Telfairia occidentalis

Telfairia occidentalis, illustration.

Telfairia occidentalis is a crop from tropical West Africa and is a species of the family Cucurbitaceae ( Cucurbitaceae ). Be mainly used the shoot tips and leaves as a vegetable.

Features

It makes up to 15 meters long, dioecious perennial lianas. Rarely, monoecious plants. The leaves are tinged with purple.

The flowers are white and frayed at the edges. The male flowers are in elongated panicles, the female one. The fruit is light green and ellipsoidal and up to a meter long. At maturity it has a white waxy coating. It bears ten distinct ribs, so they fluted pumpkin also carries the English common name ( grooves pumpkin). The seeds are red, oval and up to five inches tall. They taste like almonds. The seeds have up to 25 percent protein and 55 to 60 percent fat.

The seeds are sensitive to desiccation. A seed produced more shoots, so that can be gained from a seed up to four seedlings.

Dissemination and locations

The species is native to tropical West Africa and comes in the Congo Basin eastwards to Uganda. However, there are no known wild resources. Particularly in Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Cameroon and Sierra Leone, but also other countries in the region it is cultivated. As summer vegetables it is also grown in Florida.

Use and cultivation

The vines are tied to supports or grow on the ground. Although the plant is perennial, it is cultivated as an annual crop. In Nigeria, particularly phosphorus fertilization of importance for the yield increase. They grow best during the rainy season from April to October, with irrigation the growth period may be extended in the dry season into it.

If the plants were grown for vegetable use of vegetative parts, the young fruits are removed from the plants. Female plants are more productive. Frequent harvesting of the young shoots increased the branch, in the five-month harvest season can be harvested up to 15 times. For seed production, the fruits are harvested just before full maturity.

Propagation is by seed or cuttings. The first harvest takes place about three months after sowing.

The seeds are eaten like beans. The leaves are used as soup herb, young shoots as a vegetable. Stem fibers are formed into sponges. The wax is recovered from the coating of the fruits.

In Nigeria, leaves and fruits have developed into a major regional commodity that is traded over distances of up to 300 kilometers. Here she is now also grown in the savannah.

Documents

• R. W. Robinson, D. S. Decker -Walters: cucurbits. CAB International, Wallingford 1997, pp. 110-111, ISBN 0-85199-133-5.
• S. A. Ajayi, M.E Dulloo, R. S. Vodouhe, P. Berjak, J.I. Kioko: Conservation status of Telfairia spp. in sub- Saharan Africa. In: R. Vodouhe, K. Atta - Krah, G. E. Achigan - Dako, O. Eyog - Matig, H. Avohou (ed.): Plant Genetic Resources and Food Security in West and Central Africa. Biodiversity International 2007, ISBN 978-92-9043-750-5 (online pdf 136 kB)