Origins of some East African food plants: Part V

Abstract

SUGAR-CANE, Saccharum o/ficinarum L., Afua Jr Muwa. Research shows that this cultigen* has at least four different species in its makeup and that it originated in different parts of the world. The species involved are Saccharum o/ficinarum, applied to the thick tropical canes and believed to have originated in Polynesia, S. barberi Jesw., thin or' reed canes found in Northern India, S. sinense Roxb., a thin cane from Canton and including a group of North Indian canes, and S. spontaneum L., the wild cane, races of which extend from North Africa as far south as the western shores of Lake Nyasa, although it is by no means common in East Africa. It also extends through India to' the Far East.