Dioscorea esculenta (Lour.) Burkill
Pasar Siti Khadijah, Buloh Kubu, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia.
Dioscorea esculenta (Lour.) Burkill. Dioscoreaceae. CN: [Malay - Ubi Itik, Ubi torak. (Note: The vernacular name, "Torak itik" is sometime used for the variety as in the image, tubers shape polymorphic; while "Torak telunjuk", a different 'var." typically having uniform elongated bottle-shaped tubers); Indonesia - Gembili, Kemarung], Asiatic yam, Chinese yam, Lesser yam, Gan Shu, Potato yam, Spiny chinese yam, Wild yam. Native of India, Indo-China (Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam), Malesia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea); elsewhere cultivated. Tubers usually 4--10, produced from apical branches of rhizome; cork light yellow, smooth; thorny roots present or absent. Stem twining to left, with T-shaped, soft hairs, proximally prickly (thornless in cultivated variety), distally so only at nodes. Leaves alternate, simple; petiole 5--8 cm; leaf blade broadly cordate, to 15 × 17 cm, with T-shaped hairs especially abaxially, basal veins 9--13, base cordate, apex acute. Male spike solitary, dense, ca. 15 cm. Male flowers: usually solitary, rarely in cymules of 2--4, sessile or subsessile ; bract ovate ; perianth shallowly cupular, puberulent, outer lobes broadly lanceolate, ca. 1.8 mm, inner ones slightly shorter than outer; stamens 6, inserted in perianth tube, slightly shorter than perianth lobes. Female spike solitary, pendent, to 40 cm. Capsule very seldom maturing, ca. 3 cm, base truncate, apex slightly emarginate; wings ca. 1.2 cm wide. Seeds inserted near middle of capsule, winged all round. Plant mostly cultivated in the north-eastern states of peninsular Malaysia. The tubers are edible and normally dug–out from the ground at the onset of rainy seasons in anticipation of flood to stock up as food source.
Synonym(s):
Dioscorea aculeata L.
Dioscorea fasciculata Roxb.
Dioscorea sativa auct.
Oncus esculentus Lour. (basionym)
Ref and suggested reading:
www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?14204
zipcodezoo.com/Plants/D/Dioscorea_esculenta/
www.globinmed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=a...
Dioscorea esculenta (Lour.) Burkill
Pasar Siti Khadijah, Buloh Kubu, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia.
Dioscorea esculenta (Lour.) Burkill. Dioscoreaceae. CN: [Malay - Ubi Itik, Ubi torak. (Note: The vernacular name, "Torak itik" is sometime used for the variety as in the image, tubers shape polymorphic; while "Torak telunjuk", a different 'var." typically having uniform elongated bottle-shaped tubers); Indonesia - Gembili, Kemarung], Asiatic yam, Chinese yam, Lesser yam, Gan Shu, Potato yam, Spiny chinese yam, Wild yam. Native of India, Indo-China (Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam), Malesia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea); elsewhere cultivated. Tubers usually 4--10, produced from apical branches of rhizome; cork light yellow, smooth; thorny roots present or absent. Stem twining to left, with T-shaped, soft hairs, proximally prickly (thornless in cultivated variety), distally so only at nodes. Leaves alternate, simple; petiole 5--8 cm; leaf blade broadly cordate, to 15 × 17 cm, with T-shaped hairs especially abaxially, basal veins 9--13, base cordate, apex acute. Male spike solitary, dense, ca. 15 cm. Male flowers: usually solitary, rarely in cymules of 2--4, sessile or subsessile ; bract ovate ; perianth shallowly cupular, puberulent, outer lobes broadly lanceolate, ca. 1.8 mm, inner ones slightly shorter than outer; stamens 6, inserted in perianth tube, slightly shorter than perianth lobes. Female spike solitary, pendent, to 40 cm. Capsule very seldom maturing, ca. 3 cm, base truncate, apex slightly emarginate; wings ca. 1.2 cm wide. Seeds inserted near middle of capsule, winged all round. Plant mostly cultivated in the north-eastern states of peninsular Malaysia. The tubers are edible and normally dug–out from the ground at the onset of rainy seasons in anticipation of flood to stock up as food source.
Synonym(s):
Dioscorea aculeata L.
Dioscorea fasciculata Roxb.
Dioscorea sativa auct.
Oncus esculentus Lour. (basionym)
Ref and suggested reading:
www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?14204
zipcodezoo.com/Plants/D/Dioscorea_esculenta/
www.globinmed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=a...