Marama bean
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Marama bean ( Tylosema esculentum ) |
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| Tylosema esculentum | ||||||||||||
| ( Burch. ) A. Writ. |
The marama bean ( Tylosema esculentum , syn .: Bauhinia esculenta Burch.), Also known as the climbing construction line , is a useful plant from the legume family (Fabaceae).
use
In the Kalahari , the marama bean is eaten as a vegetable. They are also roasted or ground into flour or their linoleum-rich oil is consumed. The tubers and seeds have a taste similar to that of cashew nuts.
description
The tylosema esculentum is enduring , has mostly prostrate stems and grows as a semi-shrub or herbaceous plant . The stems spread out about 6 meters. There are shorter, forked tendrils .
The alternate, simple and stalked, leathery leaves are cut into two lobes with often upright, rounded to kidney-shaped lobes or (almost) to twofold. They are up to 5–7 cm long and 7–10 cm wide (with both lobes) and have entire margins. There are small stipules present. The young, soft leaves are reddish. The nerve is palmate and raised on the underside. The leaves are glabrous on top and sometimes hairy on the underside.
The multi-flowered, stalked and lateral grapes are up to 16 centimeters long. The sweetly scented, hermaphrodite, five-fold and heterostyled , long-stemmed flowers with a double flower envelope are initially yellow, then reddish. There are small supporting and pre-leaves . The calyx tips and the thick flower stalks are more or less hairy. The petals are nailed with a rounded, somewhat wrinkled plate , one is significantly smaller than the other four. Only two fertile stamens and eight staminodes are formed. The flowers have upper and unicameral ovaries .
The initially reddish, then green and when ripe woody and dark brown, slightly constricted and flat, short-tipped, glabrous legumes are 3.5–7.5 centimeters long and usually contain 1–2 (up to 6) seeds. The reddish to dark brown, finely textured, smooth seeds are round to ovoid and 1.3–2.5 centimeters in size.
The very drought tolerant plant is frost tolerant up to a temperature of −2–3 ° C. It survives the dry season with almost head-sized 10-14 kg, sometimes up to 300 kg heavy, very water-rich (up to 90%), deep in the ground tubers . The seeds germinate in warm weather, especially after rainfall. They grow best in sandy soils with a pH- neutral to slightly acidic reaction.
Taxonomy
The first description of Basionyms Bauhinia esculenta was made in 1824 by William John Burchell in Travels in the interior of South Africa 2: 589. The reallocation to Tylosema esculentum .. Was made in 1960 by Annelis writer in mid-Bot Staatssamml. Munich 3: 611. Other synonyms are Bauhinia bainesii Schinz , Bauhinia burkeana Benth. ex Harv. & Sond. and Phanera burkeana Benth.
use
The seeds are used cooked or made into flour. Once roasted, the seeds have a delicious, nutty taste that is similar to coffee beans or roasted cashew nuts . They can then serve as an almond substitute . The unripe seeds and stems can be eaten cooked as vegetables or in soups.
An edible oil can also be obtained from the seeds. It is golden yellow with a nutty odor and a pleasant, if slightly bitter, taste.
The sweet-tasting young tuber, weighing around 1 kg, can be baked, boiled or roasted. However, they must not be older than two years, otherwise they will be fibrous and bitter. But they can be used as a source of water.
The plant was used by the San Bushmen .
ingredients
The seeds contain 31–37% protein (with 5% lysine ), 36–43% fat and approx. 13.5–18.5% carbohydrates.
distribution
The marama bean is native to the arid regions of southwestern Africa ( Kalahari , Namib , Botswana , Namibia and Angola to northern South Africa as well as Zambia and Mozambique ). It is also grown in Perth , Australia (Francis & Campbell 2003) just as successfully as in the USA. The species is recommended for domestication and cultivation will increase in the future.
literature
- W. Franke : Crop science. 6th edition, Thieme, 1997, ISBN 3-13-530406-X , 509 pp.
- Lost Crops of Africa. Volume II: Vegetables , National Academies Press, 2006, ISBN 0-309-66582-5 , pp. 237-245.
- FW Fox, ME Norwood-Young: Food from the veld. Delta Books, Johannesburg 1982, ISBN 0-908387-32-6 .
- CM Francis, MC Campbell: New high quality oil seed crops for temperate and tropical Australia. RIRDC Publication No 03/045 RIRDC Project No UWA-47A, 2003, (PDF) .
- C. Jeffrey: Cucurbitaceae. In: E. Launert: Flora Zambesiaca. 4: 1978, pp. 433-434.
- ML Hartley, E. Tshamekeng, SM Thomas: Functional Heterostyly in Tylosema esculentum. In: Annals of Botany. Volume 89, Issue 1, 2002, pp. 67-76, doi: 10.1093 / aob / mcf006 .
- DL Müseler, HC Schönfeldt: The nutritional content of the Marama Bean (Tylosema esculentum), an underutilized legume from southern Africa. In: Agricola. 16, 2006, pp. 7-13, online (PDF), on Environmental Information Service, accessed October 5, 2019.
Web links
- Tylosema esculentum at Useful Tropical Plants.
- Tylosema esculentum in PROTA.
- Tylosema esculentum at Waterberg BioQuest (pictures).
- Tylosema esculentum at iNaturalist (pictures).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Tylosema esculentum at KEW Science (descriptions).