Stylochaeton hypogaeum

Lepr.

Barter's round arum

AraceaeLeavesRootsFlowers

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(c) Marco Schmidt, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)

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(c) ONG OeBenin, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

What to Eat

Edible parts: Leaves, Roots, Spathe, Flowers, Vegetable

The flowers and flower stalks are cooked and eaten, and are also used as an additive to beer. The leaves, roots, spathe, and other vegetable parts are consumed as a minor vegetable.

Where to Find It

They are tropical and subtropical plants. It grows in open forest and savannah.

Africa, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinée, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Sudan, Sudan, West Africa,

Countries: Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Benin, Botswana, Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, Congo (Republic), Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Comoros, Liberia, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe, Eswatini, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe

How to Identify

A small herb. It has a thick rootstock. It keeps growing from year to year. The leaves occur in tufts. They are simple. The leaf stalk is 8-15 cm long. The leaf sheath has horizontal purple bands. The leaves are arrowhead shape. They are 10-20 cm long by 5-10 cm wide. The lobes near the base are a narrow triangle shape. The flower spadix is 3-8 cm long. It has a spathe around it. The flowers are of one sex. Male flowers are at the top of the stalk and female flowers lower down. The fruit are round berries. They only have a few seeds. The seeds are oval and black.

Production

Flowers appear in the dry season.

Other Information

It is a minor vegetable.

Notes

There are 17 Stylochaeton species.

Names & Synonyms

Bargo, Gwadaba, Ndukul mbop, Tabal, Worola, Wuula, Yafoton

Stylochiton barteri N. E. Br.Stylochiton kerensis N. E. Br.Stylochiton similis N. E. Br.

References (9)

Achigan-Dako, E, et al (Eds), 2009, Catalogue of Traditional Vegetables in Benin. International Foundation for Science.
Burkill, H. M., 1985, The useful plants of west tropical Africa, Vol. 1. Kew.
Gallagher, D. E., 2010, Farming beyond the escarpment: Society, Environment, and Mobility in Precolonial Southeastern Burkina Faso. PhD University of Michigan.
Grubben, G. J. H. and Denton, O. A. (eds), 2004, Plant Resources of Tropical Africa 2. Vegetables. PROTA, Wageningen, Netherlands. p 516
Jardin, C., 1970, List of Foods Used In Africa, FAO Nutrition Information Document Series No 2.p 20, 105
Martin, F.W. & Ruberte, R.M., 1979, Edible Leaves of the Tropics. Antillian College Press, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. p 176
Mertz, O., Lykke, A. M., and Reenberg, A., 2001, Importance and Seasonality of Vegetable Consumption and Marketing in Burkina Faso. Economic Botany, 55(2):276-289 (As Stylochaeton)
Morton, J.K., 1961, West African Lilies and Orchids. Longmans. p 47 (As Stylochaeton barteri)
World Checklist of Useful Plant Species 2020. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew