The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 letter word TARO
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
T
A
R
O
More clues leading to the result TARO
- Exotic food plant: look in for a taste, turning up
- Something edible old rodent’s brought back
- Black stuff on the front of old plant
- Plant out a rose centre
- Old rodent seen around plant
- Rodent up to taking old root
- Writing in Chinese philosophy taking root
- To arrive in plant...
- Food returned in protectorate
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "plant" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case plant = taro.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does TARO mean?
TARO noun- Colocasia esculenta, raised as a food primarily for its corm, which distantly resembles potato.
- Any of several other species with similar corms and growth habit in Colocasia, Alocasia etc.
- Food from a taro plant.