Dioscorea transversa

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Pencil yam
Dioscorea transversa.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Dioscoreales
Family: Dioscoreaceae
Genus: Dioscorea
Species:
D. transversa
Binomial name
Dioscorea transversa
Synonyms [1]

Dioscorea punctataR.Br.

Dioscorea transversa, the pencil yam, is a vine of eastern and northern Australia. [1] [2]

Contents

The leaves are heart-shaped, shiny, with 5-7 prominent veins. The seed pods are rounded, green or pink before drying to a straw brown papery texture. The edible tubers are typically slender and long. There are two forms: an eastern rainforest and wet sclerophyll form which doesn't have bulbils, and a northern form which occurs in open forests and has small bulbils and large inground tubers. [3]

Uses

The tubers were a staple food of Australian Aboriginals and are eaten after cooking, usually in ground ovens. [3] The 1889 book 'The Useful Native Plants of Australia records that common names included "Long yam", Indigenous Australians from Central Queensland referred to it as "Kowar" and that "The small young tubers are eaten by the aborigines [sic.] without any preparation." [4]

Related Research Articles

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Dioscorea alata, also known as purple yam, ube, or greater yam, among many other names, is a species of yam. The tubers are usually a vivid violet-purple to bright lavender in color, but some range in color from cream to plain white. It is sometimes confused with taro and the Okinawa sweet potato beniimo (紅芋), however D. alata is also grown in Okinawa. With its origins in the Asian tropics, D. alata has been known to humans since ancient times.

<i>Dioscorea</i> Genus of yams

Dioscorea is a genus of over 600 species of flowering plants in the family Dioscoreaceae, native throughout the tropical and warm temperate regions of the world. The vast majority of the species are tropical, with only a few species extending into temperate climates. It was named by the monk Charles Plumier after the ancient Greek physician and botanist Dioscorides.

<i>Dioscorea villosa</i> Species of yam from North America

Dioscorea villosa is a species of twining tuberous vine which is native to eastern North America. It is commonly known as wild yam, colic root, rheumatism root, devil's bones, and fourleaf yam. It is common and widespread in a range stretching from Texas and Florida north to Minnesota, Ontario and Massachusetts.

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<i>Dioscorea communis</i> Flowering plant in the yam family Dioscoreaceae

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yam (vegetable)</span> Edible starchy tuber

Yam is the common name for some plant species in the genus Dioscorea that form edible tubers. The tubers of some other species in the genus, such as D. communis, are toxic. Yams are perennial herbaceous vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers in many temperate and tropical regions, especially in West Africa, South America and the Caribbean, Asia, and Oceania. The tubers themselves, also called "yams", come in a variety of forms owing to numerous cultivars and related species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinese yam</span> Species of yam from Asia

Dioscorea polystachya or Chinese yam, also called cinnamon-vine, is a species of flowering plant in the yam family. It is sometimes called Chinese potato or by its Korean name ma. It is also called huaishan in Mandarin and waisan in Cantonese.

<i>Dioscorea oppositifolia</i> Species of herbaceous vine

Dioscorea oppositifolia is a type of yam (Dioscorea) native to Myanmar (Burma) and to the Indian Subcontinent.

<i>Syzygium paniculatum</i> Species of tree

Syzygium paniculatum, the magenta lilly pilly or magenta cherry, is a species of flowering plant in the myrtle family Myrtaceae, native to New South Wales, Australia. A broad dense bushy rainforest tree, in cultivation it grows to a height of 15 m (49 ft) with a trunk diameter up to 35 cm (14 in). The largest known example is at Ourimbah Creek, 35 m (115 ft) metres tall. The leaves are 3–9 cm (1.2–3.5 in) long, opposite, simple and slightly obovate, tapering at the leaf base. They are dark glossy green above, and paler below. White flowers are produced in clusters. The edible fruit is usually magenta, but can be white, pink or purple. The seeds are polyembryonic.

<i>Dioscorea bulbifera</i> Species of flowering plant in the yam family Dioscoreaceae

Dioscorea bulbifera is a species of true yam in the yam family, Dioscoreaceae. It is native to Africa, Asia and northern Australia. It is widely cultivated and has become naturalized in many regions.

<i>Carissa spinarum</i> Species of shrub

Carissa spinarum, the conkerberry or bush plum, is a large shrub of the dogbane family (Apocynaceae), widely distributed in tropical regions of Africa, Southern Asia, Australia, and various islands of the Indian Ocean. It is most well known in Australia, where it is also called currant bush or, more ambiguously, native currant or even black currant. It is, however, neither closely related to plums (Prunus) nor to true currants (Ribes), which belong to entirely different lineages of eudicots. In India, it is also called wild karanda /wild karavanda, referring to the related karanda. Carissa spinarum is often discussed under its many obsolete synonyms.

<i>Geitonoplesium</i> Genus of plants in the family Asphodelaceae

Geitonoplesium is a monotypic genus in the family Asphodelaceae, containing the sole species Geitonoplesium cymosum, commonly known as scrambling lily. The species is a perennial evergreen scrambling vine found in rainforests, sclerophyll forests and woodlands of eastern Australia, and parts of Malesia and Melanesia.

<i>Eustrephus</i> Genus of flowering plants

Eustrephus is a monotypic genus in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Lomandroideae.

<i>Olea paniculata</i> Species of flowering plant

Olea paniculata, commonly known as the native olive, is a plant of the genus Olea and a relative of the olive. It grows natively in Pakistan and southwestern China (Yunnan) through tropical Asia to Australia and the Pacific islands of New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Lord Howe Island.

<i>Vincetoxicum barbatum</i> Species of vine

Vincetoxicum barbatum, synonym Tylophora barbata, the bearded tylophora, is a small vine in the dogbane family. A common plant found south of Bulahdelah, New South Wales. The habitat is rainforest and moist eucalyptus forests in south eastern Australia. Not often seen in flower, but flowers are dark red, around 7 mm long on thin stalks. Broken branches produce watery or milky sap.

<i>Dioscorea pentaphylla</i> Species of herbaceous vine

Dioscorea pentaphylla is a species of flowering plant in the yam family known by the common name fiveleaf yam. It is native to southern and eastern Asia as well as New Guinea and northern Australia. It is widely cultivated as a food crop and naturalized in Cuba and on several island chains in the Pacific.

<i>Dioscorea sansibarensis</i> Species of herbaceous vine

Dioscorea sansibarensis is a species of flowering plant in the yam family known by the common name Zanzibar yam. It is native to Madagascar and to tropical Africa from Tanzania west to Guinea and south to Mozambique, and it is known elsewhere as an introduced species.

<i>Dioscorea dumetorum</i> Species of yam from Africa

Dioscorea dumetorum, also known as the bitter yam, cluster yam, trifoliate yam, or three-leaved yam, is a species of flowering plant in the yam family, Dioscorea. It is native to sub-saharan Africa and especially common in the tropical regions of West Africa, including Nigeria, Benin, and Ghana. D. dumetorum has both toxic and non-toxic varieties.

<i>Pterostylis hildae</i> Species of orchid

Pterostylis hildae, commonly known as the rainforest greenhood, is a species of orchid found in eastern Australia. It has a rosette of leaves and when flowering a rosette at the base of a flowering stem with a single green, white and brown flower. It is found in wet forests, including rainforest in New South Wales and Queensland.

<i>Dioscorea deltoidea</i> Species of yam from Asia

Dioscorea deltoidea, the Nepal yam, is a species of flowering plant in the family Dioscoreaceae. Its native range is the Himalayas through to south-central China and mainland Southeast Asia. Its tubers contain diosgenin and are harvested by local peoples as a treatment for a variety of conditions, including gastrointestinal disorders and intestinal worms. Tubers are also eaten after boiling, washing, and baking. It grows in forests and humus-rich soils.

References

  1. 1 2 Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
  2. Govaerts, R., Wilkin, P. & Saunders, R.M.K. (2007). World Checklist of Dioscoreales. Yams and their allies: 1-65. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  3. 1 2 Low, Tim (1988). Wild Food Plants of Australia. North Ryde, N.S.W.: Angus & Robertson. ISBN   978-0-207-16930-4.
  4. J. H. Maiden (1889). The useful native plants of Australia : Including Tasmania. Turner and Henderson, Sydney.