Taxon: Dioscorea bulbifera L.

A declared aquatic or terrestrial noxious weed and/or noxious-weed seed in these U.S. states (see state noxious weed lists), with links to state information or web documents:

AL*, FL*.

ªAquatic.

*Terrestrial.

°In seed.

Link to noxious weed information from

Common names:

• aerial yam   (Source: F Ceylon ) – English
  
• air-potato   (Source: World Econ Pl ) – English
  
• bitter yam   (Source: F Hawaii ) – English
  
• cheeky yam   (Source: Econ Pl Aust ) – English
  
• potato yam   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – English
  
• igname bulbifère   (Source: Pl Res SEAs 9:85.) – French
  
• pousse en l'air   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – French
  
• Brotwurzel   (Source: Zander ed17 ) – German
  
• Yamswurzel   (Source: Zander ed17 ) – German
  
• hoi   (Source: F Hawaii ) – Hawaiian
  
• hoei-oepas   (Source: Names Watson ) – India
  
• inhame   (Source: D. Groth, p.c. 2005) – Portuguese (Brazil)
  
• ñame de gunda   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Spanish
  
• papa voladora   (Source: F Mesoamer ) – Spanish
  

More:

see MMPND for additional names in foreign scripts

Economic importance:

• Environmental: ornamental   (fide Dict Gard)
  
• Human food: vegetable   (bulbils and tubers are edible, but can be poisonous fide Use Pl WT Afr; Kew Bull 56:380. 2001)
  
• Medicines: folklore   (fide CRC MedHerbs ed2; Herbs Commerce ed2; Kew Bull 56:380. 2001)
  
• Vertebrate poisons: mammals   (fide Poison Hawaii; Kew Bull 56:380. 2001)
  
• Weed: also potential seed contaminant   (fide Rep NCEPPC)
  

More:

View toxicology references for Dioscorea bulbifera from FDA Poisonous Plant Database

View phytochemical or ethnobotanical data from Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases

Distributional range:

      Native: (links to other web resources are provided for some distributions)

• AFRICA
  East Tropical Africa: Tanzania; Uganda
  West-Central Tropical Africa: Cameroon
  West Tropical Africa: Burkina Faso; Cote D'Ivoire; Ghana; Guinea; Liberia; Nigeria; Senegal; Sierra Leone
  Western Indian Ocean: Madagascar; Mauritius; Reunion
• ASIA-TEMPERATE
  China: China [e. & s.]
• ASIA-TROPICAL
  Indian Subcontinent: Bhutan; India; Nepal; Sri Lanka
  Indo-China: Cambodia; Laos; Myanmar; Thailand; Vietnam
  Malesia: Indonesia; Malaysia; Papua New Guinea; Philippines
• AUSTRALASIA
  Australia: Australia - Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia [n.]

      Naturalized:

• widely naturalized elsewhere

References:

• Arnold, H. L. 1968. Poisonous plants of Hawaii. (Poison Hawaii)
• Bosser, J. M. et al., eds. 1976–. Flores des Mascareignes. (F Mascar)
• Burkill, H. M. 1985–2004. The useful plants of west tropical Africa. (Use Pl WT Afr)
• Chinese Academy of Sciences. 1959–. Flora reipublicae popularis sinicae. (F China)
• Conant, P. et al. 1997. Appendix. Selected plant species interfering with resource management goals in North American natural areas. In J. O. Luken & J. W. Thieret, eds., Assessment and management of plant invasions. (Pl Invasion)
• Dassanayake, M. D. & F. R. Fosberg, eds. 1980–. A revised handbook to the flora of Ceylon. (F Ceylon)
• Davidse, G. et al., eds. 1994. Flora mesoamericana. (F Mesoamer)
• Duke, J. A. et al. 2002. CRC Handbook of medicinal herbs. (CRC MedHerbs ed2)
• Erhardt, W. et al. 2002. Zander: Handwörterbuch der Pflanzennamen, 17. Auflage. (Zander ed17)
• FNA Editorial Committee. 1993–. Flora of North America. (F NAmer)
• Flach, M. & F. Rumawas, eds. 1996. Plants yielding non-seed carbohydrates. Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). (Pl Res SEAs) 9:85–89.
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). 2010. Ecocrop - on-line resource. (Ecocrop)
• George, A. S., ed. 1980–. Flora of Australia. (F Aust)
• Grierson, A. J. C. & D. J. Long. 1984–. Flora of Bhutan including a record of plants from Sikkim. (F Bhutan)
• Groth, D. 2005. pers. comm. [re. Brazilian common names].
• Hara, H. et al. 1978–1982. An enumeration of the flowering plants of Nepal. (L Nepal)
• Howard, R. 1974–1989. Flora of the lesser Antilles. (F LAnt)
• Huxley, A., ed. 1992. The new Royal Horticultural Society dictionary of gardening. (Dict Gard)
• Keay, R. W. J. & F. N. Hepper. 1953–1972. Flora of west tropical Africa, ed. 2. (F WT Afr)
• Lazarides, M. & B. Hince. 1993. CSIRO Handbook of Economic Plants of Australia. (Econ Pl Aust)
• Markle, G. M. et al., eds. 1998. Food and feed crops of the United States, ed. 2. (Food Feed Crops US)
• McGuffin, M., J. T. Kartesz, A. Y. Leung, & A. O. Tucker. 2000. Herbs of commerce, ed. 2. (Herbs Commerce ed2)
• Merrill, E. D. 1922–1926. An enumeration of Philippine flowering plants. (F Philipp)
• Porcher, M. H. et al. Searchable World Wide Web Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (MMPND) - on-line resource. (Pl Names)
• Rehm, S. 1994. Multilingual dictionary of agronomic plants. (Dict Rehm)
• Steenis, C. G. G. J. van, ed. 1948–. Flora malesiana. (F Males)
• Turrill, W. B. et al., eds. 1952–. Flora of tropical East Africa. (F TE Afr)
• Wagner, W. L. et al. 1990. Manual of the flowering plants of Hawai'i. (F Hawaii)
• Watson, J. F. 1868. Index to the native and scientific names of Indian and other eastern economic plants and products. (Names Watson)
• Wilkin, P. 2001. Dioscoreaceae of south-central Africa. Kew Bull. 56:379.

More:

Search AGRICOLA article citation database for citations referencing Dioscorea bulbifera.

Search NCBI's Entrez search engine for PubMed citations referencing Dioscorea bulbifera. Note: Defaults to a search by genus or species epithet if species binomial not found.

Synonyms:

• (=) Dioscorea latifolia Benth.
  (previously associated with 6 accessions)

Check other databases for Dioscorea bulbifera L.:

• Flora of North America: Collaborative Floristic Effort of North American Botanists
• AVH: Australia's Virtual Herbarium Map Display Interface
• ABIF: Australian Biodiversity Information Facility's Flora of Australia online
• TROPICOS: Nomenclatural and Specimen Database of the Missouri Botanical Garden
• Mansfeld: Mansfeld's World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops
• ePIC: Electronic Plant Information Centre of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• AGRICOLA: Article Citation Database or NAL Catalog of USDA's National Agricultural Library
• Entrez: NCBI's search engine for PubMed citations, GenBank sequences, etc.
  Note: Defaults to a search by genus or species epithet if species binomial not found.

Images:

• Disseminule drawings: U.S. National Seed Herbarium drawing
• Forestry Images: Images of invasive weeds from www.forestryimages.org

More:

• Check PlantSystematics.org for additional images
• Images Note: Be advised that their identity may be inaccurate. Proper identification of a plant may require specialized taxonomic knowledge or comparison with properly documented herbarium material.

Abbreviations & symbols in GRIN Taxonomy

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| USDA | ARS | GRIN | NPGS | New Search |

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Cite as:
USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program.
Germplasm Resources Information Network - (GRIN) [Online Database].
National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland.
URL: http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?14186 (09 February 2010)

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