Dioscoreaceae

Dioscorea Plum. ex L.

First published in Sp. Pl.: 1032 (1753)
This genus is accepted
The native range of this genus is Cosmopolitan.

Distribution

Native to:

Alabama, Albania, Aldabra, Algeria, Amur, Andaman Is., Angola, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Argentina South, Arkansas, Assam, Austria, Azores, Bahamas, Baleares, Bangladesh, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bismarck Archipelago, Bolivia, Borneo, Botswana, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Bulgaria, Burkina, Burundi, Cabinda, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canary Is., Cape Provinces, Caprivi Strip, Caroline Is., Central African Republic, Chad, Chile Central, Chile North, Chile South, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Christmas I., Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Connecticut, Corse, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Delaware, District of Columbia, Dominican Republic, DR Congo, East Aegean Is., East Himalaya, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Florida, France, Free State, French Guiana, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gulf of Guinea Is., Guyana, Hainan, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Illinois, India, Indiana, Inner Mongolia, Iowa, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Japan, Jawa, Kansas, Kentucky, Kenya, Khabarovsk, Korea, Kriti, Krym, Kuril Is., KwaZulu-Natal, Laccadive Is., Laos, Lebanon-Syria, Leeward Is., Lesser Sunda Is., Liberia, Libya, Louisiana, Madagascar, Madeira, Malawi, Malaya, Maldives, Mali, Maluku, Manchuria, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nansei-shoto, Nebraska, Nepal, New Guinea, New Jersey, New South Wales, New York, Nicaragua, Nicobar Is., Niger, Nigeria, North Carolina, North Caucasus, Northern Provinces, Northern Territory, NW. Balkan Pen., Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pakistan, Palestine, Panamá, Paraguay, Pennsylvania, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Primorye, Puerto Rico, Qinghai, Queensland, Rhode I., Romania, Rwanda, Sardegna, Senegal, Sicilia, Sierra Leone, Socotra, South Carolina, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan-South Sudan, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Suriname, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Tennessee, Texas, Thailand, Tibet, Togo, Transcaucasus, Trinidad-Tobago, Tunisia, Türkiye, Türkiye-in-Europe, Uganda, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Vermont, Vietnam, Virginia, West Himalaya, West Virginia, Western Australia, Windward Is., Wisconsin, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Introduced into:

California, Cook Is., Fiji, Hawaii, Ireland, Kazan-retto, Marianas, Marquesas, New Zealand North, Niue, Ogasawara-shoto, Pitcairn Is., Samoa, Santa Cruz Is., Seychelles, Society Is., Southwest Caribbean, Tonga, Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Wallis-Futuna Is.

Synonyms

Heterotypic Synonyms

Accepted Species

Classification

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Publications

POWO follows these authorities in accepting this name:

  • Govaerts, R. (2000). World Checklist of Seed Plants Database in ACCESS Genera starting with letter D: 1-30141.
  • Govaerts, R., Wilkin, P. & Saunders, R.M.K. (2007). World Checklist of Dioscoreales. Yams and their allies: 1-65. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  • Wilkin, P. & Thapyai, C. (2009). Flora of Thailand 10(1): 1-140. The Forest Herbarium, National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department, Bangkok.

Kew Bulletin

  • Bachman, S., Moat, J., Hill, A. W., de la Torre, J. & Scott, B. (2011). Supporting Red List threat assessments with GeoCAT: geospatial conservation assessment tool. In: V. Smith & L. Penev (eds), e-Infrastructures for data publishing in biodiversity science. Zookeys 150: 117 – 126 (Version BETA).
  • IUCN (2001). Red List Categories and Criteria: Version 3.1. http://www.iucnredlist.org/static/categories_criteria_3_1 [accessed 2016-04-07].
  • IUCN Standards and Petitions Subcommittee (2014). Guidelines for using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. Version 11. Prepared by the Standards and Petitions Subcommittee. Downloadable from http://www.iucnredlist.org/documents/RedListGuidelines.pdf [accessed 2016-04-07].
  • Kennerley, J. A. & Wilkin, P. (in prep.) Dioscorea irodensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
  • Shorthouse D. P. (2010). SimpleMappr, an online tool to produce publication-quality point maps. http://www.simplemappr.net [accessed 2016-04-07]
  • Thiers, B. (2012). Index Herbariorum, a global directory of public herbaria and associated staff. New York Botanical Garden’s virtual herbarium. Available from: http://sweetgum.nybg.org/ih/ [accessed 2016-04-07].
  • Viruel, J., Segarra-Moragues, J., Raz, L., Forest, F., Wilkin, P., Sanmartín, I. & Catalán, P. (2016). Late Cretaceous–Early Eocene origin of yams (Dioscorea, Dioscoreaceae) in the Laurasian Palaearctic and their subsequent Oligocene–Miocene diversification. J. Biogeogr. 43: 750 – 762.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  • Wilkin, P. & Randriamboavonjy, T. (2012). Nomenclatural changes in yams of Madagascar (Dioscorea: Dioscoreaceae). Kew Bull. 67: 63 – 67.
  • Wilkin, P., Hladik, A., Jeannoda, V. & Weber, O. (2009). The threatened edible yams of the Dioscorea sambiranensis R. Knuth species complex: a new species and subspecies. Adansonia 31: 249 – 266.
  • Wilkin, P., Schols, P., Chase, M. W., Chayamarit, K., Furness, C. A., Huysmans, S., Rakotonasolo, F., Smets, E. & Thapyai, C. (2005). A Plastid Gene Phylogeny of The Yam Genus, Dioscorea: Roots, Fruits And Madagascar. Syst. Bot. 30: 736 – 749.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Flora of West Tropical Africa

  • Burkill in Bull. Jard. Bot. Brux. 15: 345 (1939).
  • F.T.A. 7: 414 (1898)
  • Knuth in Engl., Pflanzenr. Diosc. 4, 43 (1924)
  • Kunth, Enum. Pl. 5: 325 (1850)
  • Pax in E. & P., Pflanzenfam. 2, 5: 133 (1887)
  • Prain & Burkill in Ann. Roy. Bot. Gard. Calcutta 14: 302 (1938)
  • Sp. Pl. 1032 (1753)

Flora Zambesiaca

  • Baker in F.C. : 248 (1897).
  • Knuth in Engler, Pflanzenr. IV 43: 45 (1924).
  • L., Sp. Pl.: 1032 (1753).
  • N’Kounkou, Lejoly & Geerinck in Fragm. Florist. Geobot., suppl. 2 139–182 1993).
  • Salisbury, Gen. Pl.: 12 (1866).
  • Testudinaria Burch., Trav. S. Africa 2: 148 (1824).
  • Wilkin in Kew Bull. 56: 361–404 (2001).

Flora of Tropical East Africa

  • Bak. in F.T.A. 7: 414 (1898)
  • L., Gen. Pl., ed. 5: 456 (1754)
  • R. Knuth in E.P. IV. 43: 45 (1924)
  • Sp. Pl.: 1032 (1753)

Other Data

Other Kew resources that provide information on this taxon:

Sources

  • EBC Common Names

    • Common Names from Kew's Economic Botany Collection https://www.kew.org/science/collections-and-resources/collections/economic-botany-collection

  • Flora Zambesiaca

    • Flora Zambesiaca
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Flora of Tropical East Africa

    • Flora of Tropical East Africa
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Flora of West Tropical Africa

    • Flora of West Tropical Africa

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2026. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2026. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Science Photographs

    • Copyright applied to individual images