Aweu (Aweo, Aweoweo, Aweuweu, Mamauweo, Maauweo)
General characteristics: Medium in height to tall, moderately spreading, maturing within 9 to 12 months, producing from 10 to 15 long, slender rhizomes, distinguished by length of rhizomes.
Petiole: 70 to 105cm long, light green often inconspicuously flecked with dark green hear the base, white at base, with narrow, light purplish to indistinct edge, curved sharply at apex so that blade hangs vertically.
Leaf blade: 40 to 65 cm long, 25 to 45 cm wide, 35 to 55 cm from tip to base of sinus, narrowly ovate, thin in texture, light green; margins slightly undulate; piko greenish to faintly purple; lobes acute with shallow, narrow sinus.
Corm: Flesh white with yellowish fibers; skin cream-colored, usually with pink or purple along leaf-scar rings, the outer skin shaggy and fibrous.
Origin, and derivatoin of name: Native variety; derives its name from shaggy outer skin of corm.
Distribution: Formerly widely distributed in wild state, now scattered along streams and in forests in the mountains. Cultivated upland.
Use: Good as poi, but not used at present because the corms are usually small and acrid; requires extensive cooking for use as table taro; the leaves are used for luau.
Remarks: This variety was used by the old Hawaiians for poi only when other food was scarce. The corms are too acrid to be used as table taro unless cooked for a long time. Aweu is often called wild taro because of its frequent occurrence in the wild state. The rhizomes, sometimes as long as 70 cm, come so close to the surface that they appear like creeping stolons.
Taken from “Taro Varieties in Hawaii” Bulletin 84 by CTAHR
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