Digera muricata (PROTA)

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Introduction

List of species

General importance
Geographic coverage Africa
Geographic coverage World
Vegetable
Carbohydrate / starch
Medicinal
Forage / feed
Food security

Digera muricata (L.) Mart.

Protologue: Beitr. Amarantac.: 77, no 2 (1825).

Family: Amaranthaceae

Synonyms

• Digera arvensis Forssk. (1775),
• Digera alternifolia (L.) Asch. (1867),
• Digera angustifolia Suess. (1950).

Origin and geographic distribution

Digera muricata is widespread in eastern tropical Africa (from Sudan and Ethiopia south to Tanzania), Madagascar and tropical and subtropical Asia (from Yemen to Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Malaysia and Indonesia).

Uses

Leaves and young shoots of Digera muricata are locally used as a vegetable, e.g. in Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya) and in India. In Kenya they are particularly popular as a cooked vegetable amongst coastal tribes. In India the leaves are made into curries or the entire plant is boiled in water and seasoned with salt and chilli. Sometimes Digera muricata is considered a famine food.

The flowers are rich in nectar which is sometimes sucked by children in Kenya. The whole plant is also commonly grazed as a forage, particularly by sheep and goats. In Senegal Digera muricata is used internally against digestive system disorders and in India seeds and flowers are used to treat urinary disorders.

Botany

• Annual herb up to 70 cm tall; stem simple or branched, subglabrous, ridged.
• Leaves alternate, simple; petiole up to 5 cm long; blade linear to ovate, 1–9 cm × 0.2–5 cm, base narrowed, apex acuminate, margin entire, subglabrous.
• Inflorescence a long-pedunculate (up to 14 cm long), axillary, spike-like bracteate raceme up to 30 cm long, each bract subtending a subsessile partial inflorescence with a central fertile flower and 2 sterile lateral flowers.
• Fertile flower with 2 firm, boat-shaped outer perianth segments 3–5 mm long and 2–3 inner, slightly shorter, hyaline segments; stamens usually 5, free or slightly connate at base; ovary superior, 1-celled, style filiform, up to 4 mm long, stigmas 2, divergent; lateral flowers consisting of accrescent antler-shaped scales.
• Fruit a subglobose, hard, indehiscent nutlet c. 2 mm in diameter, ridged, enclosed by the persistent perianth and falling together with the sterile flowers and bracteoles.

Digera comprises only 1 species. Based on the venation of the outer tepals 2 subspecies of Digera muricata have been distinguished: subsp. muricata with outer tepals 7–12-veined, mainly occurring in Asia, but also in eastern Africa and Madagascar, and subsp. trinervis C.C.Towns. with outer tepals 3–5-veined, mainly occurring in Africa. Based on hairiness of leaves and on form of scales in sterile flowers, several varieties have been distinguished in subsp. trinervis, of which var. patentipilosa C.C.Towns. seems most suitable as a leafy vegetable because it has large leaves.

Ecology

Digera muricata is most common on disturbed and waste ground, but occurs in many kinds of habitat, from dry savanna and semi-desert to moist localities on deep clay and mud soils, from sea-level up to 1500 m altitude. It also occurs as a weed in fields, sometimes being troublesome.

Management

Digera muricata is usually collected from the wild although in parts of Ethiopia (Konso region) and India it is also cultivated as a leaf vegetable and sold on local markets.

Genetic resources

Digera muricata is widespread and not in danger of genetic ersosion.

Prospects

Digera muricata will most probably remain a leaf vegetable of only local importance.

Major references

• Freedman, R., 1998. Famine foods. Amarantaceae. [Internet] Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States. http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/FamineFoods/ff_families/AMARANTACEAE.html. August 2003.

• Maundu, P.M., Ngugi, G.W. & Kabuye, C.H.S., 1999. Traditional food plants of Kenya. Kenya Resource Centre for Indigenous Knowledge (KENRIK), Nairobi, Kenya. 270 pp.

• Schippers, R.R., 2000. African indigenous vegetables. An overview of the cultivated species. Natural Resources Institute/ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, Chatham, United Kingdom. 214 pp.

• Seshadri, S. & Nambiar, V.S., 2003. Kanjero (Digera arvensis) and Drumstick leaves (Moringa oleifera): nutrient profile and potential for human consumption. In: Simopoulos, A.P. & Gopalan, C. (Editors). Plants in human health and nutrition policy. World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics 91: 41-59.

• Townsend, C.C., 1985. Amaranthaceae. In: Polhill, R.M. (Editor). Flora of Tropical East Africa. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, Netherlands. 136 pp.

Other references

• Cavaco, A., 1954. Amaranthacées (Amaranthaceae). Flore de Madagascar et des Comores (plantes vasculaires), familles 66–69. Firmin-Didot et cie., Paris, France. 56 pp.

• Hauman, L., 1951. Amaranthaceae. In: Robyns, W., Staner, P., Demaret, F., Germain, R., Gilbert, G., Hauman, L., Homès, M., Jurion, F., Lebrun, J., Vanden Abeele, M. & Boutique, R. (Editors). Flore du Congo belge et du Ruanda-Urundi. Spermatophytes. Volume 2. Institut National pour l’Étude Agronomique du Congo belge, Brussels, Belgium. pp. 12–81.

• Townsend, C.C., 2000. Amaranthaceae. In: Edwards, S., Mesfin Tadesse, Demissew Sebsebe & Hedberg, I. (Editors). Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Volume 2, part 1. Magnoliaceae to Flacourtiaceae. The National Herbarium, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Department of Systematic Botany, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. pp. 299–335.

Author(s)

• P.C.M. Jansen, PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands

Correct citation of this article

Jansen, P.C.M., 2004. Digera muricata (L.) Mart. [Internet] Record from PROTA4U. Grubben, G.J.H. & Denton, O.A. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands.

Accessed 18 December 2024.