproduces asexually

• Reduced native biodiversity

• Competition - monopolizing resources
• Poisoning
• Rapid growth
• Rooting

• Highly likely to be transported internationally deliberately

Alocasia cucullata is used as a food plant and as an ornamental. The corms are eaten as a root vegetable. All parts of the plant contain calcium oxalate crystals. This substance is toxic to humans and animals when fresh, but can easily be broken down either by cooking the plant or by fully drying it. The plant is safe to eat in either of these states (Useful Tropical Plants, 2019). In China, all parts of the plant are are used externally for treating viper bites, abscesses, rheumatism and arthritis (Boyce, 2008). It is often grown in Buddhist temples and in front of residential houses in Laos and Thailand because it is believed to bring good fortune (Useful Tropical Plants, 2019; Flora of China Editorial Committee, 2019; National Parks Board, 2019).