Dataset Information

Literary evidence for taro in the ancient Mediterranean: A chronology of names and uses in a multilingual world.

ABSTRACT: Taro, Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott, is a vegetable and starchy root crop cultivated in Asia, Oceania, the Americas, Africa, and the Mediterranean. Very little is known about its early history in the Mediterranean, which previous authors have sought to trace through Classical (Greek and Latin) texts that record the name colocasia (including cognates) from the 3rd century BC onwards. In ancient literature, however, this name also refers to the sacred lotus, Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. and its edible rhizome. Like taro, lotus is an alien introduction to the Mediterranean, and there has been considerable confusion regarding the true identity of plants referred to as colocasia in ancient literature. Another early name used to indicate taro was arum, a name already attested from the 4th century BC. Today, this name refers to Arum, an aroid genus native to West Asia, Europe, and the Mediterranean. Our aim is to explore historical references to taro in order to clarify when and through which routes this plant reached the Mediterranean. To investigate Greek and Latin texts, we performed a search using the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG) and the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL), plus commentaries and English and French translations of original texts. Results show that while in the early Greek and Latin literature the name kolokasia (Greek ?????????) and its Latin equivalent colocasia refer to Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn., after the 4th century AD a poorly understood linguistic shift occurs, and colocasia becomes the name for taro. We also found that aron (Greek ????) and its Latin equivalent arum are names used to indicate taro from the 3rd century BC and possibly earlier.

SUBMITTER: Grimaldi IM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5988270 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Literary evidence for taro in the ancient Mediterranean: A chronology of names and uses in a multilingual world.

Grimaldi Ilaria Maria IM Muthukumaran Sureshkumar S Tozzi Giulia G Nastasi Antonino A Boivin Nicole N Matthews Peter J PJ van Andel Tinde T

PloS one 20180605 6

Taro, Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott, is a vegetable and starchy root crop cultivated in Asia, Oceania, the Americas, Africa, and the Mediterranean. Very little is known about its early history in the Mediterranean, which previous authors have sought to trace through Classical (Greek and Latin) texts that record the name colocasia (including cognates) from the 3rd century BC onwards. In ancient literature, however, this name also refers to the sacred lotus, Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. and its edib ...[more]

PMID: 29870533

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundCamellias are popular ornamental, tea and woody-oil plants that have been cultivated throughout the world for centuries. To date, over 23,000 cultivars, with more than 45,000 cultivar names including synonyms, have been registered or published. A global digital dataset of Camellia names will provide a validated reference which can then serve to prevent further duplication when selecting names for new cultivars and assist in clearing up some of the confusion that still clings to a few of the old cultivar names. This comprehensive compendium is our review of camellia cultivars through history.New informationThe camellia cultivar names were collected from books and journals, as well as new registrations. These were then reviewed by experts in the online working platform, the Database of International Camellia Register (DICR). After treating and correcting important issues that existed in camellia names, especially those with many re-used names and diacritical marks etc. in Japanese cultivars, a dataset of camellia names from sources throughout the world was summarised from the year 1253 to 2019. To date, a total of 45,210 cultivar names were released by different countries, including 23,887 accepted names and 21,323 synonyms. Excluding 3,944 names believed extinct, a total of 19,944 cultivar names are still in use. Amongst camellia cultivars, most (23,449) were for ornamental use, 429 were additionally used for tea and 228 for oil. Camellia japonica and its hybrids represent 18,141 or 74.10%, followed by those of C. reticulata and its hybrids (1,432 or 5.85%) and C. sasanqua and its hybrids (1,291 or 5.27%). The top five countries of origin are USA (7,502 cultivars), Japan (6,592), Italy (2,833), China (2,066) and Australia (1,216). The data showed the number of camellia cultivars per country is somewhat related to each country's economic prosperity. Managed by the International Camellia Registration team, this is the most comprehensive dataset in the genus Camellia. It will facilitate quick reference and scientific naming for breeders.

Dataset Information

Literary evidence for taro in the ancient Mediterranean: A chronology of names and uses in a multilingual world.

Publications

Literary evidence for taro in the ancient Mediterranean: A chronology of names and uses in a multilingual world.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure