Aroid taro colocasia esculenta

is it hard to grow,Junglejen.

Not at all Suey, they're in pots in the stream! Thirsty and hungry they are.

So it is best to keep these plants wet in the summer Jen?

these leaves look great

Sorry I haven't replied before but I've been off for a while.

Thanks Stevie, they taste as good as they look- must be cooked though, lovely with tomatoes onions and whatever herbs & spices you have to hand- yummy!
I'm experimenting with yam's/ dasheen that I buy from the Indian shops... much cheaper than buying plants from garden centres. They're showing shoots and small leaves already, they'll soon have their large leaves and, if I can stop my husband from eating them, they'll be going in the pond with the others!

Dotty, it's practically impossible to over water/feed these. If you keep them on a tray of water it keeps the humidity up, they hate to be dry...personally I just chuck 'em (aka place carefully !) in the pond. They really keep the alagae down as they practically suck out all the stuff (nitrates?) that the algae feed on.

Actual scientific name is Colocasia these look like they may be Colocasia esculenta fontanessii from the dark stems and veining against the green leaves

Alocoloman...Thank you for your comment.

This picture is already tagged as Colocasia esculenta illustris...look to the right of this page towards the top.

Scientific name... Colocasia Esculenta var. Illustris...aka Imperial Taro.
There are over a hundred known varieties and also many common names, too many to mention.

For your information see below:

Taxonomy:

Domain: Eukaryota () - Whittaker & Margulis,1978 - eukaryotes
•Kingdom: Plantae () - Haeckel, 1866 - Plants
•Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae () - Cavalier-Smith, 1981
•Phylum: Tracheophyta () - Sinnott, 1935 Ex Cavalier-Smith, 1998 - Vascular Plants
•Subphylum: Euphyllophytina ()
•Infraphylum: Radiatopses () - Kenrick & Crane, 1997
•Class: Liliopsida () - Scopoli, 1760
•Subclass: Aridae () - (Bartl., 1830) Takhtajan, 1997
•Superorder: Aranae () - (Dumortier, 1829) Thorne Ex Reveal, 1992
•Order: Arales () - Dumortier, 1829
•Family: Araceae () - Adans., 1763, Nom. Cons. - Arum Family
•Subfamily: Colocasioideae ()
•Genus: Colocasia () - Schott, in Schott and Endlicher, 1832, nom. cons. - Taro, dasheen [classical Greek name derived from an old Middle Eastern name colcas or culcas]
•Specific epithet: esculenta - (Linnaeus) Schott
•Variety: illustris
•Botanical name: - Colocasia esculenta var. illustris (Linnaeus) Schott

Hope this is helpful to you as there are so many varieties that are similar in appearance... always difficult to guess isn't it. :o)