"pearl" <tea@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:g8njml$a8e$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> that Homo erectus, an early human progenitor, specialized on eating
high-starch
> corns and tubers.
..., thought I spotted a typo... "corns" -should- read "corms". ...
'A corm is a short, vertical, swollen underground plant stem that
serves as a storage organ used by some plants to survive winter or
other adverse conditions such as summer drought and heat (estivation).
...
Internally a corm is mostly made of starch-containing parenchyma
cells above a circular basal node that grows roots.
[ ]
Taro corms for sale in a Réunion market
...'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corm
-->
'Taro (from Tahitian or other Polynesian languages), more rarely kalo
(from Hawaiian) and gabi in The Philippines, is a tropical plant grown
primarily as a vegetable food for its edible corm, and secondarily as
a leaf vegetable. It is considered a staple in oceanic cultures. It is
believed to be one of the earliest cultivated plants.[1]
Taro was probably first native to the lowland wetlands of Malaysia
(taloes). Estimates are that taro was in cultivation in wet tropical India
before 5000 B.C., presumably coming from Malaysia, and from India
further trans****ted westward to ancient Egypt, where it was described
by Greek and Roman historians as an im****tant crop.
...
In Kenya, taro root is referred to as arrow root, or by the Kikuyu or
Kamba word nduma. In South Africa, it referred to by the Zulu word
amaDumbe[5] or the anglicised madumbi[6]. In some Caribbean
countries, it is sometimes known as dasheen, a name said to be derived
from the French de Chine which means from China and evokes the plant's
Asian origins. The leaves are used to make a soup popular in the West
Indies, called kallaloo soup. In Cyprus it is known as kolokassi, which is
similar to the name the Romans used: colocasia. Taro is also known as
dalo In the Fijian Islands and in Japan as satoimo. Eddoe is another name
for taro, although this one seems to be preferentially used to designate
small corm varieties.
...'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taro
(*)
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