22 Dec 2009

Unique yam under threat

Only two populations of this South African species are known in the wild.

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Dioscorea stryodomania

Botanist Linda Loffler monitoring Dioscorea strydomiana (Image: John Burrows)

This is the most unique and unusual yam I have come across, and probably the most threatened

Kew yam expert Dr Paul Wilkin

One of Kew's most striking new recent discoveries is Dioscorea strydomiana - a critically endangered species from South Africa. There are only two populations of about 200 plants known in the wild.

This species is regarded as a cancer cure in the region where it grows, and is consequently under threat from over-collection by medicinal plant collectors who cut pieces off the tubers.

Dioscorea strydomiana does not look like a typical yam – it is shrub-like in appearance with a huge, slow-growing, lumpy wooden tuber above the ground measuring up to 1m in height and diameter. The tuber sprouts multiple shoots each spring.

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