ELEPHANT EARS

TARO                          DASHEEN     IMPERIAL TARO & BOG LILY

 When I was asked for Elephant Ears or Elephant's Ear I could never resist quizzing in my best sarcastic style, "How big are these ears? Is this an African or Asian Elephant ?" Elephant's Ear could be any number of large leaved plants including Caladium. Besides, it is already known the world over as Taro.
   Taro, Calocasia esculenta (meaning good to eat) is an important food item for many people. It evolved in India and S.E. Asia and is now grown in many different parts of the world; not just in tropical climates but even in more temperate climates such as Japan. The edible underground tubers are called Dasheen, probably a corruption of de chine which is not quite right although they were known as a food source in China by the year 100 B.C.
   Actually the tuber is a corm that produces cormlets called Eddoes. Both forms of tubers are peeled and boiled and generally used much like potatoes.
The leaves too are used as a vegetable despite the presence of those sharp raphides of calcium oxylate crystals. They need to be boiled in changes of water. If not properly prepared it would be like swallowing broken glass.
   Having made numerous jokes about treating  raphide- inflamed mouths with ice cream, it is more than amusing to suggest in this case that it should be Taro ice cream. I am not kidding. Google it and you will see.
   On one occasion when I was looking after a lady who had asked for Taro and had told her that Toronto's Sick Kids' Hospital claimed that Taro were poisonous, she only smiled and said in the lovely cadence of the Islands,
 "Pay them no never mind."                My sentiments exactly.