A BRIEF REPORT ON A LARGE MOUNTAIN-TOP COMMUNITY OF DIOSCOREA PRAEHENSILIS IN THE TROPICAL RAINFOREST OF SOUTHEASTERN CAMEROON

Abstract

Wild yam tubers have been considered to be key food to resolving the question of whether hunter-gatherers could live independently of agriculture in a tropical rainforest, or what made it possible. Above all Dioscorea praehensilis is known as the most reliable staple food in Africa. In February 2000, the author found a large community of D. praehensilis on the upper part of a small mountain in southeastern Cameroon. Using the belt-transect method, the author estimated the density of stems and the productivity of edible tubers at 147 per hectare and 118 kg per hectare, respectively. These values are much higher than found in other studies. This mountain is one of several areas which local Baka hunter-gatherers recognize as rich in D. praehensilis. Such places would have made it possible for old hunter- gatherers who had never lived in the forest interior to have done so.