Mashua :: Botany

MashuaMashua (Tropaeolum genus Tuberosum Ruiz & Pavn 1802), also known as isanu, cubio, au, ysao, or puel, is a tuber crop indigenous to the Andean highlands and is of economic value as a food and medicinal crop. This root crop ranks fourth in richness in the Andean region after potato, oca, and ulloco (NRC, 1989). Of the Andean tubers, mashua is one of the highest yielding, easiest to grow, and the near frost resistant. Mashua is cultivate in the Andes of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, and Venezuela (Gibbs et al., 1978). It is currently being grown through an experiment in New Zealand and the Pacific Northwest to evaluate its potential for world(a) cultivation (Soria et al., 1998). The tubers of T. tuberosum argon an important source of food for around 9 million people living at elevations of 2500 to 4000 m throughout the Andes mountains (King and Gershoff, 1987). Mashua is an annual, nonwoody climber that belongs to the family Tropaeolaceae which includes about 100 species. Tropaeolum tuberosum is closely link to the garden Nasturtium, Tropaeolum majus L. (Vaughn and Geissler, 1997). Tropaeolum tuberosum grows to over 1-1.5 m in diameter and 0.5-0.8 m high with slender and cylindrical aerial stems. Both can and prostrate forms of mashua are known. Mashua has alternate, circular, peltate, 3- to 5-lobed leaves, and glaborous, twining stems that attach themselves to other plants by tactile petioles (NRC, 1989). The flowers are long-stalked, solitary, axial, bisexual. The color of the flowers range from dark yellow, orange, and scarlet. The fruit is a schizocarp with three indehiscent carpels that contain joined seeds lacking endosperm (NRC, 1989, Torres et al., 1992). The seeds are abundant and viable at maturity although since mashua is propagated asexually many asexual forms have arose which occasionally club seed.The tubers of Tropaeolum tuberosum are produced on axillary stolons which enlarge to form terminal, postpone tubers which are slightly r oughened from enlarge scale leaves (Sperling and King, 1990). The tubers vary in color from white to yellow with occasional variants that are purple or red. They are often striped or mottled red or purple, especially underneath the eyes. The flesh of the tuber is yellow (NRC, 1989). HistoryMashua has been cultivated since ancient times and tubers are often found in archaeological sites (NRC, 1989). Pre-Incan pictograms representing potato, ulluco, oca, and mashua have been found which show evidence the importance of these tubers even in those times (Hodge, 1946).