Annie Walter | Vincent Lebot

AnnieWalte

r|VincentLebot

Gardens of Oceania

GardensofOceania

Annie Walter, a researcher at the Institut de Recherche pour leDéveloppement (IRD), is a specialist on ni-Vanuatu knowledge ofmedicinal and food plants. She is also the author of a work on thefruiting trees of Oceania.

Vincent Lebot, a researcher at the Centre de CoopérationInternationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement(CIRAD), works on the agrobiodiversity of subsistence agriculture.He is the author of numerous publications on plants of Melanesia.

In Oceania, particularly in Vanuatu, gardens are the evidence of anancestral rural tradition in which food plants are at one and the sametime an indispensable resource, the symbols of a community and theobjects of barter or trade. The ni-Vanuatu devote themselves with truepassion to their gardens, within which they collect, select and diversifya rich botanical heritage.

Perusing this abundantly illustrated work, the reader will discover thefull diversity of Oceanian food plants as well as the many exotic speciesintroduced by the great explorers of the 16th century. Each species isthe subject of a detailed dossier that describes amongst other thingsthe variability, morphology, mode of cultivation and production of theplant as well as its different uses. The CD-ROM that accompaniesthe book provides information in greater detail for the specialist:bibliographic references, details and descriptors of yams and taros,photos illustrating the morphological variability, and much more. Withthe aim of preserving this exceptional plant heritage to the greatestpossible extent, this work will draw the attention of a wide public tothe gardens of Vanuatu, and to this Oceanian agriculture that combinesa variety of multicultural contributions with great originality.

Key words

Agrobiodiversity – Food Plants – Oceania

ISBN 1 86320 470 9

ISBN 1 86320 513 6 (electronic)

GARDENS OF OCEANIA

Annie Walter and Vincent Lebotwith collaboration from Chanel Sam

GARDENS OF OCEANIA

English translation by Paul Ferrar

First published in French by IRD Éditions and CIRAD as Jardins

d’Océanie, © IRD Éditions–CIRAD, 2003, ISBN IRD 2-7099-1524-3,

ISBN CIRAD 2-87614-568-5

ACIAR Monograph Series

This series contains the results of original research supported by

ACIAR, or material deemed relevant to Australia’s research and

development objectives. The series is distributed internationally

with an emphasis on developing countries.

This edition created in Australia with the permission of IRD–CIRAD

© Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, 2007

Walter, A. and Lebot, V. 2007. Gardens of Oceania. ACIAR Monograph

No. 122. [trs P. Ferrar from Jardins d’Océanie].

ISBN 1 86320 470 9 (print)

ISBN 1 86320 513 6 (online)

Design and layout: Catherine Plasse and Design ONE

Printed by: PIRION Pty Ltd

Printed with vegetable based inks on stock that comprises 80% recycled fibrefrom post-consumer waste and 20% TCF pulp sourced from sustainable forests.

BookPreface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Glossary of terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Agriculture and cultivated places . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Root and tuber crops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Trees, shrubs and bushes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Climbing plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Herbaceous plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Index of generic names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Index of common names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Table of contents of book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

CD-ROMFull text of book

The Fruits of Oceania

Minor species

Photos of morphological variability

Bibliography

Annex 1: Plants that are foraged

Annex 2: Synopsis of species covered in book and CD-ROM

Annex 3: Species names and main synonyms

Annex 4: Herbarium specimens

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Contents

by Stephen Kalsakau

Minister of Agriculture

Vanuatu

The ni-Vanuatu people havea real passion for plants. Theirrelationship with the plant worldis that of gardeners, aware of therich but fragile biodiversity oftheir own islands, and inquiringas to what may be introducedand exploited from the modernworld outside. They never stopexperimenting with new speciesof food plants and ornamentalspecies. Even though the geneticdiversity of the indigenous speciestends to become narrower, thenumber of different cultivatedplants found within the trad-itional garden is at the same timeincreasing with the introductionof exotic species into the archi-pelago and their exploitation.

The population of Vanuatu isthought to have been close toa million people before the firstcontact with Europeans. Althoughlittle information is available,it is probable that the richnessand the productivity of the soilsallowed the inhabitants to meettheir nutritional needs withoutmuch risk of malnutrition, despitethe numerous and frequent climatichazards. But this type of subsis-tence, though still possible, is notfound any longer. The populationof Vanuatu, decimated by intro-duced diseases and forcedmigration, was only about 110,000inhabitants in 1980 at the time ofIndependence. A very high popu-lation growth rate has meant that

today there are about 200,000inhabitants, but this is a matter ofsome concern: the urban popu-lation is expected to double inthe next ten years, and the totalpopulation of the country willdouble in the next 23 years andwill reach one million in 2070.Provision of the necessities oflife will then become quite difficult.

In these circumstances twoapproaches may be taken tosatisfy the food needs of thepopulation: the amount of localfood production must expandrapidly, and farmers mustincrease their incomes throughexport of produce in order tobe able to buy from overseaswhatever cannot be producedlocally.

It is this last strategy that hasbeen favoured since Indepen-dence, with modest success.The geographical isolation ofthe country, far from the maintrade routes, and the physicallayout of the country – an archi-pelago – cause major problemsfor the trade in food products,which are often perishable. Theconstraints that agriculturalexports must overcome areenormous. The distance of themajor consumer markets makethe staple food products uncom-petitive. Conversely, the agricultureof this tiny country, suffering fromthe absence of any protectivemeasures, is exposed to the fullmeasure of global competition.The importers of agriculturalcommodities benefit from this

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Preface

and are able to place on the localmarket impressive quantities ofexotic, imported foods, whichare even cheaper than the localproducts. The difficulties ofexporting combined with thegreat ease of importation makefor a serious imbalance in thebalance of trade.

Since Independence the agricul-tural balance sheet of Vanuatu hasbeen in deficit every year. Thevalue of imported food commo-dities is regularly higher than thevalue of those exported. Worsestill, food styles and preferenceschange very quickly. Per capitaconsumption of canned meatand fish, rice, flour and otherprocessed foods is increasingcontinually. Nowadays youngpeople prefer bread and riceto the local root crops, becausethey acquired the taste for themduring their years of education,and because these foods arequicker to prepare and cheaperfor a salaried population thatbuys its food and is short on time.These young people thus repre-sent a potential consumer marketfor overseas cereal growers, andlocal producers suffer a steadydecline in customers even thoughthe local production of foodcrops remains high.

Aware of the dangers that thissituation presents, the Govern-ment of the Republic of Vanuatudecided to declare the first yearof the new century – 2001 – “theyear of local produce”, or “Yiablong Aelan Kakai” in Bislama.Through this simple slogan, thisnational campaign aims to remindcitizens of the need to preserve

the local in order to face theglobal. The ni-Vanuatu can beproud of their biological products,which are produced withoutpesticides or other chemicalproducts. The diversity of theselocal products deserves to bevalued, but being poorly knownthey are also poorly utilised.

In this context, this book is animportant resource: it summar-ises available knowledge aboutnumerous food plants that couldand should be exploited commer-cially in the future, in order toassure the development of anagriculture that can producesufficient to cope with the formi-dable population growth whileat the same time preserving theisland environment. It is thusintended for a very large public:producers, to be sure, but alsothe teachers who have the heavyresponsibility of educating theyounger generations, professionalsin agriculture and related sectors,those with assorted roles in publiclife, and finally the decisionmakers.All these people may quickly findsource information on the historyof the food plants found nowadaysin Vanuatu, their botanicaldescriptions, the variabilityfound within the species, thegeneral details of their cultivation,and finally complementary infor-mation on their main uses. This isa comprehensive guide that willallow everyone, whatever theirinterests or character, to havesystematic access to importantinformation, from the most basicto the most particular. The bookthus covers the major plants,illustrated by numerous

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photographs. It provides for eachplant a list of references and arepeat of specific informationthat is developed further in theCD-ROM: the synonyms of theplant species, the herbariumreference specimens and thestudies of intraspecific variability.The reader, having consulted thebook for the main informationon a particular plant species,may then refer to the CD-ROMto obtain complementary infor-mation if wished from the citedreferences for easy access tomore detailed information.

The authors, Annie Walterand Vincent Lebot, have thusprovided us with a work that

comprehensively depicts ourmodern-day agriculture, with itsancestral plants and those thathave come in additionally, givinginformation for all on the origin, themodes of cultivation, the varia-bility and the practical usageof each species, and allowingspecialists easy access to tech-nical information that they mayneed. This is a difficult, not tosay hazardous, task when oneconsiders the remarkable diversityof plants in Oceania, but evenif there may be a few errors andomissions, a thorough reading ofthis comprehensive and easy toaccess work can be recommendedto all.

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Acknowledgments

French editionThis book is the result of manylong days spent in the gardensand the villages of Vanuatu. Thelist of people who have madedirect contributions to this work,by letting us visit their gardenplots or by giving us valuableinformation, is clearly too longfor each to be recognised indivi-dually here. They are, neverthe-less, the sources of the basicinformation that made up thisbook. It is with great admirationfor their knowledge and sincererecognition of the time that theydevoted to us that we conveyour warm thanks to them all.

We wish to thank our collabora-tors in Vanuatu, in the governmentservices, in the cultural centre ofthe National Museum of Arts, andin the Department of Agricultureand Forests for the discussionsthat we have had in the fieldduring numerous trips undertakenaround the archipelago, and forall the help that they gave us.The vendors in the markets ofLuganville and Port Vila werenever sparing with their time,nor ever lost their good humour,in answering our many questionswhose naivety often caused greatmirth among them. This book isthus naturally dedicated to thewomen and the men of agricul-ture in Vanuatu, whose knowledgethrough this work is translatedinto scientific terminology.

Also very numerous are thefriends and colleagues who havehelped in the realisation of thiswork. Chanel Sam, curator of thePort Vila Herbarium, identifiedthe majority of the species andfrequently accompanied us intothe field. Alfred Mabonlala helpedus throughout the production ofthis book. Delphine Greindl, ofLuganville Market, and FabienneTzerikiantz, on the west coast ofSanto, gathered valuable infor-mation on the methods of culti-vation and preparation of thefood plants. The former alsoprovided us with numerousphotographs. Elisabeth Pelegrinand her collaborators, in theInformation Centre of IRD inMontpellier, helped to get for usmany related publications thatwould otherwise have been hardfor us to find. Deta Alimeck wasmost helpful in collating andsorting the relevant references.Pierre Cabalion, botanist at IRD,provided us with much comple-mentary information gatheredduring his own studies in Vanuatu.Patricia Siméoni was kind enoughto provide us with some of her ownphotographs. Laure Emperairechecked the section on cassavaand Jean-Marie Bompard that onmango. To all of them we giveour sincerest thanks, for theirhelp, their support and theirfriendly comments.

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Finally, we would like also tothank Jacques Florence andFrancis Hallé who went throughour manuscript with a fine tooth-comb, and whose comments,corrections and suggestionshave greatly improved the initialdraft of this text. It is of courseunderstood that if any errors ormisinformation remain, they areour responsibility.

Note on Englishedition bytranslatorAs translator of the fascinatingearlier volume Fruits d’Océanie,I was excited to hear that acompanion volume, Jardinsd’Océanie, was to completethis study of the food plantsof Vanuatu, and I offered myservices again to translate thenew work.

I was assisted with some parti-cular French terms by my friendand former colleague ChristineMoore, and also by one of theauthors, Vincent Lebot, whoseknowledge of English is far betterthan mine of French. I am mostgrateful to both of them, whileacknowledging that any errorsthat remain are my responsibility.

IRD and CIRAD kindly madeavailable a full electronic copyof the French text and all theillustrations, and permitted ACIARto publish the English translation.I am also most grateful to myformer colleague Robin Taylor(Publications Manager of ACIAR)for her encouragement andassistance with technicalproduction of the work.

Paul Ferrar

Canberra

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Australia

New Zealand

Vanuatu

New GuineaIndonesia

Tropic of Cancer

Tropic of Capricorn

Philippines

Vietnam

SAHUL

SUNDA

New Caledonia

Solomon Islands

Tasmania

Migrations towards the Sahul continental plate before the last glaciation

Land above water at thetime of the last glaciation

Wallace’s Line

First migrations(about 40,000 years ago)

Austronesian migrations(from 4,000 years ago)

1000 km0

It is estimated that about500,000 species of plants occurthroughout the world, but onlya small proportion of these havebeen identified, described andstored in herbaria, and manyare disappearing before theyhave been classified.

Among these, about 30,000species are edible and 7,000 havebeen cultivated or gathered byhumans at one time or another inhistory. Several thousand specieshave thus been considered to beof use to human nutrition globally.Nowadays only thirty species feedthe world and their cultivationprovides 95% of the requirementsof calories and proteins, withwheat, maize and rice alonesupplying about half the energyobtained from plants. It is thusprimarily on these three species,and then on the other 27 species,that the main efforts are madefor improvement and conser-vation of genetic diversity. Thisshows the extent to which thenutrition of the planet is in theprocess of homogenisation, allthe more because every timelocal food habits change, somespecies disappear – since theyare no longer being used, theyare no longer cultivated.

However, paradoxically in certainregions the diversity of foodplants has never been all thatgreat. The major explorationsof the 16th to the 18th centuries,conversion to Christianity of theworlds discovered by Western

nations, colonisation, the increasein tourist travel and the growthof international trade have cont-ributed to the spread of localfood species on a huge scale,and to the change of tastesin food materials. Nowadays,thanks to trade in seeds, to thedevelopment of supermarketsand the growth of shops sellingexotic foods, and to increasingimmigrant populations, in anygiven country one may findpractically any ingredient forpreparing a meal. It seems,therefore, that if one particulareconomic trend tends to reducethe number of food plants toa few species, another trend istending to increase our choiceof available foods. The world,finally, is seeing an era of greatgastronomic exploration. Westerncountries are discovering, andwill discover still more, unknownfood plants for which they knowneither the name nor the usage.Tropical countries have seen, andwill see yet more, the arrival offood products of whose originand utilisation they are oftenignorant. The former countriespurchase and taste; the lattercountries often start to grow andsell. For each of these groupswe have conceived this guide,to present to Western nationsthe food plants used in Oceania,and to show to the Oceaniansthe origin and utilisation of theplants that have been introducedto their region.

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Introduction

The work has as its settingVanuatu – a small island nationin the South Pacific situatedbetween the 14th and 16th

parallels – and as its focus thefood plants that are found thereat the present time. The islandsof Vanuatu are young islands,formed for the most part fromthe seismic convulsions thatshake this part of the worldwhere the Australo-Indiantectonic plate moves under thePacific plate. These pieces ofland have been colonised sincetheir formation by plant speciesthat have come from elsewhere,carried by winds, ocean currentsor birds. When humans firstarrived on these islands theycertainly found edible speciesthere, but at the same time theyalso brought with them theirown familiar plants. The storyof the food plants of Vanuatu isthus also the story of the humanmigrations that have populatedthese islands.

Before the last Ice Age, about10,000 years ago, Papua NewGuinea, mainland Australia andTasmania were joined into asingle large continent, the Sahul.Further east, what is now thearchipelago of Solomon Islandswas a single long strip of land,stretching from Buka (situatednorth of the island of Bougain-ville) to Guadalcanal. BetweenSunda, the continental plate ofSoutheast Asia, and Sahul werevarious islands grouped under thename of Wallacea (see map p.12)because they were situated onthe biogeographical line (namedafter Wallace) that separatesthese two major regions.

The climatic upheavals occurringduring the Quaternary eraencouraged the movement ofpopulations from Sunda to Sahul.The first human of Sahul wasprobably a Homo sapiens as isshown by dating carried out inAustralia. Before the last rise insea levels, the continental islandswere much larger landmasses.Java, Sumatra and Kalimantan,the great islands of Indonesia,were joined to the Indochinesepeninsula, just as the Philippineswere connected to Sunda by sometongues of land. Between Sundaand Sahul there were some chainsof tall islands, visible from faraway. By calculating the anglesof inter-visibility between theseislands, one can work out twopossible routes that would allowpeople to pass from one continentto the other without ever losingsight of land. One route goes viaSulawesi and Halmahera, andthe other – further south – viaFlores and Timor. Once on Sahul,the first Australian people wouldhave been able to reach Tasmaniaon foot. Humans would likewisehave been able to go to theSolomon Islands while alwayshaving an island in sight to guidethem. Thus in New Ireland thepresence of humans is tracedback for over 33,000 years fromdatings made at the sites ofMatenkupkum and BuangMebarak.

The origin of the cultivated plantsof Oceania has been the subjectof numerous studies, and it hasfor a long time been acceptedthat these plants were introducedfrom Asia with the first migrat-ions. These conclusions are

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based on archaeological digsthat have found traces (grains ornutshells) of plant consumptionat sites that can be accuratelydated by carbon-14 or otherobjective measures. But whilethis approach is generallyrelevant for cereals and plantswith seeds or fruits, it cannotbe used for plants that multiplyvegetatively, where the usableplant parts rapidly decomposeinto organic matter in humidtropical regions. This is why,although some ethnobotanistshave for a long time been con-vinced that root and tuber cropsand bananas are among the oldestplants domesticated and eaten,it has been necessary to wait forprogress in molecular biology anddating techniques to understandthat the domestication of endemicspecies spread very early inSahul as the hunter-gatherers,originally from Sunda, crossedWallacea. Nowadays there aresound findings from taxonomy,biogeography, molecular biologyand archaeology that show thatthe first inhabitants of Sahularrived without planting materials,but then domesticated the plantsfound locally to fulfil their needs.Over the subsequent millenniamany domesticated tropicalcrops were spread more widely,towards the west as much asinto the Pacific. Among the bestknown are certainly sugar cane,bananas and breadfruit, but it isalso true of various Dioscoreaceaeand Araceae as well as kava andmany other food plants.

Although it is difficult to obtainaccurate dates, numerous worksagree in showing earlier dates

for domestication of root cropsthan of cereals. The endemicyams of Australia, Dioscorea

hastifolia and D. transversa,were domesticated by aborig-inals, and provided a regular foodsupply in a harsh region. In somewetter regions of northern Aust-ralia, taro (Colocasia esculenta)is endemic and was domesticatedlocally. It is known to have beeneaten 28,000 years ago in SolomonIslands, because it has beenpossible to obtain accurate datingof starch grains found on grindingstones. Evidence has been foundof cultivated gardens, dated asolder than 9,000 years, at about2,000 m altitude in the highlandsof New Guinea. In comparison,the consumption of root andtuber crops in the New Worldappears to date back 5,000 to7,000 years.

It thus follows that, althoughagriculture was first developedin the fertile crescent of theMiddle East about 10,000 yearsago, the use of vegetatively prop-agated plants saw the light ofday on the continental platformof Sahul probably more than20,000 years ago – at least thatis what all the evidence shows.

For the peoples of Asia the useof vegetative plants is secondaryin importance to the omnipresentcultivation of rice, although itdoes predominate among certainethnic minorities of South andSoutheast Asia (for example, theIndonesians of the MentawaiIslands off Sumatra, for whomtaro is the staple food). In con-trast, in Sahul only vegetativeplants have been used.

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The Austronesians, a mongoloidpeople who later colonised therest of Oceania, introduced theuse of vegetative plants to all ofPolynesia, as far as the islandsof Hawaii and Easter Island.According to linguists, certaingroups of Austronesians fromSoutheast Kalimantan set offin the opposite direction over3,000 years ago and colonisedthe large island of Madagascar.Their plants, loaded on cata-marans and kept alive throughoutthe voyage, were spread in clonalform to places thousands of kilo-metres away. Bananas, taro andthe yam Dioscorea alata thusreached Africa via Madagascar.Recent work has shown thatbanana was already grown inCentral Africa more than 2,500years ago.

The question of the introduction ofsweet potato (Ipomoea batatas)to Papua New Guinea has usedup a huge amount of ink, sinceit was already the staple foodcrop in the highlands before their“discovery” by European explor-ers, and was likewise alreadycultivated in the Hawaiian Islandsbefore the arrival of Captain Cook.Melanesia is nowadays consideredto be a second centre of diversifi-cation of this species. The diversityfound in I. batatas in this regionis greater than that found in thePeru-Ecuador region, which wasnot the origin of the Melanesiangermplasm, and recent molecularstudies suggest rather a CentralAmerican origin.

Contrary to commonly heldtheories which presume noIndo-Malayan centre of origin

extending from the Indian Penin-sula to Papua New Guinea, theOceanian centre is clearly differ-entiated on the basis of factorsthat are as much biogeographicalas human. The existence ofa centre of domestication anddiversification in the Sahul thenraises some interesting questionson the originality of the formsthat are cultivated there and theirgenetic distances with regard toother forms of the same species,or to related species, originatingfrom Sunda. In certain cases, theintraspecific differentiation ofpantropical species – Dioscorea

bulbifera, for example – is verysignificant. In other cases, forexample sugar cane, the hybridi-sation of distinct species origi-nating from the two large land-masses of Sunda and Sahul hasallowed remarkable geneticgains to be made.

Melanesia has a diversity of plantswith vegetative propagation andwith roots and tubers, that isunequalled anywhere else onEarth in numbers of genera, ofspecies and of varieties cultivatedwithin each species. The culturaldiversity of this region, uniquein the world (a tiny country likeVanuatu has 113 languages andPapua New Guinea has over 600),combined with island environ-ments that favour differentiation,have produced spectacular varia-bility. Populations coming fromthe Asian region, from NewGuinea and from SolomonIslands, and later returning fromPolynesia, stayed in the Oceanianregion, continental or island, andworked on the plants endemicto the region, spreading them

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from island to island, selectingthem and improving them. To thisbase of local plants were alsoadded American plants intro-duced by the great explorers ofthe 17th and 18th centuries, andthen Asian and European plants.Leaving aside some omnipresentones like cassava, sweet potato,tannia (cocoyam or macabo) andpapaya, these plants are mainlycultivated in peri-urban villagesfor sale in markets, and the peopleof Melanesian origin use theseimported crop plants less thanthey do their own indigenousspecies.

Like many islands of the Pacific,Vanuatu is a fertile country, trad-itional and agricultural, whoseeconomy and nutrition are evol-ving in a dangerous direction.Importation of food products isincreasing continually, nutritionis becoming worse in the towns;the local food plants, little knownand poorly studied, are progress-ively giving way to foreign plantsconsidered to be of more worth.But this is only one step in evol-ution, and we would wager thatthe country will soon realise thatit must adapt its choices to therealities of daily life and economiccircumstances, and that it willbe able amongst other things tostabilise its own food species anditself grow the fresh productsthat are currently purchasedin processed form.

This work (the book and theCD-ROM) is devoted to cultivatedfood plants, and we have pre-sented in this book studies ofthe 84 species that are the mostimportant for food and nutrition.

Local species with fruits and nutsthat are currently used havealready been covered in a pre-ceding work1 and will not berepeated here. However, in orderto give the reader a completestudy of all the alimentaryspecies of Vanuatu we have putin the CD-ROM a chapter on thelocal fruits and nuts and anotheron minor cultivated plants. Somereaders may be surprised to seecoffee and cocoa, grown com-mercially in Vanuatu, listed asminor species! But the ni-Vanuatuuse them scarcely or not at all intheir diet. The CD-ROM likewisecontains a long list of foragedspecies whose leaves, fruits orleaves are eaten occasionally.This particular list is not exhaus-tive, and it is likely that otherspecies are used for food byone community or anotheras the opportunity arises.

The 218 species cited or treatedin this book and the accompan-ying CD-ROM represent the verygreat majority of food plants ofVanuatu. Not all have the samestatus, and while some are staplefood plants, such as the yam(Dioscorea spp.), others are muchrarer such as the carambola(Averrhoa carambola). We havechosen to present the alimentaryspecies grouped according totheir plant type – roots andtubers, trees, climbing plantsand herbaceous crop plants.Within one genus the differentspecies may belong to differentplant types. For ease of referenceand access to information, at eachentry we have noted all speciesof the genus that are present

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1 A. Walter, C. Sam, 1999 – Fruitsd’Océanie. Paris, IRD Éditions,310 pp. English version: Fruitsof Oceania, IRD Éditions, ACIAR.

in Vanuatu, giving the page onwhich each is treated. The indexat the end of the work will alsopermit the reader to find anydesired information.

This classification does notindicate the place that eachspecies occupies within thesystem of cultivation and itsspatial disposition among thegardens, the footpaths, thevillages and the market stalls.To remedy this, the first part ofthe book indicates the differentplaces where the plants are culti-vated or found. Here too arecovered the main aspects of theagriculture of Vanuatu, whichremains based on the growingof root and tuber crops in thegardens, and trees in thevillages or along pathways.

The second part of the bookpresents all the plant speciesthat are cultivated for theiredible roots or tubers, whichis essentially the group of foodplants that provides the mainsource of energy in the diet inVanuatu.

The third part covers all woodyspecies that are above 4 m inheight. Among these are foundtrees and shrubs that providefor the most part fruits or edibleseeds. Some, like Ficus, are alsocultivated for their young leaveswhich are edible; others like thesago palm for the pith of theirtrunk. They are generally culti-vated around the margins ofvillages or along roads andtracks. Shrubby trees, like theisland cabbage (Abelmoschus

manihot) or kava (Pipermethysticum) are also coveredin this section.

The fourth part includes all theclimbing species, with stems thatsprawl or cling. They providefor the most part leaves, fruitsor edible pods that are eatencooked as accompaniments toa meal. They are almost entirelygrown in gardens, sometimesclose to the houses.

Finally, part five encompassesall the herbaceous plants, what-ever their size, from sugar cane tomint via maize and many others.

This type of work is not totallynew, and there are availablereference works and encyclopae-dias that have comprehensivelycovered the main food plantsgrown and used throughout theworld. But, because of the hugesize of this subject, the localspecies of Oceania are scarcelyor not at all represented in theseworks, and their size and degreeof detail makes access difficult.In the present book we haveattempted to present the productsof a contemporary agriculture,with its local staple plants andthe exotic plants introducedover the last two centuries ormore, some fully adopted, somestill marginal. With the practicalaim of keeping the book conciseand manageable, each plant istreated by way of a short dossiercovering the important points –genus, family, species present,common names, description,morphological variability,culture and production, food

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uses and other uses. Eachdossier is accompanied by alist of the main bibliographicreferences that will allow thereader to obtain even moredetailed information on theplant in question. We would likethe book to be accessible to thegreatest number of people, sowe have kept technical terms toa minimum. Those that have beenused are defined in a Glossary,located at the start of the work.

The CD-ROM that accompaniesthe book provides informationin greater detail. First of all, aswe have noted, it presents theentire range of alimentary plantsof Vanuatu, including minor andforaged species. It then containstechnical information essentialfor the specialist: a list of herb-arium specimens, a list of syno-nyms, complete bibliographicalreferences, etc. Finally, it pro-vides a wealth of illustrationsshowing the variability of thespecies.

The combination of book andCD-ROM, together with thepreceding work Fruits d’Océanie

(published in English as Fruitsof Oceania), thus provides amateurand specialist alike with fullinformation on the alimentaryplants of Vanuatu. We hope thatfor students of this country itwill also be a reference workand a tool, through which theymay in their turn increase theknowledge of these plants, andprotect them and develop them.

References2

Barrau (1962, 1965), Bellwood(1978), Bretting (1990), Golson(1990), Gosden and Robertson(1991), Harlan (1970), Haudricourtand Hédin (1987), Jones (1990),Loy et al. (1992), Matthews (1990),Mbida Mindzie et al. (2001),Piperno and Pearsall (2000),Roach (1987), Rossel et al. (2001),Telford (1986), Terauchi et al.(1991), Tryon (1996), White andO’Connell (1982), Whitmore et

al. (1981), Yen (1985, 1995).

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2 The full list of references isgiven in the Bibliography inthe CD-ROM.

The glossary for the French textis taken mainly from Florence(1997)3 and Boullard (1988)4.The glossary for the Englishtranslation has also drawnextensively on Willis (1904)5.Some terms, already defined inthe text, are repeated below forthe sake of completeness. Wordsin bold type in the text aredefined in the Glossary below.

Acumen – a narrow or taperingpoint, variable in shape, at thetip of a leaf.

Acuminate – ending in anacumen, tapering progressivelyto a long, fine point.

Acute – pointed (for exampleof a leaf tip).

Adventitious roots – root-likestructures on a plant that performthe functions of roots but arederived from stem or leaf tissue,i.e. are not true roots.

Aerial roots – roots or root-likestructures arising above ground.

Allogamous – reproducingby cross-pollination, i.e. withinone species, the flowers of anindividual plant are fertilisedby pollen from another plant(the alternative condition isautogamous).

Alternate – where leaves ororgans are attached alternately

along a stem, not opposite eachother (the alternative conditionto this is opposite).

Amylaceous – containing starch.

Anthocyanin – a pigment thatcolours plant cells (in fruits,flowers, stems or other parts).The colour varies from red toblue according to the mediumin which the plant is growing,whether it is alkaline or acid.

Apex – the tip of a leaf, floweror fruit, away from the stalk orpoint of insertion.

Apical – relating to the apexor tip of an organ.

Aril – an exterior coveringor appendage of a seed as anoutgrowth that envelops theseed to a greater or lesser extent.

Autogamous – reproducingby self-pollination, i.e. withinone species, the flowers of anindividual plant are fertilisedby pollen from the anthers ofthe same plant (the alternativecondition is allogamous).

Axil – the interior angle betweena leaf and the branch from whichit arises.

Axillary – situated in, or growingfrom, the axil of a leaf or bract.

Bifurcating – dividing into two.

Bipinnate – see under tripinnate.

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Glossary of terms

3 Florence, J., 1997. Flore de laPolynésie française, Vol. 1.Paris, IRD Éditions, coll. Fauneet flore tropicales 34, 394 pp.

4 Boullard, B., 1988. Dictionnaire debotanique. Paris, Ellipses, 398pp.

5 Willis, J.C., 1904. A Manual andDictionary of the FloweringPlants and Ferns. Cambridge,University Press, 2nd Edition,670 pp.

Blade – a broad, flattenedpart of any organ. Here, morespecifically, it is the flat, greenpart of a leaf that is responsiblefor photosynthesis.

Bract – a leaf in whose axilan inflorescence arises. It isdifferent in size and shape fromthe true leaves of the plant(see also bracteole).

Bracteole – a small leaf in whoseaxil is found each flower of aninflorescence (see also bract).

Bulblet – a small bulb rich inreserves that assures the vege-tative propagation of certainplants by natural cloning.

Buttresses – broadened, basalexpansions of a tree trunk,standing out as thickenedsupports.

Calyx – the outer envelopeof the flower, comprising all thesepals either separate or joined.

Capitulum (plural capitula) – agroup of sessile flowers clusteredtogether into a single, tight head.

Carpel – the gynoecium (femalecomponent) of a flower, madeup of a basal ovary containingthe ovules, surmounted by astyle and a stigma. Carpelsmay be separate, or fused intoa syncarp.

Cauliflorous – (of flowers andfruits) – growing directly fromthe trunks or older branches of

a tree (as opposed to growingout of leaf axils).

Compound – leaf in which thesingle leaf-stalk bears more thanone separate leaflet (the oppositecondition is simple).

Cordate – scalloped in the formof a heart or being heart-shaped.

Coriaceous – leathery.

Corm – the swollen base ofa stem.

Corolla – the inner envelopeof the flower, comprising all thepetals either separate or joined.

Cortex – bark.

Cotyledons – the “seed leaves”which become the first leaf orleaves arising when an embryogerminates. Angiosperm seedplants are divided into theDicotyledones (with twocotyledons per seed) andMonocotyledones (withone cotyledon per seed).

Crenate – (of leaf margin) –with rounded teeth and sharpnotches between the teeth.

Crown – the head of foliageof a tree or shrub.

Cultivar – a cultivated plantobtained by human selection.

Cupule – part of a plant formedinto a small cup, either as a singlepiece or made up of small scales.

Cyme – an inflorescence whosemain axis terminates in theoldest, first-opening flower, andon which subsequent flowersdevelop later on one side ortwo sides of the main axis.

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Daughter bulb – (also knownas an offset bulb) – a small bulbproduced at the base of a bulbthat is fully developed andplanted in the soil. Produces, asa consequence, segmentation ofthe bulb. An example is garlic.

Deciduous – of a plant whereall the leaves fall from the plantat a particular time of year (e.g.in the dry season or in winter).

Decurrent – where a leafexpansion is continued asa wing down the stem.

Decussate – of leaves that arearranged in pairs, each at rightangles to the pair above or below.

Dehiscent – (of a seed podor container) – splitting openwhen ripe.

Dentate – (e.g. of leaf) withsmall teeth pointing outwards.

Dioecious – where male andfemale flowers are borne onseparate plants (the oppositestate is monoecious).

Drupe – a fleshy fruit containingone seed, the endocarp of whichis hard (i.e. a nut).

Ellipsoidal – a solid object(e.g. a fruit) which is oval incross-section when cut acrossany plane.

Elliptical – (of leaf) – taperingequally to base and tip, andsomewhat narrow.

Emarginate – apex of leafwith a deep and marked notch.

Embossed – (of a surface) –having a raised design.

Endocarp – hard shell or stoneinside a fruit and surroundingthe seed, which is the innermostpart of the pericarp.

Entire – (of leaf or leaflet) –without notches in the margin.

Epicarp – (also sometimes calledexocarp) – the outer skin of afruit that surrounds the seed andis the outermost part of thepericarp.

Epidermis – the outer layerof cells or skin (e.g. of a fruit).

Epiphytic – growing on otherplants rather than directly insoil, but not parasitic on thoseplants.

Ethnobotany – study of thecomplex relationships betweenhumans and their plants. Classi-fications, usages and modes ofcultivation are always studiedfrom the point of view of thosewho utilise the plants andaccording to the particularcultural contexts.

Exocarp – see epicarp.

Fluted – (of a tree trunk) –having a series of verticalfurrows or grooves.

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Follicle – a dry, dehiscent fruitconsisting of one carpel anddehiscing along the ventralside only.

Frond – the assimilatory organof a fern, equivalent to the leafof a higher plant.

Fusiform – spindle-shaped.

Genotype – the totality of genespossessed by an individual plant.

Glabrous – without hairs.

Globular – roughly spherical,having the shape of a globeor ball.

Gynoecium – the female part ofa flower comprising ovary, styleand stigma (see also carpel andpistil).

Hermaphrodite – (of flowers)– having both male and femalestructures within the sameflower.

Heterophyllous – having leavesof more than one form on thesame plant.

Hilum – the scar-like point ofattachment of the seed to theinside of the seed case.

Hypocotyl – the portion of thestem below the cotyledons.When it elongates it lifts thecotyledons out of the soil.

Imbricated – (of scales orbracts) – arranged in rows thatpartially overlap each other(e.g. like roof tiles).

Indehiscent – (of a seed pod orcontainer) – having no naturalsplitting lines along which toopen when ripe.

Inflorescence – a groupingof flowers on a plant.

Infrutescence – a grouping offruits on a plant, deriving froman inflorescence.

Kava – a sedative, slightlyintoxicating drink, obtained fromthe root of Piper methysticum

and drunk by men at nightfallthroughout the Pacific.

Lanceolate – (of leaf) – lance-shaped, i.e. narrowly oval, withthe widest part of the leaf atthe base.

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Lap-lap – a type of thickcake made by cooking a pureeof grated yam, taro, cassava,banana or breadfruit in leaves.

Latex – a milky, usually whiteand often sticky fluid that exudesfrom cut or damaged stems ofleaves of a plant.

Leaf sheath – a sheath enclosingthe young leaf during its develop-ment, before it expands.

Leaflets – the individual leaf-likestructures of a compound leaf.

Lenticels – small respiratorypores in the stems of woodyplants, appearing as a seriesof dots on the bark surface.

Lobate – see under Lobe.

Lobe – the rounded portionof a leaf between two shallowindentations on the leaf edge.The leaf is then described aslobate.

Luau – coconut milk salted withseawater and cooked in youngtaro leaves.

Marcotting – a procedure forvegetative multiplication of plantsin which part of a branch of theplant (usually a tree) is put intocontact with soil (often the soilis bound to the branch surfacewith plastic), and the branchroots into the soil before beingdetached from the parent plant.

Mesocarp – the central fleshytissue of a fruit, between the outerskin (epicarp) and the hard shellor stone around the seed (endo-carp) (see also under pericarp).

Monoecious – where male andfemale flowers are borne on thesame plant (the opposite stateis dioecious).

Morphotype – refers to theexternal shape or appearanceof a particular plant.

Mucilage – a viscous plantmaterial that swells on contactwith water.

Nakamal – Bislama term indica-ting a building (clan hut) for men.

Nalots – small balls of breadfruitpaste cooked in coconut milk.

Naturalised – when a plant isintroduced to a new ecosystemand reproduces there withoutany further human intervention.

Ob- (applied to an adjective,it reverses the direction oftapering – see definitions below).

Oblanceolate – (of leaf) – aboutthree times as long as broad,tapering gradually towards thebase (in contrast to lanceolate,where the gradual tapering istowards the tip).

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Oblong – (of leaf shape) – withsides parallel for some distance,the ends tapering rapidly.

Oboval – (of leaf) – egg-shaped,with the broader portion atthe apex of the leaf (oppositecondition is oval, where thebroader part is at the base).

Obtuse – blunt, when appliedto the shape of a leaf apex.

Opposite – where two leavesare attached opposite eachother on a stem (the alternativecondition to this is alternate).

Orbicular – (of leaf shape) –circular in outline.

Organoleptic – somethingthat makes an impression on orhas an effect on human senseorgans, of taste, touch or smell.

Orthotropic – see underplagiotropic.

Ostiole – a small aperturefound on the fruit (fig) in thefamily Moraceae.

Oval – (of leaf) – egg-shaped,with the broader portion at thebase of the leaf (oppositecondition is oboval).

Ovoid – (of a fruit) – egg-shaped.

Palmate – a compound leaf inwhich all the leaflets arise froma single point of insertion likethe fingers of a hand (theopposite condition is pinnate).

Palmatilobate – a palmateleaf on which the indentationsseparating the lobes do not reachto the middle of the leaf blade.

Panicle – an inflorescencecomposed of clusters of flowers,themselves arranged in clusterson a central axis.

Paripinnate – a pinnate leafwith an equal number of leafletson either side and without asingle extra leaflet at the end.

Parthenocarpic – (of a fruit) –developing without needing tobe fertilized.

Pedicel – a flower stalk.

Pedicellate – having a pedicel.

Peduncle – a fruit stalk.

Pedunculate – having apeduncle (opposite: sessile).

Peltate – a leaf in which thepetiole is inserted in the middleof the leaf blade.

Pendulous – of an inflorescencethat is sufficiently long to hangdownwards from the branch onwhich it is situated.

Pericarp – the part of a fruit thatcovers the seed. May consist of anepicarp (outer skin), mesocarp(a fleshy mass of tissue under theouter skin) and an endocarp(a hard shell or stone arounda seed).

Persistent – (of flowers orflower parts) – remainingunwithered on or around thefruit (as opposed to deciduous,where it shrivels and falls as thefruit develops).

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Petals – the components of thecorolla, or inner envelope ofthe flower; the petals may beeither separate or joined.

Petiolate – having a petiole(opposite: sessile).

Petiole – a leaf stalk.

Petiolule – the stalk of a leaflet.

Photoperiodicity – when therelative lengths of day and nightchange and this change has aneffect on the development ofa plant.

Pinna – a compound leaf ofvery large size.

Pinnate – describing a compoundleaf in which the leaflets arisefrom the sides of the central rachis(as in the leaf of a pea plant). Theopposite condition is palmate.

Pistil – the female part of aflower comprising ovary, styleand stigma (see also carpeland gynoecium).

Plagiotropic – describes branchesthat grow horizontally, perpen-dicular to a vertical axis whichis described as orthotropic.

Polyembryonic – productionof several individuals by divisionof a single egg.

Polygamous – a plant inwhich certain flowers arehermaphrodite (male andfemale) while others are eithermale alone or female alone.

Polymorphic – occurring inseveral distinct forms or shapes.

Pubescent – with fine, soft hairs.

Quadrangular – four-sided.

Raceme – inflorescence madeup of pedicellate flowers on anunbranched axis.

Rachis – the elongated axis ofan inflorescence, or the mainaxis of a composite leaf thatbears the leaflets.

Ret – to leave something tomacerate in water.

Rhizome – an undergroundstem or branch of a plant, oftenthickened and sometimes servingas a storage organ; looking likea root but distinguished from atrue root by the presence of buds,nodes and often scale-like leaves.

Root rot – infection of the rootsystem by a bacterial or fungalpathogen which leads to rotting ofthe roots and death of the plant.

Rosette – the shape in whicha number of elements radiatesymmetrically from a centralpoint, particularly of leaves whereall are inserted close to oneanother at the end of the stalk.

Rugose – ridged or wrinkled.

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Sagittate – arrow-shaped (leaf).

Sepals – the components of thecalyx, or outer envelope of theflower; the sepals may be eitherseparate or joined.

Sessile – without a stalk,attached directly at base (of leafor fruit; opposite conditions arepetiolate or pedunculate).

Simple – a leaf with only oneleaf on the leaf stalk (oppositecondition is compound, wherethere are several leaflets oneach leaf stalk).

Somatic – relating to thebody (in this case the vegetativeorgans) of a plant, as opposed tothe reproductive cells and genes.

Spadix – an inflorescence thatis a fleshy or succulent spike,bearing flowers that areunisexual and sessile.

Spathe – a sheath that envelopsa spadix.

Spherical – shaped like a sphereor ball.

Spike – an inflorescence wherethe sessile flowers (or groupsof flowers known as spikelets)are spread along the length ofa rachis.

Spikelet – one of a group offlowers making up a spike.

Stamen – the male part of aflower that produces the pollen.

Stigma – the part of the pistilof a flower that receives thepollen at fertilization.

Stipules – the pair of smallleaflike appendages arising at thebase of the leaf in many plants.

Stolon – a long, creeping stemdifferentiated from the rootsand leaves, usually formed asan axillary branch on the mainstem near the base, growingalong the soil (or just beneathit) and rooting at the nodes.

Style – the part of the femaleflower connecting the stigmato the ovary. Generally taperingin the shape of a filament.

Sub- (as a prefix to anyadjective) – nearly, e.g.subsessile = nearly sessile.

Subglobular – almost globular.

Sub-opposed – almost opposed.

Subsessile – nearly sessile(e.g. with a very short leafor fruit stalk).

Sucker – a vigorous stem arisingfrom the root of a tree, or moregenerally the underground stockof a plant.

Syncarp – a fruit arising froma gynoecium made up of fusedcarpels or a fruit made up ofelements that are totally unitedinto one.

Tapa – cloth made from treebark beaten flat.

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Tarodière – a taro garden,usually irrigated and comprisinga series of small pits insidewhich flows water comingfrom a single source.

Tepal – name given to the piecesof a flower when the petals andsepals are completely identical.

Terminal – at the furthest pointaway from the point of attach-ment of anything. In the caseof the crown of a tree, theuppermost part of the tree.

Trilobate – having three lobes.

Tripinnate – a leaf or frondcomposed of three leaflets orpinnae (called bipinnate whenthere are two leaflets or pinnae).

Tuber – a subterranean stem orpart of a stem that is thickenedand contains stored reserves ofnutrient material.

Tuberised – describes thickenedroots or stems that look liketubers.

Tubular – (e.g. of a corolla) –with the separate petals joinedtogether to form a tube-likestructure.

Umbel – an inflorescencecomposed of a number offlowers whose small pedicels(flower stalks) all arise from asingle point and are the samelength, giving the inflorescencea rounded shape.

Undulate – (of leaf margins) –wavy.

Vegeculture – cultivation andgroups of plants multipliedentirely by vegetative prop-agation, using holes dug forplanting and without tillage.[Note: Vegeculture is the Frenchterm but is not usually used inEnglish. There is no specificEnglish term other than ‘vege-tatively propagated plants’.]

Vegetative propagation –reproduction that does notinvolve any sexual process.Produces clones.

Vesicant – a plant that producessmall blisters on the skin whentouched.

Whorl – a number of leavesor flowers arranged in a circlearound the same point on astem or axis.

Wing – flattened, somewhatleaf-like expansions on certainorgans (stem, fruit).

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