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Dioscorea chouardii is a slow-growing tuberous herb in the yam family, known only from a single cliff in the Aragonese Pyrenees of Spain. It is a rare relict species and is not realistically grown as a garden plant; the key to its survival is an undisturbed rock crevice.
Dioscorea chouardii (synonym: Borderea chouardii) is a herbaceous plant in the family Dioscoreaceae. It is endemic to a single cliff located in the Pyrenees of Aragon, Spain.
Dioscorea chouardii is related to the yam and grows from a tuber hidden in the rock fissure. From this it sends out a shoot each year which withers away in the autumn. The shoot leaves a scar on the tuber, which makes it possible to estimate the age of the plant from the number of scars; the oldest plants are calculated to have lived for three hundred years, and may be contenders for being the "slowest growing plants in the world". The plant reproduces by seed, pollination having been performed by ants. When fertilised, the flower-stem bends over to bury the resulting seedhead in the crack, the seeds being released when it dries. This would limit dispersal possibilities for the plant were it not for the fact that the seeds are transported by ants, which distribute them more widely.
Dioscorea abysmophila · Dioscorea abyssinica · Dioscorea acanthogene · Dioscorea acuminata · Dioscorea aesculifolia · Dioscorea aguilarii · Water yam · Dioscorea alatipes · Dioscorea althaeoides · Dioscorea amaranthoides · Dioscorea amazonum · Dioscorea analalavensis
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dioscorea chouardii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
