Taro Variety List
Below is a list of the taro varieties that we have grown. We have done our best to put together a description of where they came from, but many of them do not have clear cultivar links, and our name is not an ‘official’ name. The country name associated with many of the taros does not mean that the taro came from that country.
Korean: Yanna Fishman received circa 2012 from The Pang family (Korean), who had been growing it in Georgia for over 50 years. They've shared it with Korean farmers in TN, NC, and GA. Korean produces a large number of smaller eddoes and is the taro we’ve been working with the longest.
Lees: Chue and Tou Lee shared one of the taro varieties that they cultivate, which we’ve been calling the Lees. We have grown it for just two seasons, and it is extremely similar in look, growth, and production to Korean.
Thai: Received from Mark Homesteader (Homestead, FL). Doesn’t have great storage, especially compared to a phenotypically similar taro we call Filipino. Pinkish stem
Filipino: Yanna Fishman received this variety from David Laws in Davie, Florida. Has been growing in WNC since 2012. We traced the source back to an Asian grocery store in Florida and think that the taro was likely sourced from an international clearing house in Atlantic (although it is possible it was grown locally).
Big Taro: Yanna received from Karen Sherwood in Hawthorne, FL, circa 2022. This taro has been amongst our highest yielding taro two years running and it stores incredibly well.
Puerto Rico: A favorite of Josh Jamison, who grows many varieties in Northern Florida.
Bun Long aka. Chinese Taro: In 2022, we received Bun Long as first-year meristem culture grown transplants from Santiago Arroyo, Tree Amigos, Florida. They grew extremely rooty plants with a fairly low yield. In the second year there were less roots from cormel planted plants, but fairly low yield. We know this is a popular commercial variety, and it develops purple corm fibers. Notable: “The young leaves are considered desirable for luau because of their large size, tenderness, and comparative nonacridity.”
Kai Kea: Yanna Fishman received from Oliver Moore (FL) circa 2020. Oliver Moore received his original material from Michael Porter, who commented, “This [Kai Kea] is my largest planting of taro, because I liked it better than Bun Long (mostly because it is so moist) and I have had it for many years. It is very prolific in a wide variety of growing conditions. Kai Kea is a Poi type Taro, but is great as a table variety also. Kai Kea is moist, tender (not rubbery like some Poi Type), rich in flavor, and easy to prepare, low in calcium crystals, and the corms can be eaten with minimal cooking. A stiff vegetable brush will easily remove enough of the skin for cooking and eating without any itch. I have found some taro that I like as much, but it is unsurpassed (in my estimation) for flavor and ease of preparation. The leaves need about 25-30 minutes boiling time (just a little longer than Bun Long) and are of good flavor, they are tender and get very soft in cooking.” At Utopian Seed Project, we called this variety Hawaii for a long time before learning its actual cultivar name. It produces larger corms and larger (but fewer) cormels. Good storage.
Lehua Maoli: Yanna Fishman received a small amount of starter cormels of this variety. It was very slow to sprout, and Yanna stopped growing, but Utopian Seed carried on for the storage qualities and shared them back to Yanna. Each year, it sprouts a little easier. This taro is listed as a native of Hawaii; maoli means common or ordinary. The corm has some lilac color to its flesh and red/pink to its stem. One thing that has stood out about this variety is its long storage life. A large number of corms/cormels survive winter storage.
Akado aka Ekaeka: We received corms of this variety from Jay Bost because he was struggling to get production in Boone, North Carolina (Zone 6b). A Japanese taro that is known to be highly resistant to disease. Also noted to have poor keeping quality and high acrid mothers.
Miyako: Probably a native of Japan with similar characteristics to Akado.
Araimo aka. Tsurunoko: Roxanne Masters (Georgia) received this taro from ***, and shared it with Utopian Seed Project after she’d built up stock for a year or two. The cormels have stayed relatively small for the two years we’ve grown them. Parent corms are reported to be highly acrid, and if cormels develop top growth, they develop acridity. Notable: “The popularity of this variety is due primarily to the excellent keeping quality.”
The following varieties are not currently maintained by USP
In 2023, we received three cultivars from a friend in Hawaii, which are documented here for completeness. The cultivars performed reasonably well, but all shared the same challenge of low storability. Only Paakala made it through to a 2024 planting, and none of that harvest made it through to a 2025 planting.
Pilaloha: Unknown.
Manini Owali: Described as a native variety of Hawaii, it had beautiful purple stems.
Paakala: A patented variety USP PP12,772), the progeny of a cross between commercial cultivars `Ngeruuch` and `Maui Lehua`. Shows resistance to taro leaf blight (TLB) and a high tolerance to root rot. Vigorous growth, extra-large mother corm size, and pinkish corm of very good flour quality and good poi and eating qualities.
Note: Chris Smith, our Executive Director, dug up some corms of a well-known landscaping taro called Jack’s Giant. After cooking in a pressure cooker for 30 minutes, the culinary experience was watery and mushy, a far cry from the creamy textures of a good culinary taro.
