Dioscorea sylvatica

Last updated

Dioscorea sylvatica
Dioscorea sylvatica-IMG 9465.jpg
Leaves and flowers
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Dioscoreales
Family: Dioscoreaceae
Genus: Dioscorea
Species:
D. sylvatica
Binomial name
Dioscorea sylvatica
Eckl.

Dioscorea sylvatica ("forest elephant's foot") is a species of a twining tuberous vine that is native to Africa. It is common and widespread in forest and thicket, throughout the summer rainfall areas of East and Southern Africa.

Contents

Description

It produces a distinctively flattened caudex, often with lobes that spread out.

The creeping shoots grow throughout most of the year, though each will periodically die back and be replaced from the central caudex root stock. In dryer conditions it can become deciduous. The green creeping foliage can reach 4 meters or more in height.

It is an extremely widespread and variable species, with several extremely distinct varieties. [1]

Threats and conservation

It is threatened from illegal collecting for traditional medicine, as well as for the horticultural trade. As a consequence it is listed as Vulnerable. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beech</span> Genus of flowering plants in the family Fagaceae

Beech (Fagus) is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Eurasia and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, Engleriana and Fagus. The Engleriana subgenus is found only in East Asia, distinctive for its low branches, often made up of several major trunks with yellowish bark. The better known Fagus subgenus beeches are high-branching with tall, stout trunks and smooth silver-grey bark. The European beech is the most commonly cultivated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heath</span> Shrubland habitat

A heath is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler and damper climate.

<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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ringlet</span> Species of butterfly

The ringlet is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is only one of the numerous "ringlet" butterflies in the tribe Satyrini.

<i>Goodyera repens</i> Species of orchid

Goodyera repens, an orchid in the genus Goodyera, is called by the common name creeping lady's-tresses in Anglophone Europe and dwarf rattlesnake plantain or lesser rattlesnake plantain in North America.

<i>Kingia</i> Genus of trees

Kingia is a genus consisting of a single species, Kingia australis, and belongs to the plant family Dasypogonaceae. The Aboriginal name bullanock is used as a common name for the plant. It has a thick pseudo-trunk consisting of accumulated leaf-bases, with a cluster of long, slender leaves on top. The trunk is usually unbranched, but can branch if the growing tip is damaged. Flowers occur in egg-shaped clusters on the ends of up to 100 long curved stems. Kingia grows extremely slowly, the trunk increasing in height by about 1½ centimetres per year. It can live for centuries, however, so can attain a substantial height; 400-year-old plants with a height of six metres are not unusual.

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

Dioscorea communis or Tamus communis is a species of flowering plant in the yam family Dioscoreaceae and is commonly known as black bryony, lady's-seal or black bindweed.

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

Adenium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apocynaceae first described as a genus in 1819. It is native to Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

<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.

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

Dioscorea elephantipes, the elephant's foot or Hottentot bread, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Dioscorea of the family Dioscoreaceae, native to the dry interior of South Africa.

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

Dioscorea mexicana, Mexican yam or cabeza de negro is a species of yam in the genus Dioscorea.

<i>Festuca rubra</i> Species of flowering plant

Festuca rubra is a species of grass known by the common name red fescue, creeping red fescue or the rush-leaf fescue. It is widespread across much of the Northern Hemisphere and can tolerate many habitats and climates. It is best adapted to well-drained soils in cool, temperate climates; it prefers shadier areas and is often planted for its shade tolerance. Wild animals browse it, but it has not been important for domestic forage due to low productivity and palatability. It is also an ornamental plant for gardens.

<i>Campanula rapunculoides</i> Species of flowering plant

Campanula rapunculoides, known by the common names creeping bellflower, rampion bellflower, rover bellflower, garden bluebell, creeping bluebell, purple bell, garden harebell, and creeping campanula, is a perennial herbaceous plant of the genus Campanula, belonging to the family Campanulaceae. Native to central and southern Europe and west Asia, in some parts of North America it is an extremely invasive species.

<i>Luzula sylvatica</i> Species of flowering plant in the rush family Juncaceae

Luzula sylvatica, commonly known as greater wood-rush or great wood-rush, is a perennial flowering plant in the rush family Juncaceae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Huntington Desert Garden</span>

The Huntington Desert Garden is part of The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California. The Desert Garden is one of the world's largest and oldest collections of cacti, succulents and other desert plants, collected from throughout the world. It contains plants from extreme environments, many of which were acquired by Henry E. Huntington and William Hertrich in trips taken to several countries in North, Central and South America. One of the Huntington's most botanically important gardens, the Desert Garden brought together a group of plants largely unknown and unappreciated in the beginning of the 1900s. Containing a broad category of xerophytes, the Desert Garden grew to preeminence and remains today among the world's finest, with more than 5,000 species in the 10 acre garden.

<i>Aloe perfoliata</i> Species of succulent

Aloe perfoliata, the rubble aloe or mitre aloe, is a hardy creeping aloe, found in rocky, mountainous areas throughout the Western Cape, South Africa.

<i>Alsophila manniana</i> Species of plant

Alsophila manniana, synonym Cyathea manniana, the spiny tree fern or sheshino, is a species of tree fern. It is readily identified by the fierce spines on its trunk, and is widespread in the tropical regions of Africa.

<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.

References