Production has spread throughout the humid tropics and subtropics. There are no related species of this crop that have economic importance. Description Cassava is a short-lived perennial tropical shrub growing 3 to 12 ft. tall. They vary in shape from long and slender to globose and enlarge during the starch storage process.
Stems are woody and variously branched.
Simple leaves, generally dark green, have palmate lobes. The plant is monoecious with flowers appearing in some cultivar about six months after shoot emergence. The white or occasionally yellow starch-filled flesh of the root is crisp like an Irish potato. No named varieties are currently known in southern Florida. Senorita was locally popular in the 1980s and attempts were made to promote the Brazilian variety Mantiqueira at the same time because it was able to produce high yields even with high rootknot nematode levels.