| Abstract Detail
Thursday Morning Contributed Talks Hill, Annette M. [1], Marchant, Adam D. [1], Courtenay, Kim [2], Orel, George [3]. Genetic and Horticultural assessment of the Australian native Bush Potato, Ipomoea costata (Convolvulaceae, Solanales). FOR thousands of years, the ‘Bush Potato’ (ghundi or yarla, in local languages), an Australian plant in the same genus as the sweet potato, was a staple food crop of the indigenous people of north-west Australia. However, as there is now almost no-one living the traditional Aboriginal lifestyle, this once important plant has been neglected. There are a number of Ipomoea species which are endemic to arid tropical Australia, which bear large edible underground tubers. Unlike the Central American-derived sweet potato (I. batatas), the Australian species have not been subject to the selective forces of hundreds or thousands of years of horticulture. Bush potato species include I. costata, I. polpha and I. argillicola, and probably others which await taxonomic placement. I. costata is the most widespread species, having been recorded from a sector of the country bounded in the east by the NT/Qld border, and the Tropic of Capricorn in the south. We report on the progress of a research project that is assessing genetic diversity in I. costata, establishing the evolutionary affinities of the bush potato species, and assessing their horticultural characteristics and potential value, either as crops by themselves, or as contributors of valuable genetic traits to sweet potato breeding.
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Related Links:
The Australia & Pacific Science Foundation
1 - Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, National Herbarium of New South Wales, Mrs Macquarie\'s Rd., Sydney, NSW, 2000, Australia
2 - TAFE-WA Kimberley, Broome Campus, PO Box 1380, Broome, WA, 6725, Australia
3 - University of Western Sydney, Centre for Plant and Food Science, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 1797, Australia
Keywords:
Ipomoea
sweetpotato
Australia
tuber
Convolvulaceae.
Session: SOL06-3
Location: Ballroom AB/Monona Terrace
Date: Thursday, July 27th, 2006
Time: 8:50 AM
Abstract ID:94 |
