Artistic ability of the VMs illustrator

[Koen G]

Someone mentioned earlier that it could relate to You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. but I don't know when this name was firstly used, although it looks similar. 

That is indeed a possibility, though as you say it would require a closer investigation of the chronology of elephant-related names.

One of the difficulties with these plant-animal hybrid Voynich drawings is that one never knows for sure which part of the drawing is included to evoke the shape of the animal, and which part is actually relevant for the plant's identification.

For example in the elephant leaf's case, the leaf in the VM looks incredibly droopy, like it succumbs under its own weight, folding double downwards. Even the most impressive elephant ear leaves remain pretty much unbent, or even bend upwards a bit.



An additional problem with an identification like Taro, is that the roots are way off. The VM plant has many elongated roots, while the Taro looks like this: