Scientific Name
Other Names
Life Form
Family
Food - Root consumed raw or cooked. The grated pulp of the root is squeezed through a cloth to yield a sweet refreshing drink. This juice can be concentrated to form dark brown blocks of sugar called 'chancaca' in S. America. Leaves and stems are cooked as a vegetable.
Western South America
Thrives in the seasonally dry tropical biome.
It is perennial herb growing upright and reaching 100-300 cm tall.
Stem is cylindrical and hollow. The underground part branches irregularly and often produces tubers.
Leaves are of two types; lower leaves: Broadly ovate with a lobed base (hastate or subhastate) and fused at the base (connate) with ear-like lobes (auriculate). Densely hairy on both upper and lower surfaces. Upper leaves: Ovate-lanceolate shaped, without lobes or the hastate base. Densely hairy on both surfaces.
Flowers are arranged in clusters (synflorescence) at the terminal end, with 1-5 branches holding 3 flower heads (capitula) each.
Fruit is immature achene (dry, single-seeded fruit), start purple and turn dark brown or black when mature.
Flowering: June-September.