Читать книгу Harlan's Crops and Man - H. Thomas Stalker - Страница 16

Roots, tubers, rhizomes, and bulbs have been widely harvested for untold millennia. The choice depends more on what is abundant and available than anything else. The genus Dioscorea is very large and includes about 600 species distributed throughout the warmer parts of the world. Many produce tubers that are edible or rendered edible after detoxification. About 30 species are harvested in the wild in Africa (Jardin, 1967) and several have been domesticated. Wild yam harvests are important in India, Southeast Asia, the South Pacific, Australia, and tropical America.

Tubers and rhizomes of the Araceae are widely harvested in the tropics and a few are found in the more temperate zones. Bulbs of the Liliaceae are popular where they occur. Yanovsky (1936) lists about 90 species belonging to the lily family (Liliaceae) that supplied food for North American natives. No less than 17 species of wild onion (Allium) were listed, and even the death camus Zygadenus was eaten after suitable detoxification. Tuberous legumes in the genera Solanum, Ipomoea, Nymphaea, and Eleocharis have been widely harvested, and Cyperus rotundus L. has supplied food in North America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe.