From: jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com
To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2010 11:12:08 -0400
Subject: Re: [pbs] Just Dioscorea

I'll bet the one in your garden is Chinese yam, Dioscorea oppositifolia
(widely known as D. batatas). It's a terrible pest in many areas and is
widely considered to be "officially" invasive in some states. This species
forms large tuberous roots and small aerial tubers. I've never seen a
variegated form however. This species and D. japonica are similar, although
web photos of D. japonica show very upright conspicuous spikes of flowers.

The ones you saw with big aerial tubers might have been D. bulbifer.
According to the wikipedia account, the tubers of this one range from edible
if boiled to toxic. It is probably not hardy northward but is feral in
Florida.

Jim McKenney

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