Oca (Oxalis tuberosa)
The name is derived from the Quechua words ok’a, occa and/or uqa. Tubers are mainly claviform and cylinder in shape and tuber color ranges from white to deep grayish purple. Oca yields up to 20-40 tons per ha and tubers are ready for harvesting 7 months after planting. Oca is also grown in Mexico and New Zealand where oca has become a popular table vegetable and is simply called yam or New Zealand yam. Oca is a good source of carbohydrate, antioxidant compounds (anthocyanin and flavonoids), potassium and oxalates.
0Conserving Biodiversity for the Future
Food production will be hard pressed to keep up with demand in the next 30 years.
The world’s population is expected to swell by some two billion by midcentury,
chiefly in developing countries already struggling to feed their people.
- Genetic diversity of the Andean tuber-bearing species, oca (Oxalis tuberosa Mol.), investigated by inter-simple sequence repeats (2006)
- Congruence between morphological and molecular markers inferred from the analysis of the intra-morphotype genetic diversity and the spatial structure of Oxalis tuberosa Mol (2007)
ARTCs accessions conserved in the CIP-genebank and progress in identity verification of the collections.
Current and traditional uses of ARTCs.