Notes on edible poaceae collected at Eka Karya Bali Botanic Garden

Abstract

Poaceae is one of the world’s most notable food plant families. As an ex-situ conservation site, Bali Botanic Garden (BBG) has collected numerous Poaceae species since 1982. Unfortunately, the study to documented the edibility of all Poaceae collections in BBG is still limited as previous studies regarding the garden Poaceae collection are focusing on bamboo and other limited species. Thus, this study aims to present a list of edible Poaceae species collected in the garden. As a result, there are 13 genera of Poaceae in BBG that were found to be edible, i.e. Bambusa, Coix, Cymbopogon, Dendrocalamus, Gigantochloa, Imperata, Neololeba, Phyllostachys, Saccharum, Schizostachyum, Setaria, Thyrsostachys, and Thysanolaena. Most of them are bamboo which the shoot is consumed as cooked vegetables. However, other parts of the Poaceae plant species in this list are consumed as various dishes. In conclusion, BBG has been collected many edible Poaceae species which potentially support food security.