''Tacca leontopetaloides'' is a species of
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...
in the
yam family
Dioscoreaceae. It is native to the
islands of Southeast Asia.
Austronesian peoples introduced it as a
canoe plant throughout the Indo-Pacific tropics during prehistoric times. It has become naturalized to
tropical
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
,
South Asia
South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...
, northern
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
, and
Oceania.
Common names include Polynesian arrowroot, Fiji arrowroot, East Indies arrowroot, pia,
and seashore bat lily.
History of cultivation
Polynesian arrowroot is an ancient
Austronesian root crop closely related to
yams. It is originally native to
Island Southeast Asia. It was introduced throughout the entire range of the
Austronesian expansion during prehistoric times ( 5,000
BP), including
Micronesia,
Polynesia
Polynesia ( , ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in ...
, and
Madagascar
Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...
. Polynesian arrowroot have been identified as among the cultivated crops in
Lapita sites in
Palau, dating back to 3,000 to 2,000
BP.
It was also introduced to
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
, southern India, and possibly also Australia through trade and contact.
Polynesian arrowroot was a minor staple among Austronesians. The roots are bitter if not prepared properly, thus it was only cultivated as a secondary crop to staples like ''
Dioscorea alata'' and ''
Colocasia esculenta''. Its importance increased for settlers in the
Pacific Islands, where food plants were scarcer, and it was introduced to virtually all the inhabited islands. They were valued for their ability to grow in low islands and
atolls, and were often the staple crops in islands with these conditions. In larger islands, they were usually allowed to grow wild and were useful only as
famine food. Several cultivars have been developed in Polynesia due to the centuries of artificial selection. The starch extracted from the root with traditional methods can last for a very long time, and thus can be stored or traded.
The starch can be cooked in leaves to make starchy puddings, similar to the use of starch extracted from sago palms (''
Metroxylon sagu'').
Due to the introduction of modern crops, it is rarely cultivated today.
Description
The
tubers are round, hard and
potato-like, with a brown skin and white interior.
In December, the plant is dormant, the leaves and stalks dry up and die down to the ground until March when new leaves grow back.
The leaves are "palmately incised and/or divided into 3-13 lobes, each lobe pinnately divided into numerous smaller ones".
Several
petioles in length extend from the center of the plant which look like giant celery, on which the large
leaves ( long and up to wide) are attached.
The leaf's upper surface has depressed
veins, and the under surface is shiny with bold yellow veins.
Umbels
Flowers are borne on tall stalks in greenish-purple
umbel-like clusters surrounded by large bracts with long whisker-like appendages, their function is unknown. Each single flower has long, threadlike
bracteoles 1 cm long.
The fruit emerges from the bracts, each fruit are globular 4â5 cm long.
The fruits ripen and turn from pale or dark green to pale orange. Each fruit produces many flat, ribbed and yellowish brown seeds 5â8 mm long.
File:Tacca leontopetaloides - umbel.jpg, Inflorescence (umbel)
Tacca leontopetaloides - flower (6694935793).jpg, Flower with 6 tepals, 6 stamens and 3-lobed stigma
Tacca leontopetaloides 48143668.jpg, Infructescence
Uses
The tubers of Polynesian arrowroot contain
starch, making it an important food source for many
Pacific Island cultures, primarily for the inhabitants of low islands and
atolls. Polynesian arrowroot was prepared into a
flour
Flour is a powder made by Mill (grinding), grinding raw grains, List of root vegetables, roots, beans, Nut (fruit), nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredie ...
to make a variety of
puddings. The
tubers are first grated and then allowed to soak in fresh water. The settled starch is rinsed repeatedly to remove the bitter taste from
taccalin, a kind of poisonous substance, and then dried.
The flour was mixed with mashed
taro,
breadfruit
Breadfruit (''Artocarpus altilis'') is a species of flowering tree in the mulberry and jackfruit family ( Moraceae) believed to have been selectively bred in Polynesia from the breadnut ('' Artocarpus camansi''). Breadfruit was spread into ...
, or
pandan fruit extract and mixed with
coconut cream to prepare puddings. In
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
, a local favorite is
haupia, which was originally made with ''pia'' flour, coconut cream and kÅ (
cane sugar).
Today, Polynesian arrowroot has been largely replaced by
cornstarch.
The starch was additionally used to stiffen fabrics, and on some islands, the
stem's
bast fibres were woven into
mats.
In traditional Hawaiian medicine the raw
tubers were eaten to treat
stomach ailments. Mixed with
water
Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...
and red
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...
, the plant was consumed to treat
diarrhea and
dysentery. This combination was also used to stop internal hemorrhaging in the
stomach and
colon and applied to wounds to stop bleeding.
See also
*
Domesticated plants and animals of Austronesia
*''
Dioscorea alata''
*''
Dioscorea esculenta''
Notes
References
* .
External links
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1577447
Dioscoreaceae
Root vegetables
Flora of Africa
Flora of tropical Asia
Flora of the Northwestern Pacific
Flora of the Southwestern Pacific
Flora of Australia
Plants described in 1891
Tropical flora
Hawaiian cuisine
Niuean cuisine
Austronesian agriculture