Dioscorea cumingii (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Dioscorea cumingii Prain & Burkill

Family: Dioscoreaceae

Dioscorea echinata R. Knuth, D. inaequifolia Elmer ex Prain & Burkill, D. polyphylla R. Knuth.

• Philippines: lima-lima (Tagalog), kasi (Igorot), pari (Bagobo).

Throughout the Philippines.

Tubers reportedly used as food in Luzon (Philippines).

Perennial, dioecious herb with prickly stem twining to the left. Leaves palmately compound, 5-11-foliolate, herbaceous; petiole as long as middle leaflet; petiolule up to 1 cm long; leaflets lanceolate to elliptical, up to 18 cm long. Male flowering axes collected into large leafless branches up to 70 cm long, usually 2 axes together and unequal in length, up to 3 cm long; pedicel 0.5 mm long; 3 fertile stamens. Female flowering axes solitary or paired, angled, bearing more than 30 flowers. Capsule 2.5-4 cm long, wings up to 36 mm × 12 mm. Four botanical varieties have been distinguished based on number of leaflets, pubescence and length of capsule; the distinction is without much practical value. The usual habitat consists of areas with considerable rainfall close to mountains, up to 1400 m altitude.

22, 60.

L.E. Groen, J.S. Siemonsma & P.C.M. Jansen