Dioscorea transversa 

Location & distribution maps

Plant  information

Common name:                Pencil Yam 

Conservation status:  ...

Etymology:   

Flowers:                  

Fruit:                         

• The seed pods are rounded, green or pink before drying to a straw brown papery texture

Leaves:         

• The leaves are heart-shaped, shiny, with 5-7 prominent veins

Stem & branches: 

Roots:         

• The edible tubers are typically slender and long

Habit:        

• A vine

Habitat:   

• Rainforests, wet sclerophyll and open forests 

Distribution:                  

•  Eastern and northern Australia

Additional notes:     

• There are two forms: 

  • an eastern rainforest and wet sclerophyll form which doesn't have bulbils

  • a northern form which occurs in open forests and has small bulbils and large in ground tubers

• Uses

  • The tubers were a staple food of Australian Aboriginals and are eaten after cooking, usually in ground ovens

  • The 1889 book 'The Useful Native Plants of Australia records that common names included "Long yam", Indigenous Australians from Central Queensland referred to it as "Kowar" and that "The small young tubers are eaten by the aborigines [sic.] without any preparation"

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioscorea_transversa   (2024)