Genus: Dioscorea (yams)

Life > eukaryotes > Archaeoplastida > Chloroplastida > Charophyta > Streptophytina > Plantae (land plants) > Tracheophyta (vascular plants) > Euphyllophyta > Lignophyta (woody plants) > Spermatophyta (seed plants) > Angiospermae (flowering plants) >  Monocotyledons >  Order: Dioscoreales

The number of species in this cosmopilitan genus is quoted as anything between 600 and about 860, of which 16 are indigenous to southern Africa. The term yam in the USA often refers to a variety of sweet potato rather than to true yams. Tubers cooked as a vegetable (high in starch). Diosgenin, a precursor of progesterone and cortisone is produced commercially using a number of species.

Species indigenous to southern Africa

List from Archer (2003).

Publications

• Archer, R.H. 2003. Dioscoreaceae. In Germishuizen, G. & Meyer, N.L. (eds), Plants of southern Africa: an annotated checklist. Strelitzia 14: 1047-1049. National Botanical Institute, Pretoria.