Rescate e Identificación de Raíces y Tubérculos Tropicales Subexplotados del Estado de Tabasco, México

Abstract

In view of their ease of propagation, adaptability and their traditional consumption as a staple of the regional diet (as tubers and roots), the genetically diverse crops of Tabasco could become economically important. The subexploitation of these crops has held back their expansion, however, since food production is directed towards cereals. Among these species are: yam (Dioscorea alata L.), batata (Ipomoea batatas Lam), macal (Xanthosoma sagittifolium Schott), Chinese macal (Xanthosoma violaceum Schott), flyer potato (Dioscorea bulbifera L.), cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea L.), ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscae), taro (Colocasia esculenta Schott), azafrancillo (Escobedia linearis Schlecht) and suco (Calathea macrosepala (Aulb.) Lindl.).The germoplasm of eleven of these sub-exploited food species of roots and tubers was preserved, and subsequently characterized botanically and taxonomically in the Herbarium of the División Académica de Ciencias Biológicas of the Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco and collected species were transferred to the nurseries of “Las Lilias” of the Secretaría de Desarrollo Agrícola Forestal y Pecuario and of the División Académica de Ciencias Agropecuarias where they are conserved in situ.