ʻEkolu (Three) Kalo Vessel, By Heather Mettler
kalo
1. n. Taro (Colocasia esculenta), a kind of aroid cultivated since ancient times for food, spreading widely from the tropics of the Old World. In Hawaiʻi, taro has been the staple from earliest times to the present, and here its culture developed greatly, including more than 300 forms. All parts of the plant are eaten, its starchy root principally as poi, and its leaves as lūʻau. It is a perennial herb consisting of a cluster of long-stemmed, heart-shaped leaves rising 30 cm. or more from underground tubers or corms. (Neal 157–60.) Specifically, kalo is the name of the first taro growing from the planted stalk; names of generations as listed for Hawaiʻi Island (wehewehe.org)
