Dioscorea filiformis (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Dioscorea filiformis Blume

Family: Dioscoreaceae

Synonyms

Dioscorea gibbiflora Hook.f., D. myriantha Kunth.

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: aroi huwi curuk (Sumatra), dudung (Java)
• Malaysia: wauh
• Philippines: kiroi, kiru (Tagalog)
• Thailand: phakmaeo-daeng (southern), man-thian (central).

Distribution

Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia (but absent in the most equatorial parts).

Uses

Tubers are used boiled as food in Peninsular Malaysia. Raw tubers burn the throat.

Observations

Perennial, dioecious, glabrous herb with unarmed, cylindrical stem, twining to the right, often with bulbils. Tubers elongated, up to 50 cm long, 2 cm in diameter, with tender white flesh. Leaves simple, usually alternate but opposite on larger stems, herbaceous; petiole shorter than the blade; blade cordate to hastate, up to 10 cm × 7 cm, with auriculate base. Male flowering axes usually on leafless branches, sometimes in axillary fascicles, zigzagging, with a sessile flower on each angle. Female flowering axes solitary, up to 20 cm long, not zigzag. Capsule wings up to 24 mm × 22 mm, shiny when dry. It occurs in the lowlands, often on limestone cliffs or granite boulders.

Selected sources

13, 22, 60, 81.

Authors

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