Kalo

English Name: Taro

Genus: Colocasia esculenta (or antiquorum)

Uses:

Kalo was a primary food source. It’s leaves were eaten like spinach, and its tuber was eaten either baked, boiled, steamed or cooked and pounded, also known as poi. Kalo also had medical uses. Poi was used a stomach settler and could have been mixed with other plants to settle diarrhea. It was also an anti inflammatory. Taro patch mud was used to make black dye, and the leaf stem juice was used to make a red dye.

Background Info:

History -

Kalo was though to be one of the greatest life forces. It came with the first Polynesian settlers to Hawaiʻi. There over 300 different varieties of kalo.

Moʻolelo -

According to the Kumulipo (the ancient Hawaiian creation chant,) Papa (Earth Mother) and Wākea (Sky Father) had a son who was stillborn. The first kalo plant grew from where they had buried him. Their second child, Haloa, was the first man. That is why the ancient Hawaiians thought of Kalo as their older brother.