FOOD RESOURCE COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SCIENCES, OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
ULLUCUS TUBEROSUS Chenopodiaceae, MELLOCO, ULLUCO
Hedrick, U.P. editor. 1919. Sturtevant's Notes on Edible Plants. Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1919 II. Albany, J.B Lyon Company, State Printers. [References Available]
is a plant of Andes of Bolivia, Peru and New Granada. The ulluco, or melloco, is in a juicy plant with a creeping stem, the sprouts of which swell at the tips into tubers from the size of a hazelnut to that of a pigeon's egg, like the sweet potato. In Peru, it is called oca quina and Herndon says is more glutinous than the oca and not as pleasant to the taste. The plant is extensively cultivated and, from the tubers by alternately freezing and steeping, a starchy substance is obtained, which is called by the Indians chuna and is relished. When the failure of the potato crop was dreaded in England, this plant was one of the substitutes proposed, but the tubers were not considered sufficiently agreeable to the British palate. Ulluco was introduced into France in 1848, but trial showed its unfitness for that climate.
