›

Cassava

Dick Culbert / Wikimedia Commons - CC BY 2.0

Cassava

Manihot esculenta

A fast-growing tropical woody shrub grown for its swollen, starchy storage roots - cassava, the mandioca of Brazil and one of the great staple foods of the tropical world. POWO (Kew) and Flora e Funga do Brasil record Manihot esculenta as native to and first domesticated in Brazil and the southern Amazon, the homeland of mandioca, manioc and tapioca. It forms a slender, upright shrub of palmately-lobed leaves on often red-tinged, jointed stems, and below ground it swells a cluster of long tuberous roots that are harvested, peeled and cooked. HONESTY (load-bearing): cassava is one of the most important food crops of the tropics, but the raw roots AND leaves contain cyanogenic glycosides (linamarin) and are TOXIC if eaten raw or under-processed - they must be peeled and properly cooked, and bitter varieties soaked and/or fermented, to drive off the cyanide before they are safe to eat. It is frost-tender (roughly USDA zone 9b and up) and drought-tolerant once established, which is exactly why it is such a dependable famine-insurance crop across the warm tropics.

Climate fit: narrow (23/100)

Edible

Structure

Light

Full sun

Water

Moderate water

Mature size

5-10 ft tall · 3 ft apart

Hardy in zones

9b-11b

frosty to nearly frost-free winters

AHS heat range

8-12

Plant range authored in AHS heat-zone terms.

Native in Illinois

No

EDIBLE ONLY AFTER PROPER PROCESSING - this is load-bearing.

°C

°F

Cold hardiness

These values are location-based: this location's current hardiness is the baseline, and the 2050 value is a projected future climate for this same location.

Now

Zone 6b

Plotwright

USDA Zone 6b

-5°F to 0°F

Won't grow here

2050

2100

Zone 7a

Plotwright

0°F to 5°F

Won't grow here

In plain terms: This location has cold winters. Its winters are projected to keep warming through 2050.

✕

Out of range today and still out of range in 2050.

Heat tolerance

Heat tolerance values are location-based too: heat days today are observed at this site, and the 2050 value projects this same location under a future climate.

Loading AHS heat-zone data for this location...

Where this plant fits

Suitable across 2 ecoregions - 2 climate-resilient through 2070. Best matches first.

California coastal sage and chaparral

›

Fynbos shrubland

›

What it needs

Conditions

Light

Full sun

Water

Moderate water

Spacing

3 ft

Habit

Fast-growing woody shrub with palmately-lobed leaves on often red-tinged, jointed stems, grown for its swollen starchy storage roots - cassava / mandioca, a global staple. It is frost-tender (roughly USDA 9b and up) and drought-tolerant once established. HONESTY (load-bearing): one of the most important food crops of the tropics, but the raw roots AND leaves contain cyanogenic glycosides (linamarin) and are TOXIC if eaten raw or under-processed - they must be peeled and properly cooked (and bitter varieties soaked and/or fermented) to drive off the cyanide before eating.

Care tips

•

Grow it only where it is frost-free (roughly USDA 9b and up) and give it full sun and a long, hot season - top growth is killed by frost and it needs the warmth to size up a worthwhile root crop.

•

Propagate from sections of mature woody stem pushed into warm soil at the start of the season, not from seed, and replant fresh cuttings each cycle to keep the crop vigorous.

•

Treat processing as non-negotiable: peel and thoroughly cook every root and leaf, and soak and/or ferment bitter varieties, to remove the cyanide before eating - never sample any part raw.

Lifecycle

Planting

Plant only where it is frost-free - roughly USDA zone 9b and up - in full sun in loose, well-drained soil, propagating from sections of mature woody stem (not seed) pushed into warm soil at the start of the growing season. Space plants about 3 feet apart; it tolerates poor soil and drought once established, which is much of its value as a staple.

Transplanting

Grown from stem cuttings set directly where they are to crop rather than transplanted - the cuttings root in place. If you must move a young plant, do it while small and in warm weather, but the normal practice is simply to take and replant fresh cuttings.

Early growth

Cuttings sprout and grow quickly in warm soil, putting up jointed leafy stems while the storage roots begin to thicken below ground; keep it in full sun, water through any prolonged drought while establishing, and it then largely looks after itself.

Maturity

Reaches a 5-10 foot leafy shrub with a cluster of long, swollen, starchy roots that can be lifted from about 8-12 months (sweet types) to a year or more (bitter types). Many growers leave the roots in the ground and harvest as needed - but every root and leaf must be peeled and properly cooked (bitter kinds also soaked and/or fermented) to remove the cyanide before eating.

Propagation

Propagated vegetatively from sections of mature woody stem, each with several nodes, pushed into warm soil - the standard and reliable method; seed is used only in breeding. Replant fresh cuttings each cycle to keep the crop vigorous.

Plant this, not that

Better fit for this place

For Chicago, IL, these are replacement suggestions: similar plants with a stronger hardiness fit now and/or in 2050.

Sambucus canadensis

American elderberry

A fast, suckering native shrub of streambanks and moist thickets across eastern North America, grown for huge flat-topped cymes of tiny lemon-scented white flowers in early summer and the clusters of dark elderberry drupes that follow. Spreads by root suckers into naturalized colonies 5 to 12 feet tall and wide; the flowers feed butterflies and the showy fruit feeds birds. The raw berries are not eaten fresh - they are cooked into jelly, pie, and wine.

Shrub

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Rubus allegheniensis

Allegheny blackberry

A native eastern + central North American thicket-forming shrub producing arching thorny canes + clusters of large sweet black berries in mid-to-late summer. Among the most important wildlife fruit producers in eastern forests - birds, mammals, + insects all depend on the fruit. Like raspberry, biennial-caned (primocane year 1, fruits in year 2 as floricane, then dies back). Spreads via root suckers + tip-rooting cane tips; manage with annual pruning.

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Aronia melanocarpa

Black chokeberry

A drought-and-flood-tolerant native shrub of eastern North America with brilliant three-season interest - spring white-pink flowers, glossy black antioxidant-rich late-summer berries, and brilliant wine-red fall foliage - plus an extraordinarily wide cold-hardiness range (USDA 3a-8b). The berries are astringent fresh but the basis of a small but growing commercial industry (juices, wines, jams, supplements) for their exceptionally high anthocyanin content. Spreads by suckers; site where colony formation is welcome.

Shrub

Full sun / Part shade

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Vaccinium corymbosum

Highbush blueberry

A deciduous edible shrub for acidic soils, spring flowers, summer berries, pollinator value, and strong fall color.

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Similar plants

Browse lateral options with similar roles, light needs, size, or native-range overlap; these are not filtered for a better climate fit.

Rubus allegheniensis

Allegheny blackberry

A native eastern + central North American thicket-forming shrub producing arching thorny canes + clusters of large sweet black berries in mid-to-late summer. Among the most important wildlife fruit producers in eastern forests - birds, mammals, + insects all depend on the fruit. Like raspberry, biennial-caned (primocane year 1, fruits in year 2 as floricane, then dies back). Spreads via root suckers + tip-rooting cane tips; manage with annual pruning.

A fast, suckering native shrub of streambanks and moist thickets across eastern North America, grown for huge flat-topped cymes of tiny lemon-scented white flowers in early summer and the clusters of dark elderberry drupes that follow. Spreads by root suckers into naturalized colonies 5 to 12 feet tall and wide; the flowers feed butterflies and the showy fruit feeds birds. The raw berries are not eaten fresh - they are cooked into jelly, pie, and wine.

Shrub

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

A low, densely branching coastal shrub of northeastern dunes, smothered in white spring blossom and prized for the tart blue-purple plums that follow. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center documents it native from New Brunswick down the Atlantic seaboard to New Jersey, growing in sand and gravel near the sea, where it is both salt tolerant and drought tolerant. It carries Special Value to Native Bees, feeds birds with its fruit, and is self-incompatible - a second seedling is needed to set a real crop.

A drought-and-flood-tolerant native shrub of eastern North America with brilliant three-season interest - spring white-pink flowers, glossy black antioxidant-rich late-summer berries, and brilliant wine-red fall foliage - plus an extraordinarily wide cold-hardiness range (USDA 3a-8b). The berries are astringent fresh but the basis of a small but growing commercial industry (juices, wines, jams, supplements) for their exceptionally high anthocyanin content. Spreads by suckers; site where colony formation is welcome.

Shrub

Full sun / Part shade

The familiar European blackberry, a vigorous arching thorny deciduous bramble that forms dense thickets and bears clusters of large sweet black aggregate berries in mid-to-late summer. Rubus fruticosus is not a single plant but a species AGGREGATE of many closely related microspecies, long cultivated for its fruit. HONEST CAUTION: while the berries are edible and excellent, the European blackberry aggregate is a load-bearing INVASIVE in many temperate regions. It and the closely related Himalayan blackberry (Rubus armeniacus) escape gardens into dense, impenetrable, thorny thickets that smother native vegetation, and are serious noxious weeds across the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere. Where it is invasive, plant a regionally-appropriate native bramble (Plotwright carries the native Allegheny blackberry, Rubus allegheniensis) or a sterile/thornless cultivated cultivar instead.

Shrub

Full sun / Part shade

A thorny, twiggy deciduous shrub from China (POWO, Kew), grown above all for flowers that open VERY EARLY - in late winter and early spring on bare twigs, before the leaves. The cup-shaped blooms are scarlet to orange (also pink or white in named forms) and, because they arrive when little else is open, they are a valuable nectar source for the first bees of the year and excellent for forcing as cut branches indoors. By autumn the shrub carries hard, fragrant, yellow-green quince-like fruits. It is hardy across USDA zones 4a-8b. Be honest about its temperament: it is thorny and can sucker, so it earns its place as an informal barrier or hedge rather than as a tidy specimen by a path.

Shrub

Full sun / Part shade

Appears in collections

Tamarind (Tamarindus indica) - single woody trunk supporting a tree habit with a broad, spreading crown, fine, feathery alternate-pinnate foliage of many small leaflets, dense green canopy showing the evergreen, leafy crown form.

Baobab (Adansonia digitata) - massive swollen water-storing bottle-trunk with a large hollow at the base, sparse crown of stout tapering branches fanning out like roots in the air (the 'upside-down tree' silhouette), solitary tree in open african savanna habitat among smaller acacias.

Marula (Sclerocarya birrea) - broad, rounded/dome-shaped spreading crown typical of a mature savanna marula, single sturdy grey-barked trunk dividing into heavy ascending main branches, dense canopy of fine compound foliage set in open red-soil grassland savanna.

Guava (Psidium guajava) - elliptic-oblong leaves with strongly impressed, prominent pinnate venation typical of guava, opposite, decussate leaf arrangement on a slender reddish-tinged young stem, upright woody seedling/sapling habit with new growth flushing at the shoot tip.

+2

Collection · 6 plants

Tropical dry edible shade

A warm-climate edible structure palette for seasonal dry forests, savannas, and frost-free gardens that need shade, food value, and drought recovery.

Papaya (Carica papaya) - large, deeply palmately-lobed leaves clustered at the top of the stem, single unbranched, soft fibrous trunk (palm-like habit), cluster of green oval fruits borne directly on the upper trunk below the leaf crown.

Cacao (Theobroma cacao) - cauliflorous orange-ripening pods borne directly on the woody stem, large oblong-elliptic leaves with prominent venation, slender understory treelet habit growing in shaded forest/plantation.

+2

Collection · 6 plants

Tropical edible canopy + patio

A frost-free edible palette for humid subtropical and tropical gardens: fruiting canopy, understory crops, edible roots, and container-friendly patio plants.

Educator packet

Plant packet

Cassava educator packet

A fast-growing tropical woody shrub grown for its swollen, starchy storage roots - cassava, the mandioca of Brazil and one of the great staple foods of the tropical world. POWO (Kew) and Flora e Funga do Brasil record Manihot esculenta as native to and first domesticated in Brazil and the southern Amazon, the homeland of mandioca, manioc and tapioca. It forms a slender, upright shrub of palmately-lobed leaves on often red-tinged, jointed stems, and below ground it swells a cluster of long tuberous roots that are harvested, peeled and cooked. HONESTY (load-bearing): cassava is one of the most important food crops of the tropics, but the raw roots AND leaves contain cyanogenic glycosides (linamarin) and are TOXIC if eaten raw or under-processed - they must be peeled and properly cooked, and bitter varieties soaked and/or fermented, to drive off the cyanide before they are safe to eat. It is frost-tender (roughly USDA zone 9b and up) and drought-tolerant once established, which is exactly why it is such a dependable famine-insurance crop across the warm tropics.

Scientific name

Manihot esculenta

Plant type

shrub

Hardiness

9b-11b

Light

full-sun

Moisture

moderate

Spacing

36 inches