Colocasia esculenta may be a tropical plant grown primarily for its edible corms, a vegetable most ordinarily referred to as taro (/ˈtɑːroʊ, ˈtæroʊ/), or kalo. It's the foremost widely cultivated species of several plants within the Araceae that are used as vegetables for his or her corms, leaves, and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in African, Oceanic, and South Asian cultures (similar to yams), and taro is believed to possess been one among the earliest cultivated plants.

Colocasia esculenta may be a perennial, tropical plant primarily grown as a vegetable for its edible, starchy corm. The plant has rhizomes of various shapes and sizes. Leaves are up to 40 cm × 24.8 cm (15 3⁄4 in × 9 3⁄4 in) and sprout from the rhizome. They're dark green above and light weight green beneath. they're triangular-ovate, sub-rounded and mucronate at the apex, with the tip of the basal lobes rounded or sub-rounded.

The petiole is 0.8–1.2 m (2 ft 7 in–3 ft 11 in) high. The path can be up to 25 cm (10 in) long. The spadix is about three fifths as long because the spathe, with flowering parts up to eight mm (5⁄16 in) in diameter. The feminine portion is at the fertile ovaries intermixed with sterile white ones. Neuters grow above the females, and are rhomboid or irregular orium lobed, with six or eight cells. The appendage is shorter than the male portion.