PubMed · 2026-06-21
Indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon actively manage multiple related species of Xanthosoma (a taro relative) simultaneously, and these multi-species management practices — from eradication to selective keeping — may be shaping the genetic diversity of the entire plant genus, not just the one crop species scientists typically study.
Xanthosoma sagittifolium (the globally cultivated cocoyam/malanga) is no longer grown in Mondayacu despite its historical importance, suggesting localized crop abandonment within a major center of diversity.
The wild/semi-managed species lalu (Xanthosoma purpureomaculatum) is subject to trait-based selective retention — plants with large, deep-green, pest-free leaves are preferentially spared or relocated near homes, constituting an informal selection pressure on the wild population.
National herbarium and ethnobotanical synthesis confirmed broader multi-species Xanthosoma use across Ecuadorian Amazonian Indigenous groups, supporting the hypothesis that genus-level rather than single-species management is the norm in this crop complex's center of diversity.
