I got mine at an Asian market.

Taro is the common name for several genuses and species of semi-aqauatic plants of the philodendron family. If you want a specific kind of taro look on the internet. Tropical plant sellers, pond suppliers or even EBay have tons of varieties. Many local nurseries, especially one that carry pond stuff, will carry them too. Even aquarium shops sometimes stock them. I bought a plain green one years ago in San Franciso at a plant shop and it has produced dozens of pups over the years. Last year I got my first black taro (really deep deep purple)on EBay. While the green ones are are up and running, I am still waiting to see if the black one will do anything this year. If not I will get another one, because I loved it.

You can do a search for Alocasia and Colocasia and check the online growers and sellers that come up.
But I just go to the produce section of the local market and buy taro root. It's Colocasia esculenta, the most common food taro. Easy to grow, inexpensive, and it makes big, luxurious green leaves that can get a swirly "moire" effect of several shades of green.

Lazydaisy, is it called taro at the Asian Market? Or is it called something else? We have an Asian Market and I wanted to check and see if they have them. I have a 300' border bed that NEEDS filling up!

You can usually find the tubers/rhizomes of C. esculenta at a local nursery--they are usually the size of a baseball or softball and will produce huge plants. But I've purchased much smaller "taro" at a Safeway supermarket (and a lot cheaper too) and it turned out to be pretty standard Colocasia esculenta.

A similar root/rhizome sold as "malanga" at a local Latino grocery store turned out to be a very handsome Xanthosoma species--in fact I think I like it better than C. esculenta, as it hasn't been as demanding of water or as quick to get crispy edges if it dries out a bit.

For those who want to know what to ask for when visiting Asian/African shops to by tubers, this webpage is very useful.

Here is a link that might be useful: Aroid list

I finally found one at Home Depot. It was something like 3.44 for the bulb. Got it planted and waiting for it to come up. Walmart had them but they had fruit flies swarming all over them because they had soft spots on them.
Thank you for the link!!!!
Rose

Ebay uk has lots of offers on C esculenta.

Dumb question, but are the elephant ears that have naturalized on my property edible? They grow down by my creek, and have been there for decades. They are the dull-looking ones (i.e., not shiny) you see everywhere.

Deb
Deborah's Garden