''Fernaldia pandurata'' (common name: loroco ) is a vine with edible flowers, widespread in

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

, and other countries in

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

.Morales, J.F. (2009). Estudios en las Apocynaceae neotropicales XXXIX: revisión de las Apocynoideae y Rauvolfioideae de Honduras. Anales del Jardin Botanico de Madrid 66: 217-262. ''Fernaldia pandurata'' is an important source of food in

and

. The plant's buds and flowers are used for cooking in a variety of ways, including in

pupusa A pupusa is a thick griddle cake or flatbread from El Salvador and Honduras, made with cornmeal or rice flour, similar to the Colombian and Venezuelan arepa. In El Salvador, it has been declared the national dish and has a specific day to c ...

s. The name "loroco" is used throughout

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. W ...

to refer to ''Fernaldia pandurata''.Azurdia, César; Loroco (''Fernaldia pandurata'', Apocynaceae), a Mesoamerican species in the process of domestication ''Fernaldia pandurata'' is an herbaceous

vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselv ...

with oblong-elliptical to broadly

ovate Ovate may refer to: *Ovate (egg-shaped) leaves, tepals, or other botanical parts *Ovate, a type of prehistoric stone hand axe *Ovates, one of three ranks of membership in the Welsh Gorsedd *Vates In modern English, the nouns vates () and ovat ...

leaves . long, 1.5–8 cm broad,

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s are generally somewhat shorter than the leaves, with 8–18 flowers, the

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

s 4–6 mm. long;

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s ovate, long; calyx lobes ovate, acute or obtuse, 2–3 mm. long; corolla white within, greenish outside. 2010

References

* * León, J., H. Goldbach & J. Engels, 1979: Die genetischen Ressourcen der Kulturpflanzen Zentralamerikas., Int. Genbank CATIE/GTZ in Turrialba, Costa Rica, San Juan de Tibás, Costa Rica, 32 pp. * Morton, J. F., E. Alvarez & C. Quiñonez, 1990: ''Loroco, ''Fernaldia pandurata'' (Apocynaceae): a popular edible flower of Central America. Economic Botany 44, 301–310.

External links

Loroco in World Crops (English)
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3259626 Echiteae Edible plants Flora of Central America Flora of Mexico Salvadoran cuisine Guatemalan cuisine Plants described in 1844