EVALUATION OF ACCESSIONS OF DIOSCOREA BULBIFERA IN MANAUS, AMAZONAS

Abstract

The species Dioscorea bulbifera is a traditional vegetable that develops edible tubers in the aerial part of the plant. Although the species is relatively distributed in Brazil, little is still known about the materials cultivated in different regions, especially regarding adaptive quality and production characteristics, often related to their potential use. Therefore, the objective was to evaluate morphological and agronomic characters related to aerial tubers of D. bulbifera accessions, in Manaus, Amazonas. The plants of four accessions were grown in an espalier system, with a total of five plants per accession, and all the aerial tubers fallen on the ground were evaluated at weekly harvests. The data were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis. The external coloration of the aerial tubers varied from light beige, dark beige to dark brown, among the accessions. The surface texture was rough, and the internal color was yellow in all accessions. The shape varied from rounded, asymmetrical, oblong, and rectangular to papilionaceous, with the rounded shape being the most frequent (45.0%) and papilionaceous being the least frequent (6.7%) in all accessions. The aerial tubers measured, on average, between 6.5 and 8.6 cm in length, 5.1 and 6.0 cm in width, and 3.8 and 4.5 cm in thickness; and weighed, on average, between 87.5 and 153.4 g. The number of aerial tubers per plant varied, on average, between 24 and 34 units, with production per plant between 2.4 and 4.2 kg and productivity between 3.5 and 13 t ha-1. The results demonstrated variation among the accessions, regarding the characteristics of external color, shape, size, and fresh weight of aerial tubers, number of aerial tubers, and production per plant.