Broughton willow wattle vs Coco yam

Acacia salicina compared with Colocasia esculenta

Key Differences

Broughton willow wattle is Least Concern while Coco yam is Not Evaluated.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Broughton willow wattle	Coco yam
Kingdom	Plantae (Plants)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum	Magnoliophyta (Flowering Plants)	Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class	Magnoliopsida (Dicots)	Insecta (Insects)
Order	Fabales (Legumes & Allies)	Lepidoptera (Butterflies & Moths)
Family	Fabaceae	Noctuidae
Genus	Acacia	Colocasia
Species	Acacia salicina	Colocasia esculenta

Conservation Status

Broughton willow wattle

LC — Least Concern

Coco yam

NE — Not Evaluated

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Broughton willow wattle	Coco yam
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Broughton willow wattle

Habitat

Typically found in diverse terrestrial habitats from tropical forests to temperate regions.

Range

Distributed across Israel, Spain, and Zimbabwe.

Coco yam

Habitat

Inhabits flooded grasslands and savannas within the Afrotropic biogeographic realm.

Range

Widely distributed across Africa (30 countries), Asia (6 countries), Europe (9 countries), North America (8 countries), Oceania and the Pacific (8 countries), and South America (6 countries).

Broughton willow wattle

The Broughton Willow Wattle (Acacia salicina) is a species in the genus Acacia. It is currently classified as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. Typically found in diverse terrestrial habitats from tropical forests to temperate regions.

Coco yam

Coco Yam (Colocasia esculenta), also widely known as Taro, is a pantropical herbaceous plant in the family Araceae, cultivated as a food crop for more than 10,000 years and considered one of humanity's oldest cultivated plants. The species grows from large starchy corms and produces broad, sagittate leaves with distinctive water-repellent surfaces—an adaptation that has earned the plant its association with the lotus effect in traditional culture. Corms, cormels, and young leaves are all edible after thorough cooking, which is essential to neutralise the calcium oxalate crystals that cause intense irritation when raw. Originating in South and Southeast Asia, Colocasia esculenta has been dispersed across tropical Africa, the Pacific Islands, the Caribbean, and the Americas through centuries of agricultural exchange and migration. It thrives in wet or waterlogged soils, being particularly associated with paddy cultivation, irrigation channels, and swampy ground, though drought-tolerant cultivars exist. The species is a dietary staple in Hawaii, where it is the basis of poi; in West Africa, where it is boiled or pounded; and across the Pacific Islands, where it sustains subsistence communities. Given its widespread cultivation and genetic diversity represented across thousands of landraces, IUCN has not formally evaluated its conservation status. The species is not considered at risk.