Dioscorea dumetorum (Kunth) Pax

This species is accepted, and its native range is Tropical & S. Africa.

[FTEA]

Dioscoreaceae, E. Milne-Redhead. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1975

Morphology General Habit: Tuber replaced annually, much divided with short or cylindric round-ended root-bearing lobes up to 2.5 cm. in diameter, spreading or descending to ± 30 cm.
Morphology Stem: Twining stems up to 10 m. high, pubescent and beset sparsely or rather densely with prickles.
Morphology Leaves: Leaves alternate, 3-foliolate; petiole up to 20 cm. long, pubescent, usually with a few scattered prickles; leaflets with petiolule up to 10 mm. long, adpressed pubescent, glabrescent above, discolourous and lanate, rarely sparsely hirsute beneath; median leaflet obovoid, acutely acuminate, cuneate or rounded at the base, conspicuously 3-nerved from just above the base.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences: Male inflorescence paniculate, the ultimate branches spreading in all directions forming dense subsessile cylindric spikelets up to 15 mm. long, subsessile or on peduncles up to 5 mm. long; bracts broadly ovate, adpressed to the perianth and partly concealing it, densely pubescent; perianth subglobose, glabrous, with the 3 inner segments ± 1 mm. long and the 3 outer considerably smaller and thinner. Stamens 6. Female inflorescence pendulous, spicate, 5–10 cm. long, with the flowers close together at first, the internodes elongating greatly in age; flowers directed downwards; perianth depressed subglobose, ± 2 mm. in diameter, pubescent; lobes subequal. Ovary ± 7 mm. long, densely pubescent.
sex Male: Male inflorescence paniculate, the ultimate branches spreading in all directions forming dense subsessile cylindric spikelets up to 15 mm. long, subsessile or on peduncles up to 5 mm. long; bracts broadly ovate, adpressed to the perianth and partly concealing it, densely pubescent; perianth subglobose, glabrous, with the 3 inner segments ± 1 mm. long and the 3 outer considerably smaller and thinner. Stamens 6.
sex Female: Female inflorescence pendulous, spicate, 5–10 cm. long, with the flowers close together at first, the internodes elongating greatly in age; flowers directed downwards; perianth depressed subglobose, ± 2 mm. in diameter, pubescent; lobes subequal. Ovary ± 7 mm. long, densely pubescent.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits: Capsule as fig. 2/3, p. 5, (3–)4(–5) cm. long, rather sparsely pubescent.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds: Seeds (fig. 2/3a) ± 2 cm. long, with wing on the basal side only.
Habitat: Edges of lowland rain-forest, dry evergreen forest, evergreen bushlands and on termite-hills in Brachystegia woodland, persisting in plantations and in secondary thickets and grasslands; 0–1650 m.
Distribution: Senegal to Ethiopia and south to Angola and Rhodesia, Mozambique and South Africa (Transvaal) K7 T1 T3 T4 T6 T7 T8 U1 U2 U3 U4 Z

[FWTA]

Dioscoreaceae, J. Miège. Flora of West Tropical Africa 3:1. 1968

Morphology General Habit: Spiny climber, 9 ft. high
Vegetative Multiplication Bulbils: Rather prickly bulbils
Vegetative Multiplication Tubers: Annual tubers, several per plant and a common bead, near the soil surface
Note: The species includes more or less poisonous wild varieties as well as cultivated edible varieties with either white or yellow-fleshed tubers.

Native to:

Angola, Benin, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Repu, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gulf of Guinea Is., Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zaïre, Zimbabwe

Introduced into:

Jamaica