Dioscorea cayenensis subsp. rotundata

Dioscorea cayenensis subsp. rotundata, commonly known as the white yam, West African yam,[1] Guinea yam, or white ñame, is a subspecies[2] of yam native to Africa. It is one of the most important cultivated yams.[3] Kokoro is one of its most important cultivars.

Dioscorea cayenensis subsp. rotundata
White yam
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Dioscoreales
Family: Dioscoreaceae
Genus: Dioscorea
Species:
D. cayenensis
Subspecies:
D. c. subsp. rotundata
Trinomial name
Dioscorea cayenensis subsp. rotundata
(Poir.) J.Miège

It is sometimes treated as separate species from Dioscorea cayenensis.[1]

Domestication

Its wild progenitor is Dioscorea praehensilis[1] and possibly also D. abyssinica (by hybridization).[4] Domestication occurred in West Africa, along the south-facing Atlantic coast. There is insufficient documentation and as of 2009 insufficient research to determine how long ago that occurred.[5]

Distribution

D. c. subsp. rotundata is grown in West Africa, including countries such as Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria.[6]

Linguistics

Blench (2006) reconstructs the tentative Proto-Niger-Congo (i.e., the most recent common ancestor of the Niger-Congo languages) root -ku for D. rotundata.[1]

References
  1. Blench, Roger (2006). Archaeology, language, and the African past. Altamira Press. ISBN 9780759104655.
  2. The Plant List: Dioscorea cayenensis subsp. rotundata
  3. USDA PLANTS profile for Dioscorea rotundata
  4. Sugihara, Yu; Kudoh, Aoi; Oli, Muluneh Tamiru; Takagi, Hiroki; Natsume, Satoshi; Shimizu, Motoki; Abe, Akira; Asiedu, Robert; Asfaw, Asrat; Adebola, Patrick; Terauchi, Ryohei (2021). "Population Genomics of Yams: Evolution and Domestication of Dioscorea Species". Population Genomics. doi:10.1007/13836_2021_94.
  5. Purugganan, Michael D.; Fuller, Dorian Q. (2009). "The nature of selection during plant domestication". Nature. Nature Research. 457 (7231): 843–848. Bibcode:2009Natur.457..843P. doi:10.1038/nature07895. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 19212403. S2CID 205216444.
  6. Biodiversity and domestication of yams in West Africa: Traditional practices leading to Dioscorea rotundata Poir. Roland Dumont et al. 2005, CIRAD-IPGRI


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