Groups 100 wild species, but domesticated separately.
Status Knowledge about the phylogeny of the genus Manihot, essentially because few phylogenetic methods have been used and the species sampling has been limited to taxa thought to be related to cassava. Taxonomic revision of the genus Manihot is necessary due to the inconsistency of the sections proposed by Rogers and Appan.
References Mead, 2013
Plant Xanthosoma spp.
Taxonomic position
― Earlier classification The last published information on cocoyam germplasm in Ghana is more than 30 years old
― Present classification Member of the Araceae
― Close alliance plants/Origin taxa
Infraspecific classification Two main species, X. sagittifolium (L.) Schott and X. violaceum Schott.
Groups Wright described a cultivar called “amankani kyirepe”, which had a sweet white corm that needs to be boiled for prolonged periods to get rid of poisonous constituents before being eaten. Karikari indicated that Wright had described 5 cultivars of cocoyam. These were referred to as amankani pa/amankani kokoo, amankani fufuo, amankani fita, amankani Serwaa and amankani kyirepe.
Status The taxonomic position of the cultivated Xanthosoma species is unclear. X. sagittifolium is often given to all cultivated forms.
References Mead, 2013; Markwei, 2010
Plant Colocasia esculenta
Taxonomic position
― Earlier classification Barrau (1957) recognized two spp. namely C. esculenta and C. antiquorum Schott.
― Present classification Also recognized are 2 botanical varieties, var. C. esculenta and var. C. antiquorum.
― Close alliance plants/Origin taxa Wild form, C. esculenta var. aquatilis Hassk., is the progenitor of the cultivars.
Infraspecific classification Purseglove’s system of systematization includes one species with 2 botanical varieties: C. esculenta var. esculenta (named dasheen) and C. esculenta var. antiquorum (named eddoe), with the main difference between the two being the length of the sterile appendix of the spadix. Two principal botanical varieties of taro are recognized: C. esculenta var. esculenta, commonly known as dasheen, and C. esculenta var. antiquorum, commonly known as eddoe. Dasheen varieties have large central corms, with suckers and/or stolons, whereas eddoes have a relatively small central corm and a large number of smaller cormels.
Groups The genus Colocasia contains 7 species. Three of these are known from only a single herbarium specimen each (C. gracilis from Sumatra, C. manii from upper Assam, and C. virosa from Bengal). The better-known species are C. ffinis, C. fallax, C. gigantea and C. esculenta (taro). C. ffinis and C. fallax are both found wild in Northeast India and mainland Southeast Asia. C. gigantea is widespread in cultivation in Southeast Asia, and is wild on Java.
Status
References Mead, 2013: Prajapati et al., 2011; Parvin et al., 2008; Nguyen et al., 1998; Matthews, 1995
Plant Dioscorea spp.
Taxonomic position
― Earlier classification
― Present classification Family Dioscoreaceae
― Close alliance plants/Origin taxa
Infraspecific classification Edible tubers belonging to the sections Enantiophyllum, Lasiophyton, Opsophyton and Combilium. Enantiophyllum the largest section divided into 3 geobotanical groups — an Asian-Oceanian group, a Sino-Japanese group and an African group.
Groups About 600 species in Dioscorea Linnaeus (Dioscoreaceae). About 100 species of Dioscorea are those edible after detoxification, extended or fast cooking or even raw.
Status
References Goswami et al., 2013
Plant Arracacoa xanthorrhiza
Taxonomic position
― Earlier classification The last descriptions of new Arracacia species were reported in Venezuela (A. tilletti Constance and Affolter) and in Colombia (A. colombiana Constance and Affolter) by Constance and Affolter. In Peru, no taxonomical treatment of Arracacia specimens was developed for more than half a century.
― Present classification Family Umbelliferae (Apiaceae) and gender Arracacia
― Close alliance plants/Origin taxa The wild species A. incisa and the wild forms of A. xanthorrhiza, bearing storage roots and cormels and resembling more closely the cultivated arracacha (A. xanthorrhiza).
Infraspecific classification
Groups The “World Umbelliferae Database” in 2005 indicates 72 species.
Status No reliable of the Arracacia genus from the Andean region is possible due to the poor representation of the above-mentioned species in different herbaria.
References Elsayed et al., 2010; Hermann, 1997
Plant Maranta arundinacea
Taxonomic position
― Earlier classification
― Present classification Marantaceae. The last complete treatment of this genus was the work of Schumann, who subdivided the genus into the 4 subgenera currently accepted. ndersson published a taxonomic revision of Maranta subgenus. Maranta, which was established by Schumann.
― Close alliance plants/Origin taxa Closely related to the components of the exclusively neotropical Myrosma Group, which is composed of the genera Ctenanthe, Hylaeanthe A.M.J onker & Jonker, Myrosma L.f., Saranthe (Regel & Koern. Eichler and Stromanthe Sonder.
Infraspecific classification According to the informal grouping of the genera of Marantaceae of Andersson, Maranta was included in the Maranta Group, together with two other neotropical genera (Koernickanthe L.Andersson and Monophyllanthe K. Schum.) plus the Paleotropical genera Afrocalathea K. Schum. and Marantochloa Brogn. ex Gris. in the phylogenetic study of Andersson and Chase, the Maranta Group was polyphyletic. Andersson proposed a new circumscription for this taxon, described 8 new species and proposed the exclusion of 2 species (Maranta cordata Koern. And Maranta foliosa Koern.).