Lost Crops of the Incas Little-Known Plants of the Andes with Promise for Worldwide Cultivation (1989) / Chapter Skim
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Mauka
Mauka
Pages 74-81
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From page 75... ...
is only just now coming to light. In the early 1960s, Bolivian scientist Julio Rea first announced to the outside world that it was an important food of the Maukallajta Indians in the high valleys north of La Paz, Bolivia.
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From page 76... ...
These swollen thickened clumps, much like those of cassava, are usually boiled or fried and served as vegetables. When freshly harvested, the mauka roots grown in Bolivia contain an astringent chemical that can burn the lips and tongue.
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From page 77... ...
The seed remains viable for several years. As the plant matures, the below-ground portion of the stem and the upper roots thicken into crowded clusters at and just beneath the soil surface.
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From page 78... ...
When any portion of the recent conquests showed a pertinacious spirit of disaffection, it was not uncommon to cause a part of the population, amounting, it might be, to ten thousand inhabitants or more, to remove to a distant quarter of the kingdom, occupied by ancient vassals of undoubted fidelity to the crown. A like number of these last was transplanted to the territory left vacant by the emigrants.
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From page 79... ...
(The major pest seems to be the larva of a fly or butterfly that penetrates the subterranean parts, causing the foliage to wither.) 2 Growing crops in pits is common in traditional Andean agriculture pits provide protection from winds and from chill creeping close to the ground, and they help collect and retain water.
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From page 80... ...
: miso Cotopaxi (Ecuador) : tazo Spanish: mauka, chagos, arricon, yuca inca, shallca yuca, yuca de la Jalca, pega pega, cushpe, arracacha de tore, camotillo English: mauka Origin.
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From page 81... ...
Bolivian types seem to have uniformly purple flowers, but in Ecuador they range towards white. The inflorescences are terminal racemes covered with viscid hairs, to which small insects frequently become stuck.
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