Dioscorea bulbifera

Dioscorea bulbifera

The type Dioscorea bulbifera from the kind of yams ( Dioscorea ) is a herbaceous climber. It forms in the leaf axils edible tubers, for which it is grown in the tropics. Natural reserves are located in Africa and Asia.

Description

Dioscorea bulbifera is underground only a small or no tuber. If this is present, it measures four to ten centimeters, is sessile, black exterior, hard, bitter and not edible. The scion is glabrous and unarmed, he climbs overcoming three to seven meters, according to other data about 20 meters high. Whether the shoot is right-or left writhing is specified differently in the literature. The leaves are alternate on the shoot. They are long-petiolate, the petiole is widened at its base, and includes the shoot. The leaf base is heart-shaped, wavy leaf margin straight to slightly, the leaf blade is glabrous, usually with nine ( five to eleven) visible veins, the tip is moved out long. The sheet is 15 inches long and eight to two to 14 inches wide, and occasionally a length and width of 26 cm is obtained. In the leaf axils to form the gray to brown, irregularly shaped tubers that weigh in cultivated plants on average 500 to 700 grams, but can be up to two kilos.

The inflorescences of this dioecious plant stand in the leaf axils. The male inflorescences are pendulous, simple or sometimes branched. While other yam species, the flowers are arranged often in threes in a small Zyme in each inflorescence and the flower and also the triad have a bract, the flowers are individually Dioscorea bulbifera in and have two bracts. The flowers consist of six lanceolate, two to five millimeters long petals that turn in the male flowers from white to purple, the female flowers remain greenish- white. In the male flowers in addition to the six stamens is still a rudimentary ovary visible, refer to the female flowers accordingly six staminodes. The capsule fruit is oblong- rounded, about 2.5 inches long and 1.5 inches wide, light brown with reddish spots. It contains the dark brown, winged seeds.

Dissemination

Dioscorea bulbifera is widely distributed in the tropics and subtropics of Africa and Asia. It bears drying times of two to five months in length. In Africa south of the Sahara and distributed in Madagascar, Asia extends their range of Pakistan and India and China to Japan and Korea, in the southeast of the Indonesian islands to Australia. In many parts of the tropics, even in America, it is cultivated and is naturalized in places.

Use

The above-ground tubers are edible. Depending on the variety, they still contain toxic materials that need to be washed and cooked before eating.

Various parts of the plant are used medicinally.

Botanical history

Dioscorea bulbifera was described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus in his " Species Plantarum " and named accordingly. The name bulbifera is composed of the Latin ingredients bulbus, " onion bulb ", and- fer, " supporting", together.

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