Taro is another name for kalo. There were about 275 to 300 different varieties of kalo. Kalo was used for five different things. Medicine, paste, fishing purposes, dye, and it was also edible and used for food.

Medicine

For insect bites, or to prevent swelling, the stem of a raw leaf would be rubbed on the sore. For bleeding wounds, raw rootstock would be rubbed. Mashed poi was used as a bandage on infected sores.

Paste

Poi was used to glue peices of kapa together.

Fishing

Grated raw roots (corm) was used for bait. Some fishes that liked this 'bait' were the 'Opelu or the mackerel scad.

Food

The corm or the rooty parts, were cooked in an imu, the peeled and then eaten. Corm, if it was dried, could be used for long voyages.

Poi is a starchy kind of food. It was made from the cooked, pounded and peeled corm. First it is mashed to a thick paste called pa'i'ai. Then water was added to make the thick poi thin and edible to eat.