Taro
Colocasia esculenta
Found in ditches, shores, bottomland hardwood forests. Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Florida edition What its natural habitat tells you
Not native to Florida. How scores work Is it native here?
Profile 76%
- Height
- 3–6 feet
- Spread
- 3–6 feet
- Light
- Full sun, Partial shade
- Soil moisture
- Usually moist
Do not plant. Listed invasive in Florida.
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At a glance
- Life cycle
- Perennial, from a bulb
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Bloom
- June to October
Recorded in 55 Florida counties.
Natural habitats
Places it grows wild. Not a planting requirement. Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground
Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.
Floodplain and bottomland forests
Forests on low ground beside rivers and streams that flood from time to time.
Who uses this plant?
3CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including FL
Genus host records with ranges including FL · Colocasia
- Anatrachyntis rileyiPink Scavanger Caterpillar
- Bellura densaPickerel Weed Border Moth, Pickerelweed Diver
- Spoladea recurvalisHawaiian Beet Webworm
—BeesSoutheastern regional records
—Specialist beesPollen specialists
—BirdsRecorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claimPlant details
- Family
- Araceae
- Hardiness
- Zones 8a–11b
- Flower color
- Yellow, green or white
Safety has not been reviewed for this plant; check toxicity and thorns before planting.
Growing sources and scope
- Bloom · “June to October” · Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Carolinas & Georgia edition · Carolinas and Georgia
- Flower color · “Yellow, green or white” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Hardiness · “Zones 8a–11b” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Height · “3–6 feet” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Leaves · “Evergreen” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Life cycle · “Perennial, from a bulb” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Light · “Full sun (6 or more hours of direct sunlight a day); Partial shade (direct sunlight only part of the day, 2-6 hours)” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Soil · “Moist; Occasionally wet” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Spread · “3–6 feet” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
Conservation status
| Florida rank | SNA |
|---|---|
| Global rank | GU |
| FL status | Not verified |
| Federal status | Not verified |
Sources
- Atlas of Florida Plants
- Florida Invasive Species Council list
- USDA PLANTS
- Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025)
- NatureServe Explorer
- Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
- Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)
- Narango, Tallamy & Shropshire 2020, Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species, Nature Communications