Having said that, the Piko varieties of Hawaiian taro
are indeed distinguished by having sagittate versus
peltate leaf blades. They are cut to the connection
of the petiole or piko...which translates to belly
button or umbilicus. The depiction of the corm habit
is similar...but not entirely accurate. Color in the
piko varieties varies greatly and the leaf blades and
petioles often have very ornamental stripes or blushes
of color, etc. There are also plain green varieties.
In Hawaii, taro cultivation reached a zenith and there
are records that 150-175 taro varieties once existed.
However, many of these cultivars are lost and exactly
which names were synonymous is impossible to
reconstruct. Today, less than 70 cultivars may still
remain of the native forms...and some are very rare.
I do remember the Sunday comics...not to the detail of
Julius's magnificent memory, however.
Aloha,
Leland
--- Julius Boos wrote:
>
>
> From : Marek Argent
> Reply-To : Discussion of aroids
>
> Sent : Friday, September 28, 2007 4:27 PM
> To : "Discussion of aroids"
>
> Subject : Re: [Aroid-l] Aroid stamp
>
> Dear Aroidophiles,
>
> I have wracked my old brain, read ALL the opinions
> on what plant this
> artwork depicts, and have FINALLY come up with what
> I THINK the answer might
> be!
> A saying that has stood me well in my life has been
> --'When everything else
> fails, read the instructions". With this ringing
> in my silly old brain,
> and with a VERY vague memory of a Colocasia (taro)
> cultivar with a
> sagittate, NOT peltate leaf blade, I dove into Deni
> Bown`s FANTASTIC tome,
> "Aroids, Plants of the Arum family".
> And---AHA!!--Pg. 250!! There are on
> Hawaii (and presumably in other areas of the
> Pacific, such as Micronesia,
> the small Islands and Atols scattered across the
> Pacific between New Guinea
> and Hawaii), SEVERAL popular cultivars named
> "piko", with the posterior
> leaf lobes open to the navel, or 'piko', exactly as
> depicted in the artwork
> on the stamps.
> Perhaps the artist tasked with depicting all these
> 'pretty-prettys' on the
> sheet of postage stamps was given one of these
> seemingly
> common-in-the-region cultivars to depict in the
> painting?? The corms and
> head-sat (huli) on the same stamp are a fair and
> typical depiction of a
> taro/Colocasia cultivar. Mammy Yokum`s words, "Ah
> has spoken' " from the
> Sunday cartoon ''Dogpatch" by Al Kap come to mind.
> (Let`s see how many of
> you older ones 'out there' recall this!).
> I hope this solves the puzzle!
>
> Good Growing,
>
> Julius
>
>
> >>Attachment : micronesia89.jpg (0.16 MB)
> Ok, here it is again. it's not 16th but 12th stamp.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Kyle Baker
> To: Discussion of aroids
> Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 12:24 PM
> Subject: Re: [Aroid-l] Aroid stamp
>
> no photo available...says its a binary
> file,,,good lord do they make
> those anymore?
>
> kfb maine
>
> Marek Argent wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> The 12th stamp in this sheet is named
> "taro",
> but the leaf doesn't look like Colocasia
> esculenta, rather like
> Xanthosoma sp.
> What may it be? I know that artist sometimes
> don't see important
> features for botanists.
>
>
>
http://photos02.allegro.pl/photos/oryginal/248/70/61/248706105
>
> Besides I read somewhere that in various
> regions of the world,
> different species are cultivated as "taro".
>
> Can anyone help?
>
> Marek Argent
> ___
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Aroid-L mailing list
> Aroid-L at www.gizmoworks.com
> http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l
>
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