DIOSCOREA 



PENTAPHYLLA 



Yams 





THE INDIAN YAMS 



washing silk. Lawrence (Valley of Kashmir, 75, 78) calls them krita (or kritz), 

 and remarks that they are much used in washing wool and also in medicine. 

 The same tubers, according to Atkinson, are in Kumaon known as gun. Some 

 writers appear to regard them as poisonous. 



D.E.P., D. daemons, Roxb. ; Fl. Br. Ind., vi., 289 ; Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind., 1898, i., 



iii., 129. 274 ; 1903, ii., 143, 189. A large climber of the tropical forests of India and 



Wild Yam. Burma. Stems twining to the left, sometimes prickly ; leaves digitately 3-5 



nerved ; capsule longer than broad and seeds winged at the base only. This 



Famine Food. wild yam is extensively used as a famine food, chiefly in Burma and the Central 



Provinces and Central India. It appears never to have been cultivated. Some 



Intoxicating. writers, however, say the roots are highly poisonous and cause intoxication but 



are rendered edible by boiling and steeping in running water, this treatment 



being repeated two or three times. Gammie (I.e. 190) says that when tigers 



Poisonous. kill cattle, the villagers insert a quantity of the flour from the pounded 



roots of the vaja kand into the body of the " kill." The poison permeates the 



flesh to such an extent that when the tiger returns and eats the carcase it becomes 



infatuated and mad, and the villagers then make short work of it. Ridley 



(Malay PI. Names, in Journ. Roy. As. Soc. (Straits Branch), 1897, 90) speaks of 



the tubers being used in the manufacture of dart poison. ( Yearbook of Pharmacy, 



1898, 62-3). 



D.E.P., D. fasciculata, Roxb. ,- Prain, Beng. Plants, 1903, ii., 1066. The kidney-shaped 



iii., 130. yam, Karen Potato. A small climber somewhat like . niata but more graceful ; 



Karen Potato. of a vivid green colour, the stem twining to left and dotted over with small 

 wart-like prickles. Leaves pubescent reniform or orbicular with sharp stipular 

 thorns. Tubers fasciculate, numerous, usually white, but in Burma and the 

 Malay Islands a form exists which has reddish-coloured tubers. This is obviously 

 derived from the wild o. npinona, which differs only in the fact that the upper 

 Pindalu. rootlets are spinose. Much confusion seems to exist regarding the name pindalu. 



In some localities of South India it denotes the white round tubers of one or two 

 races of n. alatn. In other provinces it is restricted to the present plant. I 

 found (during special investigations conducted in 1894) the latter usage through- 

 out Berar, where the clustered yam is fairly plentiful and popular. It is ordinarily 

 grown as a garden crop near the homestead, on stakes 8 feet high and 2 to 3 

 feet apart, around pan-leaf houses, or in fields, along with the brinjal. In 

 some localities, as for example Nirmal and Bassein in Bombay, it is cultivated 

 as a pure field crop. Roxburgh tells us that in his day it was grown to a con- 

 siderable extent in the vicinity of Calcutta not only for food but to make starch. 

 Being, in some respects, more like a potato than a yam it is often called the 

 potato of this and that place e.g. " Karen Potato." 

 D.E.P., D. glabra, Roxb. ,- Fl. Br. Ind., vi., 294 ; Prain, Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind., 1905, iii., 



iii., 131. 288 ; D. nummularia, Lamk. ; Beng. Plants, ii, 1067. So far as India is concerned, 



San alu. however, it would appear to be rarely if ever cultivated, though the tubers 



are regularly collected and eaten by the hill tribes, more especially in times 

 of scarcity and famine. It occurs on the lower North-West Himalaya, in Nepal, 

 Sikkim, the hills of Bengal to those of South India and Burma, distributed to the 

 Malay Peninsula and China. It is very often called ban (wild) alu or aru (yam), 

 shora-alu. \Cf. Wood, Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind., ii., 143.] 



D.E.P., Var. belophylla, Voigt (sp. ); D. sagittata, Royle; Prain, I.e. 1064. It seems 



iii., 133. probable that this should be retained as a distinct species. It is a large climber 



met with on the lower Himalaya and mountains of Bengal (Parisnath). The 



tubers are edible but the plant is not recorded as met with under cultivation. 



D.E.P., D. HamiltonI, Hooh.,f. : Fl. Br. Ind., vi., 295 (in part) ; Buchanan-Hamilton, 



iii., 131. Stat. Ace. Dinaj., 192 ; D. globosa (in part), D.E.P. This cultivated plant is 



occasionally met with in Bengal, Assam and Burma. 



D.E.P., D. oppositifolia, Linn. ; Roxb., Fl. Ind., iii., 804; Fl. Br. Ind., vi., 292. A large 



iii., 132. climber with terete unarmed branches and with the leaves almost opposite. 



It is a native of tropical India from the Deccan to Assam, Sylhet, Chittagong, 

 Burma, Ceylon and China. It is wild in India but appears to be cultivated in the 

 Malaya and Java. It is one of the most important wild tubers with the people 

 of the Deccan and Central Bengal. The root and aerial tubers are eaten as well 

 as the young flowering spikes. 



D.E.P., D. pentaphylla, Linn. ; D. triphylla, Roxb. ; Fl. Br. Ind., vi., 289 ; Rec. Bot. Surv. 



iii., 132. Ind., ii., 143 ; iii., 288; Prain, Beng. Plants, ii., 1066 ; Nuren-Kelengu, Rheede, 



Fiji Yam. Hort. Mai., vii., tt. 34, 35. The Kawan or Fiji Yam. Met with throughout tropical 



India on the lower hills from Kumaon to Burma, Ceylon and Malacca. It is an 



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