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Dioscorea hispida
Also called Asiatic Bitter Yam, Indian Three Leaved Yam
Dioscorea hispida is a climbing tropical yam grown for its starchy tuber, which is poisonous when raw and must be leached and cooked before eating. It is a wild or semi-cultivated food crop rather than a common garden ornamental.
Dioscorea hispida, also known as the Indian three-leaved yam, (Tagalog: nami, Indonesia: gadung) is a species of yam in the genus Dioscorea, native to South and Southeast Asia. Known to be poisonous when fresh, careful processing is required to render it edible.
Several peoples use the tuber as food. The tuber is toxic when fresh due to the presence of saponins and calcium oxalate raphides, so it must be processed prior to consumption, typically by finely slicing into thin strips, placing in a sack or net, and leaving in a stream for a few days until the toxins have leached out. It is then dehydrated and cooked.
Dioscorea abyssinica · Water yam · Air yam · Yellow guinea yam · Black Bryony · Yam · Elephant's Foot · Wild Yam · Elephant's Foot Yam · Lesser yam · Yam · Dioscorea fordii
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dioscorea hispida 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.
