Morphological Character Variability of Javanese Local Taro [Colocasia esculenta] Germplasm

<p>Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is a plant that has been long cultivated in Indonesia, which belongs to Colocasia genus and Araceae family. Taro has an ecological uniqueness, which can grow in an extreme condition such as on submergence area, saline soil, and shaded areas. In Indonesia, Java Island is the main concentrated area of taro plantation. This research aimed to investigate the variability of local taro germplasm from Java Island based on morphological character. A total of 164 accessions were planted in Pacet Field Experimental and were observed for its morphological characters, i.e. root and plant type, leaves, and corm characters. The Javanese taro local genetic resources indicated variation in some of its plant type characteristic and corm as well as several of leaves character. A total of 17 accessions were identified as a unique collection. The identification of suspected duplicate accessions within the collection may be strengthened further by molecular characterization in order to provide more accurate information regarding the genetic variability of taro collection.</p>