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Dioscorea alata

Botanic Family

Dioscoreaceae

Author

Linnaeus

Common Names

• Guan-banza (Haiti)
• Igname-chat (Haiti)
• Bejuco de ñame (Dominican Republic)

Geographical Habitats

• Bangladesh
• Borneo
• Cambodia
• Taiwan - China
• Christmas Island
• Ryukyu Islands - Japan
• Assam - India
• Java
• Lesser Sunda Islands
• Sulawesi
• Sumatra - Indonesia
• Malaysia
• Myanmar
• Nepal
• Pakistan
• Bismarck Archipelago - Papua New Guinea
• Philippines
• Sri Lanka
• Thailand
• Vietnam

Natural Habitats

• Forest
• disturbed areas
• secondary growth
• riverside.

Flowering Times

• Nov-Jan (China & India)
• Oct-Nov (Thailand)

Fruiting Times

• Dec-Jan (China) Dec-Feb (India)

Perennial deciduous glabrous non-woody tuberous vine, anticlockwise twiner with glabrous quadrangular stems prickly at base, 4-winged. Bulbils in leaf axils (some cultivars) , present. Glabrous leaves to 300mm x 200mm. Axillary panicles of sweet-scented yellow flowers, staminate panicles to 150mm long, pistillate racemes, male flowers with lobes to 2mm, sepals to 1mm long, 1-3 female flowers to 2.6mm long in tomentose spikes with tomentose bracts, Glabrous fruit capsule to 32mm long with 3 x 22mm wide wings at 90º.

Further References

• Sturtevant 1919
• Huxley 1992
• Rubatzky 1997
• Smith 1998
• FOC
• Mobot
• FOH
• JPS
• The Plant List 2
• VOPR
• USNH
• F Indochine
• FOTA
• SAFIO
• Standley
• Kew
• IJPS