CBN-V Video Archives - PS1-03
Diversity, Evolution and Domestication within Manihot

Salick J.

Missouri Botanical Garden, St Louis MO 63166-0299 USA.
jan.salick@mobot.org

The genus Manihot and the species Manihot esculenta are renown for diversity. Morphological and molecular characters vary widely and often without obvious evolutionary pattern. Environmental adaptations range from desert to tropical rainforest. Growth forms vary from herbaceous vines to emergent trees. Thousands of morphologically and molecularly distinct varieties of cassava are grown in the upper Amazon alone. Cassava diversity over time or germplasm turnover is rapid, with 92% new varieties appearing in only 15 years among the Amuesha of the Central Selva, Peru where cassava is bred, borrowed, traded, stolen and culturally revered. This dynamic diversity in a clonal crop may very well be adaptive and indicative of distinct patterns in root and tuber crop domestication. Cassava domestication is likely characterized by diversity, clonal reproduction, disturbance, fire, starch content, time to maturation, processing and perhaps, secondarily, sweetness. These evolutionary patterns and domestication will be tested through molecular, morphological and ethnobotany research.

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