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Manihot esculenta
Also called Manioc, Kiki-tsiim, Bitter Cassava, Manoic, Tapioca, Tapioca Plant, Cassave
In Singapore: Tapioca, Ubi Kayu, Bitter Cassava, Manihot, Singkong, Manioc, Mandioca, Gari, 木薯, Variegated Tapioca, Variegated Cassava (Naturalised in Singapore)
Cassava is a woody, tuberous shrub from South America grown across the tropics as an annual crop for its starchy root, which is eaten boiled or processed into tapioca and flour. It is grown from stem cuttings and must be properly prepared before eating because the raw plant contains cyanide compounds.
Manihot esculenta, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions as an annual crop for its edible starchy tuberous root. Cassava is predominantly consumed in boiled form, but substantial quantities are processed to extract cassava starch, called tapioca, which is used for food, animal feed, and industrial purposes. The Brazilian farofa, and the related garri of West Africa, is an edible coarse flour obtained by grating cassava roots, pressing moisture off the obtained grated pulp, and finally drying and roasting it.
Cassava is propagated by cutting the stem into sections of approximately 15 cm (5.9 in), these being planted prior to the wet season.
Optimal conditions for cassava cultivation are mean annual temperatures between 20 and 29 °C (68 and 84 °F), but it can tolerate temperatures as low as 12 °C (54 °F) and as high as 40 °C (104 °F)., optimal annual precipitation is between 1,000 and 2,500 mm (39 and 98 in), and an annual growth period of no less than 240 days. These conditions are found, among other places, in the northern part of the Gulf Coastal Plain in Mexico. In this part of Mexico the following soil types have been shown to be good for cassava cultivation: phaeozem, regosol, arenosol, andosol and luvisol.
Cassava roots, peels, and leaves are dangerous to eat raw because they contain linamarin and lotaustralin, which are toxic cyanogenic glycosides. These are decomposed by the cassava enzyme linamarase, releasing poisonous hydrogen cyanide. Cassava varieties are often categorized as either bitter (high in cyanogenic glycosides) or sweet (low in those bitter compounds). Sweet cultivars can contain as little as 20 milligrams of cyanide per kilogram of fresh roots, whereas bitter cultivars may contain as much as 1000 milligrams per kilogram. Cassavas grown during drought are especially high in these toxins. A dose of 25 mg of pure cassava cyanogenic glucoside, which contains 2.5 mg of cyanide, is sufficient to kill a rat. Excess cyanide residue from improper preparation causes goiters and acute cyanide poisoning and is linked to ataxia (a neurological disorder affecting the ability to walk, also known as konzo). It has also been linked to tropical fibrocalcific pancreatitis in humans, leading to chronic pancreatitis.
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cassava by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
