Mauka

A hardy herbaceous perennial and a traditional food crop. Valuable because it produces high yields under conditions few other food crops ...Read Morecan tolerate, and because all parts of the plant are nutritious. It is well adapted to growing at high elevations in the Andes, where it's subject to constant winds and chill. It will grow well with annual rainfall as low as 20".

The tubers, stems, and leaves are all eaten, and may also be used as fodder for livestock.

M. expansa was a very important crop to the Inca Empire. It was believed to be lost until the1960's, when its cultivation was described in a rural community in Bolivia. Fifteen years later it was also discovered in Ecuador and Peru.

M. expansa produces a high yield of edible stems and storage roots. The roots of some forms are astringent and can irritate the mucous membranes if eaten without processing, and should be sun-dried and boiled to eliminate the irritating substance. Once the root has been exposed to the sun, the astringent, bitter taste is replaced with sweetness.

The leaves are also edible, and can be used in salads and chili sauces. The roots can be prepared in the same way as sweet potato or cassava, two similar crops, and can be cooked in soups and stews.

In Ecuador, mauka is prepared in both savory and sweet dishes. To prepare mauka for sweet dishes, the plant is buried for one week with layers of barley straw to concentrate the sugars. The cooking water makes a satisfying sweet drink.

Traditionally, this crop was propagated vegetatively using basal shoots, pieces of stem, or suckers. It can also be grown from seed.

In Bolivia, this crop plant's common name is mauka (Spanish). In Peru it has many different common names, including chago, arricon, yuca, inca, cuship, and chaco. In Ecuador it is known as miso, taso, or pega pega.

For those interested in ethnobotanical root crops who are looking for a challenge, M. expansa is a good one. This plant is ill suited for...Read More my SE USA location, with its lengthy hot summers and brief, but strong cold spells in winters, which means its best chance for survival is as a container specimen. Nevertheless, it survives with sufficient care, and most actively grows during the brief periods in spring and fall when the weather falls into the temperature ranges this plant needs to thrive.

Like several other native Andean root crops, this plant expects full sun, but without extreme daytime heat or evening frost during its growth phase. When daytime temps exceed mid 80s F (30 C), or when evening temps drop to near freezing, growth comes to a halt. Nevertheless, the plant will survive long, hot, humid summers outdoors if protected from direct sun during the hottest parts of the day, although it tends to languish in these conditions. Similarly, its hardy tuber will withstand some frost (aerial parts will die), and reemerge when warmer temps arrive. As such, I grow in in a container and overwinter indoors under 12 hr/d LED lighting, which keeps it actively growing. This plant seems to do well in a porous, well draining, circumneutral growth medium that is kept consistently moist while the plant is in active growth. And while it may not produce as abundant a root crop for those of us well outside its native range, it survives with proper care.