Dioscorea communis (L.) Caddick & Wilkin (= Tamus communis L.) Black bryony

Dioscorea communis (L.) Caddick & Wilkin (= Tamus communis L.) - Black bryony

Scientific Description:

Tubers subterranean, to 20 cm or more, blackish. Stems slender, to 4 m, rarely branched, longitudinally striate, glabrous, twining sinistrally as seen from outside. Leaves long-petiolate or long-acuminate, dark green, glabrous. Leaves ovate-cordate or broadly ovate-cordate, entire. Flowers greenish-yellow, glabrous. Bracteoles 2, linear-lanceolate, (1−)1.5−2 mm. Staminate flowers (3−)3.5−5 mm; lobes 1.5−2.5 × 1−1.5 mm, ovate-lanceolate; filaments slender, 2 mm; rudimentary ovary present. Pistillate flowers 5−6 mm, lobes 1.5−2 × 0.3−0.5 mm; styles free, reflexed and bifid at apices. Berry subglobose, 12−15 mm diam., green, ripening red.

 

Reference:
Davis PH (1984). Tamus communis L., In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 8: 553.

Public Description:

Dioscorea communis, commonly known as “black bryony” or “black bindweed”, grows naturally in southern and central Europe, northwest Africa and western Asia, from Ireland to the Canary Islands, eastward to Iran and Crimea. It is a perennial vine with yellow flowers, poisonous red berries, and poisonous blackish root tubers. 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. Yam (Dioscorea L.) is a principal raw material used in the manufacture of birth-control pills.

 

References:

Anonymous 1 (2018). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioscorea_communis, Accessed date: 01.02.2018.

Anonymous 2 (2018). http://www.brickfieldspark.org/data/blackbryony.htm,Accessed date: 01.02.2018.

Anonymous 3 (2018). https://www.britannica.com/plant/Dioscoreaceae, Accessed date: 01.02.2018.

Ekim T (2012). Dioscorea communis (L.) Caddick & Wilkin, In: Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M. & Babaç, M.T. (eds.), Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi (Damarlı Bitkiler). Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi ve Flora Araştırmaları Derneği Yayını. İstanbul, pp. 408.