Comments on: Perennial kales in Ecuador

By: Eve Emshwiller

Eve Emshwiller — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:20:24 +0000

A dozen years ago I saw perennial kale in Cuyo-Cuyo in southern Peru. It was not the curly-leaved purple kind in the second image here. It’s nickname was “Flag of Cuyo-Cuyo” because it was so common in the village there. I didn’t ask enough about it, and it didn’t occur to me that it might never flower. At the time I assumed it was just the moist and frost free climate of the mid-elevation eastern Andean slopes that allowed it to persist. Thanks for bringing attention to this plant.

By: Xavier Scheldeman

Xavier Scheldeman — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:31:55 +0000

What is eaten is the tissue surrounding the seed (the aril, as in lychee). It is more a sponge-like structure than a powder. Tastes sweet and refreshing. Some species/accessions have very limited quantities of edible parts (would be a nice trait for characterization).

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:45:57 +0000

If I’d thought to I would have brought back the sprig she tore off, but I’m not sure it would have survived the journey. My case is crammed. But there was space for a piece of toilet paper hastily smeared with Solanum quitoense seeds.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:43:32 +0000

Thanks Xavier and Owen. Indeed, Marleni confirmed that it was probably a species of Inga, though not which one. My comparison with carob was very superficial. The pods weren’t smooth at all, but they were carob sized. I was told that one eats the powder surrounding the bean. Is that right?

By: Rhizowen

Rhizowen — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:05:16 +0000

Ice cream beans taste good and have apparently been used successfully as an alley cropping alternative to slash and burn by Cornish farmer/ tropical agro-ecologist Mike Hands. I think he usually uses Inga edulis.

By: Xavier Scheldeman

Xavier Scheldeman — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:07:12 +0000

...or the tree they called guava that looked to me like a carob; certainly a legume of some sort.

Must have been an Inga species (called guaba in Ecuador, not to be confused with guava, the English name for Psidium guajava, or guayaba (its Spanish equivalent). In English the species is referred to as pacay or, more attractive, ice-cream bean (I hope you had a chance to try it…) This is a truly Neotropical genus with lots of different species from the Amazon up to the Andes (a search in the New World Fruits Database results in 46 species). Further reading in Lost crops of the Andes and, if you want to know everything on Inga, in the ICRAF/Kew publication The Genus Inga: Utilization (not free). Based on your comparison with carob, combined with the Andean presence, I would guess the species you observed was Inga feuilleei.

By: Rhizowen

Rhizowen — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:16:39 +0000

At last a kale which can be picked at a civilised height! I wonder, however, whether the combination of low chill and fairly constant photoperiod might be inhibiting flowering in long day adapted European material. I think there’s a gene called CONSTANS which is responsible for initiating flowering in Arabidopsis during long days. It might be the same in Brassica. It would be easy enough to find out and I bet there’s a whole load of perennial veg fanatics out there who’d be willing to beat a path to Dona Digna’s door.