I've been asked if taro produces flowers. Yes, it does. But I've never been able to predict exactly what triggers the blooming. It doesn't happen the same time of the year from flowering to flowering. Nor is maturity or age of the plant the determining factor. I've had both young and old plants bloom. And not every plant pushes blooms when the others around it are flowering. I've kept note of which plants were propagated from the central huli and which from the side corms. That gave no consistent conclusions either.
Right now I'm seeing lots of flowers developing among the taro plants. And not just one variety, but several different ones. But to stay with the lack of predictability, many of the varieties I'm growing are not showing signs of getting ready to bloom. Go figure.
All my taros have similar flowers......a long, narrow spike. The length varies. The color ranges from pale yellow, to peachy, to strong golden. Some of the long spikes will stay closed. Others flare open to some degree. Some varieties produce a single flower per plant. Others will make up to four to five flowers, one right after the other.
Some flowers are fairly short, perhaps 5"-6". The one below is huge. 21 1/2" long!
I've never seen any of the flowers naturally pollinate. No fruits or seeds produced. To date I haven't tried hand pollinating. Perhaps one day I'll try experimenting just for the fun of it. I am assuming that taro's natural pollinator doesn't exist here in Hawaii. Just a guess though.
The above taro variety is blooming for the first time for me. I've been growing it for four years now with no blooming. Two of the plants are producing flowers which arch back and flare open at the base to expose the stamens and pistils.
And it appears to be a variety that will produce multiple flowers per plant. It's already pushing the next flower down the stem......
It's the pale colored hook just emerging out of the leaf stem and at the base of the current flower stem.
thank you
ReplyDeleteI thought taro does not bloom but ours produced flowers.
ReplyDeleteCan you tell, how to save taro seeds, please? I can't find any info about it. I want to grow taro root for food and save seeds for the next season or so.
ReplyDeleteTaro is not normally propagated via seeds. It is propagated vegetatively using the young offshoots or the top of the growing crown. If grown from seed, you may not get seedlings like the parent plant. Taro is a challenge to grow from seed, plus it takes much longer to get a harvestable crop that way.
DeleteI have two large taro plants in my pond in Kentucky. Both have produced a flower at some point. None have ever completed the "blooming" process, because eventually, the pale yellow flower falls over and never opens to reveal the pistol and stamen - I peaked inside on the last one and saw the white seedy looking part. I was glad to find your site, so I could see what is supposed to happen, and what it looks like. (I have lived in Lahaina twice in my life and always enjoy reading about life in Hawaii.)
ReplyDeleteI noticed that not all taro flowers open up. Many varieties don't. So that's not unusual for taro. This may sound odd, but taro usually propagates itself vegetatively, not via seeds.
DeleteLahaina is great. Hot, but a nice place to be. We travel over there for long weekends, 2-5 times a year. It's our usual home base when we're on Maui. And although we don't desire to live there, we surely do enjoy visiting.
I'm in South Houston, TX (zone 9b). We've had taro in our garden for several years. I used to think I had a green thumb, but gardening here has really humbled me. Getting the soil (gumbo)right, is challenging. We get hard freezes in the winter, and humid droughts in summer that poaches the plants; then there's the mold and mildew. When it freezes the taro dies back to the crown; then grows back bigger and beautiful. We've never had blossoms until after Harvey flood, 10 feet above ground. Next year we got our first flowers, 1 per mature plant (not the juveniles). This year the're all blooming. The oldest have 5 blooms each
ReplyDeleteI tried to copy some photos but could not do it (newbe)
Thanks for sharing such beautiful information with us. I hope you will share some more information about taro root.Please keep sharing.
ReplyDeleteHealth Is A Life
My daughter lives In the Orlando, FL area and has Taro plants growing wild at the back edge of her yard. I was impressed with the plants and the blooms they were producing. So when I headed back home (Atlanta, GA) I grabbed a shovel and plastic trash bag and dug one up to bring home. It had 3 or 4 large leaves and I planted it as soon as I got home. That was in early June, its now September 16 and my Taro has produced 2 blooms already. Now my question is if I mulch the plant well will it survive winter in the Atlanta area. If anyone has some words of wisdom please let me know, Thanks
ReplyDeleteOn Big island I have two Waipio varieties, one Oahu kualoa ranch variety, and a variety from the azores. The variety from the azores, just bloomed twice. just 1 plant, the largest one(this variety gets to the size of elephant ear! And the corm the size of a child’s head. Planted 1/2021. I just harvested it cause usually when some things flower, it’s time to harvest. It produced about 10 ‘ohā. We had a pretty wet year up mauka till end of sept, been bone dry since. I noticed it bloomed beginning of oct.
ReplyDeletejust passing on my experience.
I have a giant taro. It has produced 5 flowers so far this year. Some of the flowers don't open because they get burnt up from the Sun. I've noticed that the ones that do open are the ones that are hidden behind a giant leaf for shade. So if they're out in the open and the sun's directly on them it will burn them up and they will not open. Position a big leaf to block it at the hottest part of the day. And I guarantee you it will open.
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