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Dioscorea communis
Also called Black Bindweed, Lady's Seal, Norça
Black bryony is a climbing herbaceous plant with a large tuber, common in hedgerows and woodland edges across southern and central Europe. It is grown mainly as a wild or ornamental climber, and every part of it should be treated as poisonous.
Dioscorea communis or Tamus communis is a species of flowering plant in the yam family Dioscoreaceae and is commonly known as black bryony, lady's-seal or black bindweed.
The rhizome contains phenanthrenes (7-hydroxy-2,3,4,8-tetramethoxyphenanthrene, 2,3,4-trimethoxy-7,8-methylenedioxyphenanthrene, 3-hydroxy-2,4,-dimethoxy-7,8-methylenedioxyphenanthrene, 2-hydroxy-3,5,7-trimethoxyphenanthrene and 2-hydroxy-3,5,7-trimethoxy-9,10-dihydrophenanthrene).
Dioscorea communis is native and widespread throughout southern and central Europe, northwest Africa and western Asia, from Ireland to the Canary Islands, east to Iran and Crimea.
All components of the black bryony plant, including the tubers, are poisonous due to saponin content, so it is not typically used internally. An exception is only reported for young shoots, which are harvested when saponin content is still low and consumed as vegetable.
Dioscorea abyssinica · Water yam · Air yam · Yellow guinea yam · Yam · Elephant's Foot · Wild Yam · Elephant's Foot Yam · Lesser yam · Yam · Dioscorea fordii · Intoxicating yam
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dioscorea communis 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.
