Ornamental potential of taro [Colocasia esculenta (L.) schott] accessions

The goal of this work was to evaluate the ornamental potential of taro accessions from the Germoplasm Bank of the Federal University of Vicosa (BGH/UFV), grown from 09/2000 to 06/2001. The randomized block design was used with 36 treatments (accesses) and five replicates. Vegetative and flowering morphological characteristic description was based on the International Plant Resources Institute (IPGRI). The accessions had height plant ranging from 76.2 to 132.6 cm, horizontal plant span ranged from 81.4 to 122.8 cm, the number of leaves/plant varied from 3.2 to 5.4 and maximal number of axillary buds/plant varied from 1 to 7.3. Leaf blade margin varied from entire to sinuate, and color of the leaf blade from green to dark-grcen. Ratio between leaf blade length and width ranged from 1.35 and 1.82. Petiole color varied from light green to red-purple and presence of red stripes in 13.89% of the accessions. Natural flowering occurred in 30.56% of the studied accessions. The inflorescence type was a spathe with color varying from pale yellow with or without red spots to yellow-orange. The tube color of the lower part of the spathe varied from green to purple, containing or not dark stripes or spots. At anthesis the spathe was keeled or flat. The peduncle color varied from light green to purple. The number of inflorescences varied from two to five per leaf axis and presented from one to two bunches/plant. The data from this study suggests that the accessions of taro belonging to BGH/UFV have characteristics which qualified them as ornamental plants, as potted plants or as part of gardens.