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Lands of Red and Gold #38: The Portuguese Yam

It has been rather longer than I’d planned since the last instalment of LRG. Life gets in the way, sometimes... and I still haven’t had a chance to complete the next post about the Yadji and their would-be Dutch conquistadors

In the meantime, though, I can offer this rather different insight into the LRG world...

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Taken from Intellipedia.

Red Yam

The red yam is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Dioscorea chelidonius of the Dioscoreaceae family (also known as the bread vines) [1]. The name red yam can refer to the plant itself, as well as the edible tuber. The name is also sometimes misleadingly used to refer to the related crop Dioscorea angustus, properly known as the lesser yam. However, in Portuguese, no such ambiguity arises, since the same name, inhame vermelho, is used to refer to both species. [citation needed]

In southern and eastern Aururia, there are other closely-related wild yam species, none of which are cultivated. However, the warran yam (Dioscorea hastifolia), native to the south-west of the Third World [this phrase has been reported as offensive: discuss] has been cultivated [2]. Despite having first been introduced outside of Aururia four centuries ago [dubious: Aotearoa is not in Aururia!], red yams have today become a fundamental component of much of the world’s cuisine. Today, the red yam is the world’s fifth-largest food crop, after rice, wheat, potato and maize [3].

Related Dioscorea (yam) species are distributed through tropics of the globe, and a few extend into temperate latitudes. However, domesticated yams are derived only from the Old World and Aururia; no yam crops have been domesticated from the Americas. [citation needed] The red yam (and lesser yam) is by far the most widespread and commercially significant domesticated Dioscorea crop. However, other yam crops are equally important to the peoples who cultivate them, particularly white and yellow yams in West Africa [irrelevant addition: discuss].

Based on historical records, local tradition, and genetic analysis, the red yam is known to have been first domesticated in the Nyalananga basin. Although the precise location has not been identified. Archaeological evidence has clearly demonstrated that domesticated red yams were grown by 2500 BC [4]. However, the red yam was cultivated as long ago as 10,000 years ago [5] [unreliable source].

Introduced to the world by the Netherlands after 1619, the red yam was then distributed by European and Nangu mariners to territories and ports throughout the globe. Hundreds of varieties remain in Aururia, where a single agricultural household may grow half a dozen cultivars. Once established across the globe, the red yam soon became an important staple crop, particularly in the Mediterranean littoral and the subtropical Americas.

Characteristics

Red yam plants are herbaceous perennial vines that grow up to 6 m long (depending on variety), with the yam stems dying back in late autumn. They bear purple, white, pink or yellow flowers [1]. Red yams are cross-pollinated mostly by insects, including bees and moths, which carry pollen from other red yam plants, although a few cultivars are capable of self-fertilisation. Tubers form in response to decreasing day length, although a few commercial cultivars start forming their tuber earlier than the summer solstice.

After red yam plants flower, some cultivars produce small fruits, although these are toxic. All new red yam cultivars are grown from seed. Any domesticated red yam variety can also be propagated vegetatively by planting the tuber, or the uppermost portion (called the head) [citation needed]. Red yams can also be bred from cuttings, which are most commonly used in greenhouses. A few commercial cultivars cannot produce seeds, and are cultivated only from cuttings or tuber heads [1]. However, the “Sombra” cultivars of red yams, bred in Portugal, are grown for ornamental purposes. Sombra yam vine stalks grow year-round, and are much-favoured for decorating buildings in Lisbon and the Algarve, but do not form viable tubers.

Genetics

The major species grown worldwide is Dioscorea chelidonius (a tetraploid with 160 chromosomes), and modern varieties of this species are the most widely-cultivated worldwide. There are also three hexaploid species, most notably the lesser yam D. hastifolia, and the less widespread D. stenotomum and D. siliqua [6].

Including the hexaploid subspecies, there are about a thousand genetically distinct varieties of red yams globewide [7]. Seven hundred or so are confined to Aururia and Aotearoa, and about six hundred of those are exclusively found within the Nyalananga basin. No truly wild form of Dioscorea chelidonius survives today; genetic pollution and habitat destruction has meant that all surviving wild varieties of red yam contain some introgression of domesticated genes. Archaeological digs have recovered the genome of apparently wild forms, and Hani Tarun, a genetic pioneer, is actively leading research into identifying genes from preserved varieties of wild red yams which can be used to enhance cultivated forms for better growth or resistance to disease and pests [this appears to be a personal advertisement: flagged for removal: discuss].

History

Red yams yield abundantly with little effort, and with appropriate care and replanting after harvest an individual plant can be made to yield tubers for up to a decade. They are best suited to moderately dry climates, and together with cornnarts are the most water-efficient of staple food crops. Red yams are vulnerable to moulds and rotting if stored in damp or humid conditions, although their thick skins mean that they are less vulnerable than other major root crops such as potatoes or sweet potatoes. Red yams can rarely be stored for more than a year except in specialised conditions, in contrast to cereal crops which can be safely stored for several years.

Aururia

The red yam originated in south-eastern Aururia, somewhere on or near the Nyalananga, although the precise location remains disputed. Red yams were first domesticated sometime between 3500 and 2500 BC, and spread over the southern half of the continent before 1 AD. They formed the basis of native Aururian agriculture, providing the principal energy source for the Atjuntja, Yadji and Tjibarr states, and their predecessors and successors. Even today, red yams provide the single largest source of food energy for Aururia [1].

Aotearoa

Red yams spread to Aotearoa, together with other Aururian crops, sometime before 1350 AD. Its properties were so respected by Maori farmers, and its cultivation so widespread, that it completely displaced the Polynesian crop package which the Maori had brought with them. Sweet potatoes, taro and Asian yams were cultivated during the early days of Maori settlement, but were abandoned before first European contact in 1627. They survived only in archaeology and where they were imported into Aururia. However, some have argued [who?] that without the Maori bringing sweet potatoes to Aururia, the northern half of the continent would have been largely empty until European invasion [this term has been flagged as offensive: discuss].

Africa

Red yams were introduced to southern Africa in 1640, with the first Cape Maddirs who were forcibly deported from their homelands [citation needed]. Plirite missionaries carried red yams along with their faith beyond the borders of Dutch control, until the missionaries reached the Tropic of Capricorn. The missionaries progresses further, but the red yam did not [1]. However, the D. chelidonius ssp. hastifolia varieties of red yam spread along the eastern coast of Africa, until by the mid-eighteenth century they were being grown as far north as the Habeshan highlands...

Europe

Dutch East India Company sailors brought red yams with them back to the Netherlands in the 1620s, but the crop did not grow well at such northerly latitudes [8]. The red yam was first introduced into Europe in 1648 by the Portuguese sailor Miguel Ferreira do Amaral, who successfully replanted red yam tubers which he had taken on as food at the Cape. Mastering the cultivation of this native Aururian crop would have been impossible without the help of Yadilli farmers who willingly shared their knowledge with the Portuguese despite being forcibly brought to Europe.

The red yam spread to Spain and then to Spain’s dominions in Sicily and elsewhere in Italy, and from there to Venice and the Turks. During the later seventeenth century and the early eighteenth century, the red yam became integrated into Mediterranean farming, particularly given its ability to give good yields even on poor, parched soils in southern Italy. Sicily grew so many red yams that even today, many Mediterranean countries call the plant the Sicilian yam. Historians believe (Kant, 1987) that the red yam-fed population boom in Sicily led to social tension over land tenure and inheritance, and ultimately to the Advent Revolt which replaced Spanish rule with the native Piazzi dynasty...

Elsewhere

Historical records of red yams in South America date to the late seventeenth century. Contact is presumed to have been via the Cape, where some Portuguese ships resupplied, or Spanish ships during times of peace with the Dutch. Buenos Aires is noted as an early centre of New World red yam cultivation, and from there the red yam spread throughout the Spanish Americas [citation needed].

Role in World Food Supply

The Food and Agricultural Bureau reports that the red yam plays a vital role in maintaining and expanding the global food supply in subsistence economies. Although mechanised farming of the red yam remains problematic, its qualities as a perennial, low water demand crop mean that is suitable for low-capital agriculture and intensive dryland farming...

[1] “Red Yams: Notes”. Jessup University Department of Landscape Architecture.

[2] Tjula, D.S. “100 Recipes for Warrans”.

[3] FABSTAT.

[4] Hylla S.A., Dusel F (eds). “Aururia in Prehistory”

[5] Meyer, J.B., personal communication.

[6] Burani, K. “Molecular description and similarity relationships among native yams”

[7] Schultz, K.G., Thiele, A.M. et al “Dioscorea Taxonomy Reconsidered: Insights from Genetic Similarity Testing”

[8] Boniface, A.E. “The United East India Company: Reflections on the Golden Age”

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Thoughts?