Dioscorea smilacifolia

Botanical Description

Dioscorea smilacifolia is a herbaceous, perennial climbing plant with wiry, often spiny stems growing about 4 metres long from a tuberous rootstock. The stems twine right-handed around other plants for support, or scramble over the ground. The plant also sometimes bears bulbils in the leaf axils[ 332 Title The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. Publication Author Burkil. H. M. Publisher Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. Year 1985 - 2004 ISBN Description Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/ ]. The tubers are sometimes harvested from the wild for local use, but generally only in times of scarcity. The plant is sometimes grown in a small way, but mainly as an insurance against difficult times[ 332 Title The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. Publication Author Burkil. H. M. Publisher Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. Year 1985 - 2004 ISBN Description Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/ ].