In order to find out the changing rule of color characters of taro germplasm resource,we observed and classified the color character diversities of taro〔 Colocasia antiquorum Schott and Colocasia esculenta( L.)Schott〕 germplasm resource according to the Technical Code for Evaluating Crop Germplasm Resources-Taro 〔Colocasia esculenta( L.) Schott〕,taking over 300 taro germplasm resources conserved in Wuhan National
Germplasm Repository for Aquatic Vegetables. We summarized and focused on the correlation between leaf junction color,color of middle to lower part of petiole,and bud color of corm. According to the color of middle to lower part of petiole,C. antiquorum Schott was divided into 3 types as wild taro with green-petiole(white bud type),wild taro with purple-green-petiole( red bud type) and purple-petiole(white bud type). In C. esculenta( L.)Schott,taro with numerous cormels was divided into 3 basic types of green-petiole taro with numerous cormels( white bud type generally),purple-green-petiole taro with numerous cormels( red bud type generally) and red-purple-petiole taro with numerous cormels( white bud type generally). Taro with multi-headed corm was divided into 2 types of green-petioletaro with multi-headed corm( white bud type) and purple-green-petiole taro with multi-headed corm( red bud type). Looking from the whole of C. antiquorum Schott and C. esculenta( L.) Schott,if there was purple-green color component in the
color of middle to lower part of petiole,its bud color of corm was red type and the others were white type generally.Looking from leaf junction color,in C. antiquorum Schott,that of green was white bud type and that of purplered was white bud type or red bud type. In C. esculenta( L.) Schott,if the leaf junction color of taro with numerous cormels was purple-red,its bud color of corm was red type,and if that was yellow-green or green,its bud color of
corm was white type. In taro with multi-headed corm,if the leaf junction color was green,its bud color of corm was red type,and if that was purple-red,its bud color of corm was white type.