In Southeast Asia and the western Pacific, the natural range of taro, Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott, has been little studied and is poorly known. We have surveyed the distribution, ethno botany, and ecology of wild taro in the Philippines, where previous authors assumed that wild taro is absent or derived from introduced cultivars. Wild taro is widespread, and may be naturally occurring in some areas. There is also widespread utilisation of wild taro as a leaf vegetable for food and fodder. Wild plants are managed as a shared, community food resource and are occasionally transplanted by people. In wet areas, the plants occupy a range of ruderal to apparently natural habitats. The leaves (blades and petioles) are widely used in popular forms of cooking in the Philippines. The stolons are also eaten, and less frequently the corms, and the entire leaves are also used as a fodder for pigs. The present variation, use and selection of wild taro may provide clues for understanding the domestication and dispersal of taro in the past. We also note the discovery of a little-utilised wild species of taro in northern Luzon, which is here identified as Colocasia sp. cf. formosana.