Was Bananas - now geophyte definition

Lee Poulsen wpoulsen@pacbell.net
Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:53:36 PST
Scarlet runner bean is listed on the wiki: <http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…> and it says that the tuberous root is eaten for its starchiness in Central America.

I believe the Edibles page just has a "starter" list included so far. For example, an edible geophyte we've discussed several times, 'oca' or Oxalis tuberosa is listed on the Oxalis page but hasn't been cross-listed to this page yet, even though its edibility is discussed at length on the Oxalis page.

As far as I'm concerned, potato (Solanum tuberosum) should be listed as well. It is definitely a tuber and it definitely grows from the tuber as that is by far the most common way new plants are started. The "Genetics" section of the wikipedia entry for potato is very interesting reading describing a number of different species that are all related to the potato and that various potato species are native from south central Chile all the way up into Texas. Some of these species have even been bred into the commercial potato to introduce different kinds of disease resistance. There are even diploid, triploid, tetraploid, and pentaploid species of potatoes!

Sweet potatoes should probably be listed as well, since aren't there relatives of it grown for their foliage or flowers?

And Dahlia tubers are sold as "bulbs" with all the other spring bulbs in every nursery I've been to--definitely a geophyte.

--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena, California, USA - USDA Zone 10a
Latitude 34°N, Altitude 1150 ft/350 m


On Nov 30, 2011, at 11:31 AM, The Silent Seed wrote:

> Maybe in the South ??? But never seen any kind of storage down below. 
> Has anyone ? 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ina Crossley <klazina1@gmail.com>
> 
> 
> Scarlet runner beans can come up again year after year so must have a 
> food reservoir.
> 
> Ina
> 
> On 1/12/2011 5:45 a.m., The Silent Seed wrote:
>> Never seen anything other than wiry, stringy roots on those
> 



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