1211

 Dioscorea alata L.

Synonym	:	Dioscorea alata var. vera Prain&Burkill
Family	:	Dioscoreae
Local name	:	Malayalam- Kaachil,  English-Yam
Flowering and fruiting period	:	Throughout the year
Distribution	.	India
Distribution in Kerala	:	All Districts
Habitat	:	Cultivated,
Uses	:	Used as as food and medicinal purposes
Key botanical characters: Tubers one to several, polymorphic, variously branched or lobed. Stem twining to right, 4-5-winged; wings sometimes reduced to ribs. Bulbils globose, ovoid or obpyriform, occasionally with rootlets. Leaves opposite or rarely subopposite, 7-18 x 4-10 cm, broadly ovate or deltoid-ovate, base cordate or subsagittate, apex acuminate, primary veins 7; petiole to 8 cm long, winged. Male Spike on axillary branchlets, paniculate; rachis winged. Flowers c. 1.5 mm long; bracts to 1 mm long, deltoid-ovate; tepals 1-1.5 mm long, widely ovate, obtuse; stamens 6, free; pistillode conical. Female spike solitary in axils, axis 10-20 cm long. Flowers laxly arranged, sessile; bracts 1-1.5 mm long, ovate; tepals fleshy, c. 1 mm long, broadly ovate; staminodes 6, very small; ovary c. 3 mm long. Capsule 2-2.5 mm long, broadly obcordate. .