Dioscorea cumingii

Family: Dioscoreaceae

What it is like

A yam. It keeps growing from year to year by shooting from the tubers. The vine is prickly. It twines to the left. The leaves are compound with 3-5-7 leaflets. They are arranged like fingers on a hand. They are covered with short soft brown hairs. There are 4 to 6 side nerves on the leaves. The leaf stalk is as long as the middle leaflet. The leaflet stalks are 1 cm long. The leaflets can be 18 cm long. The male flower is on the uppermost leaf axils and the female flowers are scattered on other leaf axils. The male flowering stalk is 70 cm long. The female flower stalks bear up to 30 flowers. The capsule is 2.5-4 cm long. It has wings.

There are about 650 species of Dioscorea.

Where it is found

A tropical plant. In the Philippines it occurs in forests in central Luzon. It grows in areas with considerable rainfall and close to mountains. It grows up to 1400 m altitude.

Countries/locations it is found in

Asia, China, Indonesia, Pacific, Philippines, SE Asia, Taiwan

How it is used for food

The tubers are cooked and eaten.

Edible parts

Tubers, root

How it is grown

Its other names

Local names

Kasi, Lima-lima, Lu song shu yu, Pari

Synonyms

Dioscorea cumingii var. inaequifolia (Elmer ex Prain & Burkill) Burkill; Dioscorea cumingii var. polyphylla (R. Knuth) Burkill; Dioscorea heptaphylla Sasaki; Dioscorea inaequifolia Elmer ex Prain & Burkill; Dioscorea polyphylla R. Knuth.; Dioscorea echinata R.Knuth;