Dioscorea polyclades (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Dioscorea polyclades Hook.f.

Family: Dioscoreaceae

Synonyms

Dioscorea polyclades Hook.f. var. oblongifolia Uline ex Knuth and var. velutina (O. Kuntze) Burkill.

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: kedut (Sumatra)
• Malaysia: kedut (peninsular).

Distribution

Peninsular Malaysia, Indonesia (Sumatra, Java).

Uses

Tubers are used in Peninsular Malaysia for food after boiling several times or after baking.

Observations

Perennial, dioecious, pubescent herb up to 30 m long, twining to the right. Tubers are produced more than one per year from a woody corm, up to 2.5 m deep in the soil, as elongated swollen ends of long stalks, with white flesh. Bulbils absent. Leaves simple, opposite, herbaceous; petiole up to 6 cm long, often prickly; blade elliptical-cordate, 12-25 cm × 12-22 cm. Male flowering axes 1-4 together on axillary leafless branches up to 30 cm long, up to 2.5 cm long, with 20 or more closely packed sessile flowers. Female flowering axes up to 20 cm long, bearing tawny hairs. Capsule wings up to 25 mm × 20 mm. D. polyclades occurs in lower hill forest, up to 700 m altitude. It much resembles D. pyrifolia Kunth which has less cordate leaves.

Selected sources

13, 22.

Authors

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