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Download [PDF File] TROPICAL ÏAMS AND THEIR POTENTIAL Part 1. Dioscorea esculenta Agriculture Handbook No. 457 r I' .. "O tn -^ tp Agricultural Research Service UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE in cooperation with U.S. Agency for International Development This publication reports research involving pesticides. It does not contain recommendations for their use, nor does it imply that the uses dis- cussed here have been registered. All uses of pesti- cides must be registered by appropriate State and/ or Federal agencies before they can be recom- mended. rOLLOW TH« UAMb ' « |. MWiatir t> eUHnmC CAUTION: Pesticides can be injurious to hu- mans, domestic animals, beneficial insects, desir- able plants, and fish or other wildlife—if they are not handled or applied properly. Use all pesticides selectively and carefully. Follow recommended practices for the disposal of surplus pesticides and pesticide containers. Washington, D.C. Issued April 1974 PREFACE The feeding of future generations requires a knowledge of the individual crop plants of the world and their poten- tials. Crops can be recommended for use in particular re- gions only on the basis of potential yield, the costs of pro- duction, the food and feed value of the crop, and the way the crop can be processed or otherwise used. For most of the major food crops of the world, a body of information is already available. However, tropical roots and tubers, which are widely used as staple foods, have been largely neglected. Only in recent years has an awareness been growing of the potential of these crops to supply large amounts of food in relatively small amounts of space. Yams are the second most important tropical root, or tuber, crop. The annual production, perhaps 25 million tons, places them second in importance to cassava. But yams are better food than cassava, and while they are usually thought to be more difficult to grow, under some conditions yams outproduce cassava. Yams fill an important role in the diet of many areas of the Tropics—a role that can increase in im- portance. That role and its potential are not, however, well understood. The yam is not a single species. Perhaps 60 species have edible tubers; of these about 10 species can be considered crop plants. The literature concerning these species is wide- spread but fragmentary. This is the first of several Agricul- ture Handbooks in which the major species of yams are individually treated in order to bring the investigator as well as the agriculturalist up to date with respect to the status of these important plants. This is part of a research effort cosponsored by the Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Agency for International Development to introduce, evaluate, and dis- tribute better yam varieties. CONTENTS Page Preface * iii Introduction 1 History and origin 1 Geographic distribution 1 Botany 2 Classification 2 Morphology 2 Cytology 7 Varieties — * 7 Wild varieties 7 New Guinea varieties 7 Varietal characteristics ^ 8 Culture 8 Environmental requirements ^ 8 Land preparation 9 Planting 10 Fertilization 11 Staking • 11 Pests and diseases • 11 Harvesting 12 Storage and marketing 14 Cooking 15 Composition 16 Potential uses 16 Literature cited 18 TROPICAL YAMS AND THEIR POTENTIAL Part 1. Dioscorai esculenlu By FRANKLIN W. MARTIN, plant geneticist. Federal Experiment Station, South- em Region, Agricultural Research' Service, U,S, Department of Agriculture, Mayaguez, P,R, INTRODUCTION ter of origin). However, the spe- cies is so ancient that few wild Of the many edible yams found forms are known. Burkill {8} de- in the Tropics, the lesser yam, scribes several wild varieties from Dioscorea esculenta (Lour.) New Guinea and the Philippine Burk., ranks third in production Islands and suggests this as the and utilization. Only the West Af- center of origin of the species. rican yam, D, rotundata Poir., and Feral forms evidently occur on the Asian greater yam, D. alata some islands of the Pacific and in L., are more widely used. D. escu- India. Ting and Chi (9) mention lenta is widely distributed and accounts of cultivation of this spe- well known throughout the Trop- cies in China in the second and ics, but it is best known and most third centuries A.D. and maintain used near its origin, Indochina, that it was an especially impor- and in adjacent islands, including tant staple food in southern Papua New Guinea and those of China from the 2d to the 11th the Pacific Ocean. Some of the century. Burkill (^) summarizes characteristics of this yam recom- the distribution and nomenclature mend it for wider planting, but it of this species from India through also has several severe disadvan- Southeast Asia to the islands of tages, which might limit its po- the Pacific. There is little doubt tential as a commercial crop. On of its use for hundreds of years the other hand, recent collecting there. The species has also reached efforts suggest that the best the small islands of the Pacific, forms of this species have only where it is widely used, but has now been obtained and that the never become a staple (2), potential is greater than had pre- viously been realized. Geographic Distribution The lesser yam is widely dis- History and Origin tributed throughout the tropical Vavilov (10)^ considers that D, world, but it is little known or esculenta was domesticated in used except in southeastern Asia. Burma or Indochina (Indian cen- Many forms can be seen in New 1 Italic numbers in parentheses refer Guinea. All of the collections ob- to items in "Literature Cited," p. 18. tained in West Africa appear to 1 AGRICULTURE HANDBOOK 457, U.S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE be similar or closely related. At Morphology least three distinct races have D. esculenta is a thorny, climb- been collected in the Caribbean. ing vine, seldom more than 3 The floras of most tropical coun- meters high (fig. 1). The stems tries mention the lesser yam, but are thin (1- to 3-millimeter di- it is seldom seen except in home ameter) and thorny to glabrous. gardens. The yam is common to They twist to the left in climbing. many islands of the South Pacific, The leaves are alternate (or oc- but appears to have been recently casionally subopposite at the base introduced on the eastern side. of the stem) and orbicular, but with an acuminate apex and cor- BOTANY date base (fig. 2). The leaves are Classification slightly rugose and finely pubes- Z). esculenta (Lour.) Burk. has cent. The petioles are thickened at also been named D, aculeata L. their proximal end and are armed and Oncus esculenta Lour. It is with four sharp prickles. The often called the lesser yam, the po- roots of Z>. esculenta often bear tato yam, or the Chinese yam. All thorns, which may impede depre- of these common names are de- dations by burrowing animals and ficient in that they do not reflect wild pigs. These thorns, arising the unique characteristics of the only from the fibrous roots and species. not from tuber-bearing stolons, D. esculenta belongs to the sec- may be very fine and sharp. Flow- tion Combilium, a monotypic sec- ers are rarely seen on cultivated tion with no close affinities to any forms of this strictly dioecious other cultivated species. In com- species. On the presence or ab- mon with other yams, the lesser sence of thorns, two botanical va- yam belongs to the family Dio- rieties of the species have been scoreaceae, of v^hioh-Dioscorea is distinguished, varietas spinosa the principal genus. The family is (Roxb.) Prain & Burk. and va- usually classified among the mon- rietas fasiculata (Roxb.) Prain ocotyledons, although some evi- & Burk. This distinction is artifi- dence of a second cotyledon has cial, for all degrees of thorniness been found. The family is charac- can be found. The less thorny va- terized by rhizomes, usually re- rieties have presumably been se- duced to a nodeless structure. lected and. represent the most Male and female flowers, usually evolved forms of the species. on separate plants, are small and The tubers superficially appear usually inconspicuous, although to be tuberized roots, but are the inferior ovary inay become swellings of stolons arising from quite prominent after fertiliza- the crown of the plant (fig. 3). tion. The floral pattern is based on The stolons vary in length from sets of three. 5 to about 50 centimeters. The TROPICAL YAMS AND THEIR POTENTIAL, PART 1 FIGURE 1.—Mature vines of Dioscorea esculenta. length i^ a varietal characteristic. Spindle shapes (such as those of Each stolon bears only one termi- the sweetpotato) are not uncom- nal tuber. About 4 to 20 tubers mon. The tubers of better varie- are borne by each plant. The num- ties are seldom branched, but in ber of tubers increases with favor- some primitive varieties branch- able growth conditions, but is also ing is common (fig. 4). In a few related to the variety. The tubers varieties the tuberizing stolons vary in diameter from the size of grow upward, giving the tuber a a stolon to 20 centimeters in ex- crescent shape. The shape of the ceptional cases. In the Caribbean, tuber is strongly affected by the tubers average 8 to 10 centimeters soil and by stones or debris in the in length, with a diameter of 2.5 soil. Regular shapes occur in soft, to 5 centimeters and a weight of loamy soil. 100 to 200 grams. Small tubers, The surface of the tuber is useful as seed, are common. Very smooth, with few to many adven- large tubers (as in the case of titious, fibrous roots. A few de- New Guinea varieties) reach 3 pressions appear like the eyes of kilograms.
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