Species
Name
Cyprus
bulbosus (Vahl)
Cyprus
blysmoides C. B. Cl.; Cyprus spicatus Boeck (Synonyms)
Family
Cyperaceae
Local Name(s)
Kuenti
(Amargna), Gohosa, Gooso (Somali)
General description
It
is a slender erect perennial sedge to 30cm, emerging during the wet season and
dying back in the dry season. The basal bulb is up to 8mm and covered by brown
to blackish scales and with very slender stolons ending in new roots. The stems
are 5 - 25cm long, triangular or compressed, with many crowded leaves at the
base. The inflorescence of the flower is a single spike without bracts, of 3 - 6
spikelets 8 - 12mm long.
Edible part(s),
preparation methods and palatability
The
bulb or 'nut' and the stem base are edible. The species used to be an important
famine food. They can only be collected after the harvest or when the crop in
the field got stunted because the plant is only growing during the rainy season
like farm crops. It grows like a weed in cropped fields. The stem base of the
plant can be peeled and the soft fleshy part is edible. The bulbs can be used in
the following ways: (1) they can be eaten raw after having removed the shell
(the shell is removed by either rubbing the bulbs between the palms or between
two hides to prevent burns on hands); (2) the bulbs can be roasted for five
minutes, then the shell can be removed and it can be eaten as a variety of the
much liked ‘kollo’ that is usually produced from wheat; (3) the bulbs are
roasted, the shell removed, then crushed into flour and mixed with water to
produce a type of injera; (4) the flour can also be used to bake a flat bread,
locally known as ‘quecha’ and it can be mixed with other type of
flour, i.e. teff, sorghum etc.; (5) a porridge, known as ‘Abyssinian
Porridge’ or ‘ga’at’, can be mixed. The preparation and cooking
time varies depending on the type of food that will be produced. To produce
injera it takes half a day, for ‘quecha’ and for ‘ga’at’ 30
minutes. ‘Kuenti’ is collected by women and children but eaten by
everybody if there is a food shortage. In some areas people compete with monkeys
and baboons for the bulb collection in times of food shortage.
Agroecology
The
species are found Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda and northern
Tanzania. It grows in seasonally wet habitats on sandy to heavy clay soils in
stony areas. Found in woodland, wooded grassland and as weed in cultivated
fields, 300 - 2,400m.
Propagation
Method(s)
Propagates by
seeds
Sample location
(s)
Dibla
Seat Kebele, Ganta Afesum Woreda (Eastern Tigray)
Remarks
Traditional insults go with the name
of this plant; 'ary kuenti' and 'kuenti lacani', translated as 'kuenti
eaters', which means being as poor as having to eat 'kuenti' instead of
any other farmed crop such as barley or teff.
The
following other sedge species have edible stem bases and nuts: C. bulbosus
Vahl var. melanolepsis Kueckenthal, C. rotundus L., C. giolii
Chiov..
Drawings
available in Maundu et al., 1999: p. 110
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