Aroids and the Austronesians.

Abstract

The main cultivated aroids of Asia and the Pacific arc Alocasia macrorrhizos, Amorphophallus paeoniifulius, Colocasia esculenta, and Cyrtosperma merkusii' These aroids are widely cultivated by Austronesian language speakers. In this review I develop a theoretical framework for understanding aroid domestication and dispersal. For taro in particular, a likely tropical wildtype Colocasia uculentavar. aqwtilis is described and compared with cultivated taros'