DIOSCOREACEAE - YAM FAMILY
Scientific Description:
Dioecious perennial herbs with tuberous or woody rootstocks. Flowers small,in axillary clusters, spikes or racemes; pistillate flowers sometimes solitary.Perianth 6-lobed. Ovary fully or partly inferior, 3-locular, with 2 ovules ineach locule; styles 3. Fruit a capsule or berry.
Reference:
Davis PH (1984). Dioscoreaceae, In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 8: 552.
Public Description:
“Yam family”, consists of perennial herbaceous plants with tuberous or woody rootstocks,is widely distributed in tropical and temperate regions. The small flowers that come out of the leaf axils are found in spike or raceme. They have often heart-shaped leaves and berry-like fruit or winged capsule.A few species are cultivated as ornamentals. Black bryony (Dioscorea communis (L.) Caddick & Wilkin) is a perennial vine with yellow flowers, poisonous red berries, and poisonous blackish root tubers. Yam (Dioscorea L.) is a principal raw material used in the manufacture of birth-control pills.
References:
Anonymous 1 (2018). http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/mss/volume24/DIOSCOREACEAE.published.pdf, Accessed date: 01.02.2018.
Anonymous 2 (2018). https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/search/?q=DIOSCOREACEAE, Accessed date: 01.02.2018.
Anonymous 3 (2018). https://www.britannica.com/plant/Dioscoreaceae, Accessed date: 01.02.2018.
Davis P H (1984). Dioscoreaceae., In: Davis, P.H. (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands. Edinburgh University Press. Edinburgh, 8: 552.
